THE Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney has withdrawn plans to have its 167 school principals, deputy principals and religious education co-ordinators commit publicly to a "vow of fidelity" by adhering to church teaching on homosexuality, birth control and women's ordination.The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, had wanted to extend the oath of fidelity and profession of faith, a requirement of church law for bishops, priests and heads of seminaries, to all senior educational leaders.
The leader of the Sydney church had insisted that the church had every right to demand of its education officials a public commitment to the moral teachings and identity of the church, and was not an attempt at control.
But the controversial proposal, contained in a draft pastoral plan that was circulated for public comment, is to be withdrawn, the Sydney Catholic Education Office has confirmed.
Instead the office is to draft a standard statement in which all its school leaders will be asked to dedicate themselves to the church and its teachings without submitting to an oath of office with formal church law jurisdiction.
"People developing the pastoral plan withdrew the formal statement in canon law and it was decided that it wasn't the most appropriate way, so it will not be in the next draft," Brother Kelvin Canavan, executive director of the Catholic Education Office told the Herald.
The backdown comes as the the church defended its new mission to revive Catholic identity in its schools among students and teachers, and maximise enrolment of Catholic students.
Seventeen bishops from NSW and the ACT issued a statement this week warning that Catholic schools were at a crossroads, with their identity threatened by falling enrolments of Catholic students and growing numbers of students from different religious backgrounds.
They foreshadowed strategies to increase the "religious literacy" of Catholic students, draw their parents into religious parish life, and even build preschool or "prior to school" centres for children under six to start their spiritual development before kindergarten.
Some parents have complained that they are being pressured by priests and principals to have their children complete the sacraments and to attend Mass with their child.
Elite Catholic high schools, they said, were accepting only children from Catholic primary schools and giving preference to those parents who were active in their parish.
But the secretary of the Independent Teachers Union, Dick Shearman, said it was perfectly reasonable for Catholic bishops to insist that their schools reflect Catholic faith and values.
"All parents are pressured to be involved in the activities of their school, be it a public or Christian school, to attend speech nights and fund-raisers, and for Catholic schools that will include a spiritual dimension," he said. "Why would anyone think otherwise?"
Brother Canavan said it was customary but not compulsory that Catholic school students be prepared for Communion, Reconciliation and Confirmation. Likewise there was a longstanding tradition in schools with enrolment pressures that preference be given to families taking an active part of the parish community.
Mr Shearman welcomed the bishop's statement as recognising the realities of changing enrolment patterns. The greater challenge facing the church was how to keep fees low to make Catholic education more accessible for the underprivileged while properly resourcing and staffing its schools so they could compete with the government and non-Catholic school sectors.
Increasingly, Catholic schools were serving middle Australia, and not poorer families.
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