The Irish Independent today carries a report that a decision has been taken by RTE, following discussions at Director General Level, to continue broadcasting the Angelus.
This followed representations made by the Reform Movement, who pointed out that “there were now 166 nationalities living in Ireland. There are 454,597 people who are not Roman Catholic. About 20,000 are Muslims, 50,000 are Chinese and there are 138,000 who have no religion.”
The Reform movement credits RTE with being fair and generous in it’s broadcasting for minority religions. However it argues that broadcasting the Angelus has a political dimension and points out that
“The Angelus prayer is the prayer of one church in Ireland, albeit the largest one. No other public service broadcaster in European countries including Poland, Austria, Portugal, Spain and Italy broadcasts the Angelus. In percentage terms several of these countries have larger Catholic populations than Ireland. Even Vatican radio only broadcasts the Angelus on Feast days. The last country to broadcast it on a State-owned, public service station was Franco’s Spain. In addition to the European examples, to which we should be conforming on Human Rights grounds, there is another dimension to the argument. This is the United States experience.”
Ireland is changing. In a pluralist, multi-cultural society is it appropriate for the State’s public broadcasting service to identify with one religion, especially in view of the declared aim of bringing Northern Ireland in from the cold?
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