Catholic Church delegation falls out with ‘hostile’ ESS
A DELEGATION from the Catholic Church has complained they were spoken to in an ‘unprofessional’ and ‘overtly hostile’ way when it met a States committee.
The Church was raising concerns about anti-discrimination measures destablising its schools, but left the meeting ‘shocked’ by a suggestion that it could be preferable for the schools to close.
Representatives of the Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth met with Employment & Social Security to discuss their fears that a new anti-discrimination law threatens the future of Blanchelande College, Notre Dame du Rosaire and St Mary and St Michael primary schools.
ESS wants to prohibit the current requirement that head teachers must be practising Catholics, but with a five year lead-in period.
In a letter, Heather Hauschild, chief operating officer of the Diocese of Portsmouth, stated they were treated in an ‘offhand and dismissive’ way, and there was open disagreement among the ESS members during the meeting.
‘Concluding with Deputy [John] Gollop’s final statement that perhaps it would be preferable for our schools to close in order to solve the problem with primary school places on the island.
‘Deputy [Peter] Roffey immediately said we should disregard that statement and it was not the view held by the committee.
‘He asked Deputy Gollop to refrain from saying anything further, but the exchange continued with Deputy Gollop insisting that this was a discussion that was needed, even as we left the room.
‘We felt that while this comment was clearly not one that the committee wished to be aired, this could be an underlying motivation for policy having been set out with the exclusion only being in place for five years.’
Deputy Gollop has apologised and said that he had been misunderstood, and his comments did not reflect the committee’s views.
‘The interesting Diocesan letter misjudged my motivation in raising a question, draws untrue conclusions and distorts the context.
‘I am in favour of free schools, faith schools and child and parental rights of choices. The ESS board points were entirely focused on employment equality concerns.’
ESS has set out its opinion that all teachers at the Catholic schools successfully help to maintain the schools’ ethos, and it would be preferable ultimately if great teachers who may make excellent school leaders were not barred from that role.
The Catholic delegation that met with ESS was made up of Ms Hauschild, Canon Paul Smith, Episcopal Vicar for Education, Paul Barber, director of the Catholic Education Service of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, Christine Fisher, legal counsel, and the Rev. Father Christopher Rutledge, Catholic Dean of Guernsey.
The letter, which has been sent to Deputy Peter Ferbrache, the island’s most senior politician, explained that the Church had hoped for a constructive meeting where they would be respected as a partner in education, but left feeling that it was a token listening exercise.
‘We were all deeply disappointed at the tone of the meeting and what seemed to us overtly hostile at the outset.
‘There was no attempt to engage in a constructive discussion to look to solutions despite our best attempts to see if we could find common ground.’
The Bishop of Portsmouth, Philip Egan and other representatives of the Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth are in Guernsey today to meet Deputy Ferbrache, other deputies and the Catholic schools’ head teachers.
Religion Page 43
