The Church is open to the idea of creating new grammar schools, the Archbishop of Liverpool has said.
In an interview with the Guardian, Archbishop Malcolm McMahon said the Church was “not anti-grammar schools”, explaining that there were already seven Catholic grammars and the Church welcomed “diversity of provision that promotes parental choice”.
The archbishop, who is chairman of the Catholic Education Service, an agency of the bishops’ conference, said the decision to open grammar schools would be taken by dioceses.
Archbishop McMahon also defended the Church’s policy of favouring children from Catholic families, pointing out that canon law forbids schools from turning them away in favour of non-Catholics. “The Church of England runs schools for the wider community. Ours are different. They are for the Catholic community,” he said.
Defending parental choice and taxpayer funding of new Catholic free schools, he said it was “fundamental” that parents had the right to educate their children as they saw fit.
Last year, the Government said it would relax restrictions preventing Catholic schools from selecting more than half their intake on the basis of faith. The admissions cap had effectively stopped the Church opening new schools.
On sex education, the archbishop said Christian teaching was “at the centre of our schools” and that teachers would “encourage debate and present arguments” for natural methods of family planning.
When asked if any children had same-sex parents, he replied: “Why would same-sex parents want to send their children to a Catholic school? But if they did, we would treat them and their children with respect.”
Jay Harman, of the British Humanist Association, claimed in a letter to the Guardian that the archbishop’s attitude to same-sex parents was a “national scandal”.
Vote for candidates who protect life, urges bishop
Catholics should consider “first and foremost” how candidates in June’s general election will protect human life, the Bishop of Portsmouth has said.
In his weekly e-newsletter, Bishop Philip Egan said that Catholic voters had a “crucial contribution” to make to the democratic process, and urged them to examine the policies of parties and candidates in the light of Church teaching.
In particular, they should find out whether candidates oppose liberalising abortion laws and embryo experimentation, as well as their views on assisted suicide and euthanasia.
Catholics should also look at how candidates will “strengthen Britain’s Christian patrimony, its history, classics and values”, while also tackling fundamentalism “in its various forms, scientific and religious”, the bishop said.
He also urged voters to research how candidates will support traditional family life, support the vulnerable, and encourage the Government to stand up for persecuted Christians around the world.
In his Easter Sunday homily, Bishop Egan urged the faithful to lead the fight against secular totalitarianism.
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