There is a debate in Scotland over the status of non-Catholics in Catholic schools. Should only Catholics be able to hold teaching and administrative positions? Some think so and argue that it is necessary to maintain the uniquely “Catholic” (and superior) quality of the school.

Hugh Reilly writes for the Scotsman:

Outwardly, the Church preaches tolerance and inclusivity but a few years ago one particularly tolerant adherent said in print what many denominational school managers think: "Non-Catholic staff dilute the Catholic ethos of my school." Ethos is one of life’s great intangibles but amazingly, a Catholic lecturer at one of the country’s colleges of education once informed me he could discern whether a school was Catholic or non-Catholic the moment he walked through the door (I’d have thought the St Something above the portals may have provided a clue). Yes, folks, the whiff of hypocrisy is that strong.

But the thing I find most offensive is the contention that denominational schools are academically and morally superior to those attended by the wretched children of a lesser god. A cursory look at national league tables shows Catholic secondaries to be well represented in the bottom 5 per cent of state schools. And does anybody seriously think that non-Catholic schoolchildren are more prone to lying about homework, more likely to cheat, possess a greater penchant for stealing from games hall changing rooms?

Reilly, an atheist who works at a Catholic school, argues from personal experience that the student body in Catholic schools isn’t nearly so “Catholic” as one might imagine and that the “Catholic” character of these institutions is more a matter of superficial image than substantive reality. Thus, the move to insist on only Catholics teaching there might be described as a last-ditch attempt to pretend that nothing has changed about Scottish society or Catholic schools.

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