Scottish Catholic Observer

This week’s council elections became an unofficial referendum on the Scottish Government’s plans to redefine marriage after experts warned that the introduction of same-sex ‘marriage’ in Scotland would be a serious barrier to Catholic education.

The Scotland for Marriage campaign, which has the support of the Catholic Church, and the Christian Institute, spent thousands of pounds encouraging voters this week to support only council candidates who promised to stand by traditional marriage.

The campaign comes as the Catholic Education Commission, the Church’s official body on education, warned this week that the failure to stop same-sex ‘marriage’ becoming legal in Scotland would present a major challenge to Catholic schools. This issue is particularly relevant to this election as councils control almost all Catholic schools in Scotland.

Threat to schools

Michael McGrath, director of the Scottish Catholic Education Service, said the Scottish Government’s plan to legalise same-sex marriage, appears to be ‘designed to undermine’ Catholic education.

“While the First Minister has expressed his admiration of Catholic schools for their moral teaching, it is ironic that this legislation attempts to set aside one major item of Christian moral teaching—the sanctity of marriage as a covenant between husband and wife,” he said. “This understanding of the sanctity of marriage is divinely ordained in Church doctrine and underpins the teaching of marriage in Catholic schools across the world.”

“The commission, in its response to the [Scottish Government’s same-sex ‘marriage’ consultation], has expressed significant concern that, if such legislation were enacted, it would become impossible for teachers in Catholic schools to teach conscientiously, according to the doctrines of the Catholic Church, as parents expect them to do,” he said.

“While the right of teachers in faith schools to promote the doctrines of a school’s denominational body is recognised in the Equality Act 2010, the commission is concerned that teachers would be compelled to teach according to the policies of their employers—local councils.”

Election urgency

Scotland for Marriage and its supporters distributed 300,000 leaflets to every household in Glasgow this week and supporters of traditional marriage protested outside Glasgow City Chambers on Monday with two large vans that are touring Scotland emblazoned with a message defending marriage between a man and a woman.

Peter Kearney, the director of the Scottish Catholic Media Office, and an organiser of the Scotland for Marriage campaign, said voters had to be aware that the council election was relevant to the fight against gay marriage.

“All teachers are employed by their local council,” he said. “So they would be affected by this as would register office staff and the example of England suggests that the right to conscientious objection is unlikely to be respected.”

Mr Kearney said that the Scottish Government’s claims that the legalisation of same-sex ‘marriage’ would not affect institutions such as Catholic schools did not hold water.

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Pic: Paul McSherry