Catholic School to be Handed Over to Mosque

The face of the future...

A sorrowful moment of truth for the Catholic Church in England and Wales, the news of which will send shockwaves around the Catholic World?

A stunning local victory for Islam?

An indicator of the rates of immigration in urban areas of northern England?

Or, a damning indictment of the Hierarchy of the Catholic Church in the United Kingdom and the overwhemling majority of the Faithful who failed to heed the prophetic warnings of Pope Paul VI's encyclical, Humanae Vitae?

You can call it what you want, but this is nothing short of stunning news. It has to be said that unlike Catholics, Muslims did not and still do not embrace contraception. Not only this, but, for Muslims, passing Islam down to the next generation is of supreme importance. Read it and weep...

Courtesy of the Daily Star

'A Catholic school faces being taken over by a mosque after it was revealed that 95% of its pupils are Muslim. It is believed to be the first case of its kind in Britain. Church leaders say it is no longer “appropriate” for them to run Sacred Heart RC Primary School which has just six Christian pupils.

Just 10 years ago more than 90% of pupils were Catholic. But now most are of Asian origin, do not speak English as their first language and follow Islam. The school in Blackburn, Lancs, could be handed to the nearby Masjid-e-Tauheedul mosque.

Harry Devonport of Blackburn with Darwen Council Children’s Services, said the decision to abandon the school was made by the Diocese of Salford. Diocese education director Geraldine Bradbury said: “We have never experienced a change to this extent before. We would not be serving the local community by insisting that we run the school. It brings things like having a Catholic headteacher and devoting 10% of the timetable to RE. It would be wrong of us to insist on putting a school community through that.”

The mosque runs an Islamic girls’ secondary school. Head Hamid Patel said: “Given that almost all of the pupils are Muslim, it makes sense.”

Other organisations are in the race to run the school – in a predominantly Asian populated area of the town – including the Church of England diocese. But the Tauheedul mosque is favourite to take over. A report to the local council said any attempt to turn Sacred Heart into a non-religious community school would be rejected because of the Coalition Government’s “stated preference for new faith schools and free schools”. Mr Devonport added: “There will be no disruption for children at the school.”'