Psst! Want a parish training programme with integrity?

Why don't all of our Bishops refer catechist,
parish administrator and deacon training here?

It is only fair when I have been beating Catholic Adult Education in England and Wales about the head, to flag up institutes of excellence (yes, one at least does exist).

The courses offered by the Education Parish Service and St Mary's University (still can't get used to using that word in this context) seem to me to be what we used to call "soft" in their approach to teaching what must be the most specific and precise subject in the world, that of Catholic theology.

I would argue that there are no grey areas in our Faith; it is all plainly there in black and white terms.

God is to be referred to using the words 'Father/He/Him' and women need not feel excluded when we have our blessed mother in the form of Our Lady (please stop them using the brash 'Mary') as the mother of God and the bridge between Earth and Heaven.


Birmingham's Maryvale Institute seems to have it all; a curriculum that sticks to core doctrinal facts rather than going off into woolly subject areas that are pre-occupied with feminist agenda issues and politically correct dogma and a straightforward and clear approach to the subject matter.

The Maryvale website is sound and informative and, at a time when financial pressures are on the Dioceses of England and Wales, it just seems so utterly logical to steer all adult education towards one central institute.

That is the pattern set by secular Further Education over the past ten years for precisely the twin aims of focusing on excellence and economy of scale.

So why don't the Bishops shut down those odd little parish support groups in the back streets of Peckham Rye and similar and focus on a centre of excellence- Maryvale!