Ireland takes on the Catholic Church again, now over schools

The Roman Catholic Church controls 90% of Ireland's public elementary schools

Last week, Ireland voted to repeal a constitutional ban on abortion. Almost before that epochal change can sink in, the government is taking steps to end another practice backed by the Catholic Church: a provision that gives preference in most of the country’s elementary schools to children who have been baptised.

Under a school admissions bill that passed the lower house of the Irish parliament this week, Catholic elementary schools would be barred from discriminating in favour of children of their own “religious ethos.” The bill still must pass the upper house this month, but most analysts expect it will be