The Catholic Church has released a strong statement in favour of
removing a cap on the number of Catholics it can admit to its schools.
Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols confirmed that the
Catholic Church wished to "maintain historic agreements" with regards to
admissions.
Currently,
no more than half of places in Catholic free schools may be reserved
for Catholics, and new academies set up by the Catholic Church must
comply with this rule.
The Bishops' Conference of England and Wales has opposed this policy,
arguing that the imposition of a 50% cap on the control of admissions
"is not a secure basis for the provision of a Catholic school".
The statement "urges" dioceses to "resist pressure to establish
schools on that basis", claiming that it places "a disproportionate
disadvantage on the Catholic community".
The policy was criticised by the Church last year after Education Secretary Michael Gove refused to relax the cap.
The Catholic Education Service for England and Wales (CES) said that
retaining a maximum quota on Catholic intake actually undermined
parental choice, as "in the case of an oversubscribed Catholic free
school, Catholic pupils whose parents wanted to send them to a Catholic
school would have to be turned away because they were Catholic".
He argued that Catholic schools should be allowed to build on their
educational successes without conditions being placed on ownership,
admissions and the RE curriculum from outside bodies.
"It is a matter of regretfulness," said the Archbishop while expressing his reservations about the policy.
The statement comes as the head of the Church of
England, Archbishop Justin Welby, reaffirmed his support for the use of
faith-based criteria when it comes to selecting pupils for Church of
England schools.