The Roman Catholic church has written to all its secondary
school pupils asking them to sign a petition against gay
marriage.
Almost 400 secondary schools across England and Wales were
contacted by the Catholic Education Service in a correspondence
which claimed that that Catholics have a "duty to to ensure that
the true meaning of marriage is not lost for future
generations".
As part of the move, the CES also asked students to consider
signing the Coalition for Marriage petition, which wants to
maintain marriage as opposite-sex.
Almost 500,000 have already pledged their support to the
petition.
Speaking to The Guardian in justification of the request, a
CES spokeswoman said: "We said that schools might like to consider
using this [letter] in assemblies or in class teaching. We said
people might want to consider asking pupils and parents if they
might want to sign the petition. It's really important that no
school discriminates against any member of the school
community.
"Schools with a religious character are allowed to teach sex and
relationships - and conduct assemblies - in accordance with the
religious views of the school. The Catholic view of marriage is not
a political view; it's a religious view."
But the actions of the CES have angered atheists and equality
activists.
Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, also
told The Guardian: "This is a clear breach of the authority and
privilege that the Catholic Education Service has been given in
schools.
"Surely it is no part of its remit to promote a specific
political campaign from this purely sectarian viewpoint. It is
disgraceful that children are being encouraged into bigotry when
they are attending a state school paid for by taxpayers."
