The decision to press ahead with the seven mixed-faith primary school sites follows fierce opposition from the church, which opposes Catholic children sharing facilities with non-Catholics.
However, the local council has ruled that the cost of providing separate entrances, staff rooms and libraries is too high. Despite intense lobbying by the Catholic church, ministers have refused to block the plan.
Church leaders fear that the decision gives the green light to other councils to force Catholic schools to join shared campuses. They are now considering a legal challenge to thwart the project.
“There’s not a single Catholic school in Scotland that could stand the test. They could all be scrapped,” said Peter Kearney, the church’s official spokesman. “If this interpretation is upheld it wouldn’t be too strong to say it is the beginning of the end for Catholic schools.”
Jack McConnell, the first minister, has voiced his support for mixed-faith schools as a way of tackling Scotland’s sectarian problem. The criticism of his failure to intervene in the row will intensify hostility between the church and Labour, which draws much of its support from Catholics in west Scotland.
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Last month Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the leader of Scotland’s Catholics, launched the biggest campaign against Scottish executive policy since the repeal of section 28, claiming that new sex education proposals amount to “child abuse”.
Last week, in a clear swipe at Labour, O’Brien told a meeting of Catholic head teachers: “I stress that the views of the local community are vitally important. As the Catholic community was listened to 100 years ago, so again we expect the local authorities to listen to the views of the Catholic community and we also expect the wishes of the Catholic community to be respected and our legal safeguards protected and supported by the executive.
“Perhaps there is more to fear for the church of today in that there are some members of our church and many outside our church who in public statements seem to be prepared to water down, even to cast overboard, the legal provisions and safeguards for which our parents fought.”
Church leaders believe that the North Lanarkshire project contravenes the 1980 Education (Scotland) Act, designed to prevent a “significant deterioration” in the provision of denominational schools.
They argue that if St Aloysius in Chapelhall is brought into the shared campus scheme in, local authorities would be able to force through changes to any Catholic school. Unlike other schools with a declining number of pupils, St Aloysius is thriving with more than 300.
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A briefing paper discussed at a meeting of church officials in Mortherwell last week concluded: “The argument by the council to impose this change could be used to justify the closure of every Catholic primary school in Scotland and is unacceptable.”
Bishop Joseph Devine of Motherwell, chairman of the Catholic Education Commission, has written to McConnell urging him to intervene.
Devine believes the plans to “secularise” shared areas in mixed-faith campuses would erode the distinctive ethos of Catholic schools and limit celebrations of religious festivals such as Christmas and Lent.
In a reply to Devine, Philip Rycroft, head of the Scottish executive’s school group, wrote: “Ministers are not satisfied that the proposals as outlined in the submissions received from the (church) and the council, if implemented, will result in significant deterioration . . . in the provision, distribution or availability of school education in denominational schools as compared with that in other public schools.”
Peter Peacock, the education minister, said that the executive will continue to support denominational education “so long as parents want it”.
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However, parents such as Maureen Robertson, a mother of two who has campaigned against the changes in North Lanarkshire, are not convinced.
“The council is refusing to listen and the executive has thrown out our objections,” she said. “There will be no safeguards left for Catholic schools. It’s a disgrace.” Allan Milligan