Out of adversity comes opportunity. Following a year from hell, this could be the year in which the Catholic church turns things around. It's all to play for, if only they can bring themselves to go back to basics.

Last Thursday, Catholic Schools Week 2010 was launched. The school system is the last real bastion of power in society for the church. Murphy and Ryan administered a proper hammering to the standing of the church, but they are hanging on in there in schools.

Last Monday, the Irish Times MRBI poll revealed that 61% of people want the church to give up its control of the primary school system. Members of the hierarchy have taken exception to the notion that the church controls the system, but it is patron to 92% of schools. Whatever way you look at it, the Catholic church still wields major influence on education.

Later in the week, Cardinal Sean Brady presented a straw man for demolition, declaring that it was "blatantly unjust" to say the church had no right to be involved in schools. Nobody in authority had seriously suggested such a thing. The cardinal was attempting to cast the church in the role of victim.

The extent of the real power of the church is debatable, but the question rarely explored is what exactly constitutes a Catholic ethos in education these days.

Any perusal of literature associated with the ethos question comes up with generalities. Here's one definition to be found in a number of dioceses: "The Catholic school is a faith school that expresses a set of core values that can be described as human, religious, Christian and Catholic. These gospel values define its educational ethos.

"The educational vision which flows from these values is one which promotes the dignity, self-esteem and full development of each pupil as a human person."

Is the inference therein that other schools place less emphasis on the dignity, self-esteem and development of the pupil? Or is it just generalised blather?

One important element of the Catholic ethos which does separate it from non faith based schools is the teaching of religion. Today, with few vocations and even fewer orders involved in education, religious instruction is left up to lay teachers.

Numerous surveys suggest that regular attendance at mass is running at something south of 60% of the population. There is therefore a serious chance that the teacher providing religious instruction is not a believer.

In such an environment, the teaching of religion is reduced to little more than rote learning. The special ethos, much heralded by the hierarchy and those who ride shotgun for the church, is further diluted. Ultimately, the argument can be made that the special ethos consists of little more than a purported means to retain some influence on the education of the young.

In any event, change is coming. The hierarchy acknowledges that in a pluralist society, many don't want the traditional option. There has been engagement with the Department of Education to explore how the church might divest its patronage from some schools.

Thousands of parents still value what they regard as a Catholic education for their children, and they are entitled to it. Some comment around the issue suggests that when the process is concluded, the church may reduce its patronage to less than half the primary schools in the country. And therein lies the opportunity.

Which schools will be handed over to the state? What shape will the church's patronage take in the new order? Will the landscape resemble that in the UK, where a Catholic education is much sought after because restrictive admission policies make for a more exclusive education?

There will inevitably be cherrypicking. It might reasonably be expected that the church will take great care in choosing which schools to divest. And high up the list of priorities will be socio-economics.

An enlightened approach after all that has unfolded and been uncovered would be to concentrate most, if not all, of their energies towards education at the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder. Such an approach might enhance the opportunities for pastoral care among the more disadvantaged. It would certainly promote equality in education. Anybody who values a Catholic education would be given to understand that it comes hand in hand with integration.

There would be an element of reparation in such an approach. The vast majority of the 170,000 children who passed through the industrial school system between 1936 and 1970 were from disadvantaged backgrounds. Here is an opportunity to give something back to that section of society.

On Thursday, Bishop Leo Reilly wrote in the Irish Times that Catholic Schools Week invited "young people to model their lives on the values of Jesus Christ as found in the Gospels".

If the same Mr Christ was to drop in on Dublin today, where would he go to spread the word, heal and comfort? Would he hang out in one of the better neighbourhoods, dropping in on a fine fee-paying school being run in his name?

All accounts of his life suggest he would be far more likely to hook up with somebody like Peter McVerry, helping kids whose needs are greatest.

The opportunity is there to go back to basics, to acquire some much needed moral ballast. Whether the hierarchy has the imagination to grasp the opportunity remains to be seen.