Roman Catholic Schools
Minority rights are not the same thing as minority privileges. The distinction must be borne in mind in considering the claims Roman Catholics are putting forward with great pertinacity for a larger grant of public money for their denominational schools. This would mean upsetting completely the religious settlement em- bodied in the Act of 1944, and the fact that the Labour, Conserva- tive and Liberal Parties are all resolutely opposed to any change in the Act should give pause to any to whom the arguments advanced by Cardinal Griffin and the Bishop of Brentwood at the Albert Hall on Monday may seem, on the face of it, not invalid ; the three Parties, who are disinterested, may be wrong, and the Catholics, who are interested, right, but the presumption is the other way. The provisions of the 1944 Act are clear. Voluntary schools, whether Anglican, Roman Catholic, Methodist or any other, can carry .on as they are, retaining the right to appoint their own teachers and getting all their running expenses (including, of course, teachers' salaries) paid by the local authority, provided the de- nomination concerned is prepared to meet half the cost of bringing the buildings up to the general standard required by the Ministry of Education. Failing this, the school becomes a " controlled " school run entirely by the local authority, which bears all expenses, satisfactory arrangements being made for denominational teaching for those children whose parents desire it. The Church of England has accepted this arrangement, which is working perfectly well. What the Roman Catholics are asking, in effect, is that they shall enjoy the financial benefits of the latter system and the control of the appointment of teachers as under the former. That is claiming minority privileges, not minority rights.
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