A leading Roman Catholic school has complained to the Vatican after local church leaders changed admission rules to prevent preference being given to devout churchgoers.The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School, whose A-level pupils scored the highest results of any comprehensive in England last summer, has reported the Diocese of Westminster to Pope Benedict XVI's most senior officials in matters of education and religious doctrine.
It is furious that the diocese – headed by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the leader of Catholics in England and Wales – is forcing through "radical" alterations to the school's admissions code.
They say the changes will mean it can no longer give priority for places to children who attend Mass each week or who were baptised into the faith while babies.
The new rules also prevent the school, which receives six applications for every available place, from giving credit when deciding admissions to children who have been to Holy Communion or Confession, who have been to a Catholic primary school or whose parents are "actively involved" in the church.
Governors of the school in Holland Park, West London, are particularly angry that the diocese's education board has "threatened" to report them to the office of the Schools' Adjudicator, the admissions watchdog, unless they make the requested changes.
They feel the new code will damage its religious ethos and benefit better-off non-Catholic families who can no longer afford to send their children to fee-paying schools.
The school has agreed reluctantly to agree to the new code, which would affect children applying to join in September 2010, and is now carrying out a consultation exercise.
Previously it had drawn up its own admissions criteria in order to give preference to practising Catholics but the diocese had not tried to prevent it doing so.
But the school's governors have sent a strongly worded letter condemning the changes to Cardinal William Levada, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – set up centuries ago to protect the Church from heresy – as well as Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education in the Holy See.
Copies have also gone out to the Most Rev Vincent Nicholls, Chairman of the Catholic Education Service, as well as all parents, staff and alumni.
It comes just weeks after church leaders recommended that all 2,300 Catholic primary and secondary schools should provide Muslim prayer rooms, and following claims that the Government is conducting a "witch hunt" against faith schools.
The chairman of the board of governors at Cardinal Vaughan, Sir Adrian FitzGerald, Bt, said: "We feel we owe it to the families to offer places to those who are committed to the church. This is becoming harder and harder.
"This will make it very much easier for part-time Catholics, particularly rich part-time Catholics who may feel with the recession they would rather not spend money on a private education, and I find that unacceptable."
However, the diocese insists the boys' school, which has a mixed sixth form, will remain able to choose Catholic pupils.
Bishop George Stack, the chairman of the Diocesan Education Commission, said: "At a Catholic school, Catholic doctrine and practice should permeate every aspect of the school's activity.
"The Diocese of Westminster would therefore consider it essential that the Catholic character of a school's education is fully supported by all families at a Catholic school and all applicants for admission to the Cardinal Vaughan School would be expected to give their full, unreserved and positive support for the aims and ethos of the school."
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(Source: TTUK)