From the editor’s desk

The threat to Catholic schools

The Catholic community in Britain is entering a difficult period in its relations with wider society. The background cultural climate is becoming less friendly - Matthew Arnold's "long withdrawing roar" of the sea of faith seems to have been replaced by a surging incoming tide of antagonistic secularism, at least among some decision makers and commentators. For them "faith" signifies either the fundamentalist right wing in America or Muslim jihadists, with little in between.

In the foreground, two issues are prominent. Catholic childcare agencies may be forced to withdraw from handling adoptions because anti-discrimination legislation would force them to treat homosexual couples on the same basis as heterosexuals. And Catholic schools may be obliged to offer a quarter of their places to non-Catholics. At the moment the proposal applies only to new schools, but a strong political lobby would like to see that extended to existing schools as well - a modification that could drive a coach and horses through the whole system.

The Government has contradictory aims. It has conceded the case to allow Muslim schools in the state sector alongside Catholic, Church of England and Jewish schools, but is anxious to avoid them becoming agents of cultural separation. Hence the idea of obliging them to offer a quarter of their places to non-Muslims - despite the fact that there is no evidence of any demand from non-Muslim parents for that privilege. In order for that not to be seen to be discriminatory, however, the same rule would have to apply to other faith schools in the state sector. This is a thoroughly flawed approach.

The Church of England, the largest stakeholder in this area, is more comfortable with that idea than the Catholic Church, which has roughly 10 per cent of the whole. In many existing Catholic schools a 25 per cent non-Catholic quota would present few difficulties apart from those of identity - whether the children of lapsed Catholics should be counted as those of Catholic or non-Catholic families, for instance. Certain Catholic schools already have a substantial number of non-Catholic pupils. But for oversubscribed schools, a quota system would mean turning away children who want a Catholic education in favour of those who are indifferent to it. And all to solve a problem of Muslim integration that has nothing whatever to do with the Catholic schools system.

Such a bandwagon attracts those who despise religion in all its forms, and ultimately they want to see religion driven from the public square altogether. Their preference is the French way of laiceté, where Church and State are entirely separate. But as the schools and headscarves row proved, this is no guarantee of racial, political and religious harmony.

Anti-discrimination is also behind the adoption issue. If discrimination against homosexuals becomes unlawful, Catholic agencies would have to contradict church teaching that homosexual activity is sinful and that children need a father and a mother. The agencies, which have an excellent track record, would have no choice but to withdraw from adoption altogether. Yet there is no evidence that homosexual couples are particularly keen to adopt children from Catholic agencies. So for the sake of a principle rather than to meet a specific need, another successful point of engagement between the Catholic Church and the wider community would be undermined.

There is undoubtedly a group of individuals within the Labour Party and Government that is keen to use both these issues to press an aggressively secularist agenda; and there are those resisting them, including, it is said, Tony Blair. With Education Secretary Alan Johnson apparently on one side and Chancellor Gordon Brown likely to be on the other, this could easily become an issue in the Labour leadership campaign. And if the Tories play their cards right, it could even be a key issue in the next general election. It is not only the Church that needs to tread carefully here.