Scottish Catholic Schools to Require Teachers be Practising Catholics

by Hilary White
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  GLASGOW, March 20, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On March 9, David McNab, a Scottish atheist won a lawsuit against Glasgow City Council after being turned down for a position in “pastoral care” at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic School in Glasgow. An employment tribunal ruled that the Council had discriminated against McNab, a math teacher, and awarded him £2000.00 compensation.
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  The Church argued that UK employment law allows employers to specify that having a religious belief is a “genuine and determining occupational requirement” in some jobs.
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“Pastoral care” is defined in the Catholic Church as the nurturing of a person’s religious faith but McNab and the court looked upon it only as a matter of promotion in employment. McNab said he hoped the result “will lead to a more open market in the promotion stakes.” The tribunal rejected McNab’s claim that he was being “made to feel like a second class citizen” in the Catholic system.
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  In response to the ruling, the Catholic Church in Scotland is going to the wall to remove non-Catholics and non-practising Catholics from its primary schools. Lawyers are warning that such a move is bound to create a situation “fertile for litigation.”
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  The Scottish Catholic Education Service (SCES) has said that while David McNab’s victory meant teachers could put themselves forward for promotion, the Church has the right to block them on religious grounds. The SCES argues that since primary teachers do not specialize and are expected to teach the Catholic religion as a normal part of the curriculum that they must all be practising Catholics.
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“In primary schools, all teachers are teachers of religious education so nearly all have to be practising Catholics – it would be a very rare case where they are not. That’s an example of 100% requirement,” said SCES director Michael McGrath.
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“You can’t teach religious education in a Catholic school without being of the Catholic faith and having a complete knowledge and commitment to that practice,” McGrath told the press.
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“It’s important because a teacher has to enable young people to understand that faith. In some other posts, we’d be happy with someone who was supportive, committed and co-operative with the Catholic education system so it would not be necessary to appoint a practising Catholic.
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  Many Catholic parents who send their children to Catholic schools have complained, especially in Ontario’s heavily secularised publicly funded Catholic school system that even if a person says he is a Catholic, it does not mean that he actually practises the Catholic religion. The SCES is being specific about the Catholicity requirement.
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  McGrath said that a small percentage of primary school teachers were let into the system by the secular Council. Although these will not be fired, the system will be revised to ensure only practising Catholics are hired from now on.