Your coverage of the possible impact of the new education secretary, Damian Hinds, (13 January) continues your stance of not raising any reservations over the bishops’ online petition to reverse the 50 per cent cap on admissions to Catholic schools. In many parts of the world Catholic schools do not primarily educate Catholic children. These schools are offered as a service to society, serving the common good, not as a benefit to Catholic parents.  

There is something deeply alarming in repeating Mr Hinds’ crass assertion that “half a Catholic school is not the same thing as a Catholic school”