Catholic schools in bid to ban non-Catholics

Tasmanian Catholic schools have applied for an exemption to the state’s Anti-Discrimination Act in a bid for the power to turn away non-Catholic students.

Archbishop Adrian Doyle has outlined the new plan, which aims for all Catholic schools to have at least 75 percent Catholic students.

He said the policy would ensure “very strong Catholic ethos and vision” in Tasmanian Catholic schools, and would be slowly rolled out across the state.

The State Government will consider the exemption to the Anti-Discrimination Act later this year, The Mercury reports.

Archbishop Doyle announced that a new school to open in 2009, the St Aloysius Catholic College in Hobart suburb Kingston, would be the first to introduce the 75 percent policy if the legal exemption was approved.

“St Aloysius Primary School is already aware of this policy, so enrolments will start to reflect that,” he said.

“It will be a question of preference, if there had to be that difficult choice between one (student) or the other (non-catholic student).

“I think now I have taken this stand with this school, I will extend the policy wider.”

The government does not expect the new Catholic school to have a significant effect on enrolments, Education Department spokesman Christian Attfield said.

“The demographics are fairly stable and sustain a positive enrolment outlook for the area,” he said.

Archbishop Doyle claimed that currently about 40 percent of students in Tasmanian Catholic schools were not Catholic