THE P RTAL
October 2016 Page 13 against each other .
“ The Catholic Bishops were keen on the idea of accessing this State funding , but it came with certain strings . The big sticking point was ; the State said you can have this grant and then the State will come along and inspect what is happening in your schools . Our Bishops said that ‘ If you think that the British State is going to inspect Catholic religious education and worship you ’ ve got another think coming .’
“ There was a stand off between 1833 and 1847 . Eventually a compromise was reached whereby the State would inspect what they called the secular curriculum and would accept a certificate from the Bishop that he was satisfied with the religious education . In broad terms that arrangement still exists . OFSTED may not inspect religious teaching and worship ; that ’ s the responsibility of the religious authority .
“ The function we were given in 1847 was to be the central single voice of the Hierarchy to the National Government . That is our principal aim . Of course every Bishop is the leader of his Diocese and they are not answerable to each other . Sometimes people think that the Catholic Church is more hierarchal than it is and that the Archbishop tells his Bishops what to do . It doesn ’ t work that way .
“ Each Diocese is separate . They also are pragmatic enough to realise that if you talk with twenty two different voices , that ’ s not going to get you anywhere . You have to talk with a single voice . We ’ re an agency of the Conference as a whole . Our principal job is to represent the collective view of the Bishops to government national agencies . That ’ s our number one job .
“ Our secondary job , which is very much part of that facing the other way , is that we are a resource to support the twenty two Dioceses and the other religious order trustees , in the actual provision of Catholic education in each Diocese . We don ’ t have any formal involvement in the running of any Catholic school .
“ There ’ s a slight difference because of the historical context and other things in terms of the university sector . So we do have involvement in the running of the Catholic universities because we were part of the foundation , from the 19th century onwards , of the teacher training colleges from which the Catholic universities all originated . One of the first things we did was to look to how to have a supply of qualified teachers in our schools .
“ We founded St Mary ’ s College in 1850 . In those
days it was in Brook Green , Hammersmith and in 1925 we bought the land at Twickenham and moved St Mary ’ s College to there . The other three Catholic universities we have are Newman , founded by the CES in the 1960s , Liverpool Hope in Liverpool which is an Ecumenical university and Leeds Trinity University , which was founded as two colleges , All Saints and Trinity . They were either side of the road because in those days they didn ’ t have co-educational colleges . The Sisters of the Cross and Passion ran the women ’ s college and we ran the men ’ s college .”
There will be more about the CES in next month ’ s Portal .
Forms of words for making a bequest in favour of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in your Will
I GIVE to the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham , 24 Golden Square , London W1F 9JR , the sum of _________ pounds (£ ) and I DIRECT that the receipt of the Treasurer or other proper officer of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham shall be good and sufficient discharge to my Executor . or
I GIVE the residue of my estate to the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham , 24 Golden Square , London W1F 9JR , and I DIRECT that the receipt of the Treasurer or other proper officer of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham shall be good and sufficient discharge to my Executor .