DANGER IN CONVENT SCHOOLS?

By Terence McQueen
" WE would have to close down immediately if we did not take in non-Catholic pupils. It is the fees they pay which help us in providing education for Catholic children. Without them we could not continue to meet our expenses."
Over and over again, this was the reply I received from convent school headmistresses
when I questioned them about the desirability of taking in large numbers of non-Catholic pupils.
In the Southwark diocese a headmistress told me : " Very few of our Catholic Children pay full fees. "
In the Clifton diocese I was told: "Even well-to-do Catholic parents ask automatically for reductions." And again: "Many Catholic families tell us two guineas a term is the most they can afford. Yet these same families have TV sets, cars, and holidays ah read."
Why do non-Catholic parents want a convent school education for their children? "Mainly for the snob value," declared a correspondent on our letter page. But a headmistress in the Northampton diocese told me it was because they wanted their children to have a sound religious training.
Indii ference
The "Catholic Teachers Journal", however, said last month. "We have heard priests with an intimate knowledge of convent schools pointing out that the large majority of non-Catholic pupils, far from becoming Catholics in later life, acquire a blase indifference towards the faith, or at best a tolerant benevolence bred from over-familiarity with its outward forms without any share in its sacramental life."
Said a headmistress in the Westminster diocese: "We have been told by priests that by taking nonCatholic children we are giving them spiritual help and raising their moral tone."
In the Plymouth diocese, a headmistress added. "Many of our nonCatholic children have become Catholics in later life. Those who do not, know what is expected from them should they find themselves associated with Catholics in later life."
"In our school today arc four Catholic pupils whose mothers attended formerly as non-Catholic pupils," said a headmistress in the Southwark diocese. "Since 1950, conversions among non-Catholic past pupils here have been two each year," Are these conversions at con
vent schools obtained at the expense of Catholic children? Is the presence of a number of nonCatholics a .deterrent in creating a good Catholic atmosphere? One headmistress who has 84 nonCatholic pupils to 100 Catholic says it is.
But another, in the Southwark diocese, at a school where nonCatholics total 64 per cent declared: "We have never yet discovered that Catholic children stiffer from being outnumbered by non-Catholics. Everything relating to the spiritual life of the school— assembly prayers, school Mass and Benediction, recitation of the Angelu s, liturgical .functions, Apostleship of Prayer, Sodality, Crusade Movement—is organised in the same manner as if the school were 100 per cent Catholic.
Discussions
"In the fifth and sixth forms. discussions on religious topics and moral issues frequently arise. Often the Catholics come and ask for advice as to the best way to answer their non-Catholic companions. This, we consider, is a good preparation for the life which awaits the pupils when they leave their convent school."
A headmistress in the Birmingham diocese told me: "All our non-Catholic children are taught full Catholic doctrine alongside the Catholic children. Children whose parents object to this are not accepted." This appears to be a common practice.
Remarks which sum up the headmistresses' views on the present convent school system of education are as follows: • It is better to have nonCatholic children in Catholic schools than the reverse, which would apply in many districts were it not for the presence of a convent school.
• The existence of many convent schools is largely due to the fees paid by non-Catholic parents. There are not enough Catholic fee-paying children to support wholly Catholic convent schools.
• Catholic children are not deprived of a convent school education through lack of money. Most convent schools make generous allowances for Catholic parents unable to pay the standard fees.
• Convent schools are a means of enlightening many non-Catholic children and breaking down prejudice where Catholicism is concerned.
• Fees would be considerably higher if all the nuns drew the salaries at present paid to lay teachers.