LEICESTER, United Kingdom – Church leaders in Scotland are urging the Aberdeen City Council to create a Catholic secondary school in the city.

In Britain, the state supports schools run by religious organizations, and Aberdeen is the largest city in Scotland without a Catholic secondary school, which is similar to an American high school.

The Catholic population of Aberdeen is just over 230,000 people. This is larger than Dundee’s population of around 150,000, and there are now more school-aged Catholics in Aberdeen than in Dundee.

However, Dundee has two Catholic secondary schools and 10 Catholic primary schools, while Aberdeen has only three Catholic primary schools.

Scotland’s two largest cities, Edinburgh and Glasgow, have Catholic schools at a ratio similar to Dundee’s. Inverness, which is considerably smaller and has a much lower Catholic population, is the only other Scottish city without a Catholic secondary school.

Religious leaders in the city say Aberdeen is an outlier in Scotland.

In a letter sent to Crux Now, the bishops said that in September of 2024 and again in September of 2025, the Education and Children’s Services Committee (ECSC) of Aberdeen City Council voted in favor of establishing a group consisting of representatives from the Catholic Church and the Council to investigate the possibility of providing a Catholic Secondary in Aberdeen.

Council officials say it is unlikely that a Catholic secondary school would meet the 1,000-pupil threshold required to build a new school.

“On both occasions the convenor of the ECSC referred the matter to a meeting of the full Council where the ruling LibDem/SNP Partnership [two Scottish political parties] used their slim majority to have the decisions of the ECSC overturned,” the bishops wrote.

“This was despite the fact that the City Council’s 2024 extremely flawed consultation on the issue showed that 82 percent of respondents were in favor of a Catholic secondary,” they added. The bishops then said the ECSC again voted on the measure on Sep. 15 and, this time, announced it would refer the committee’s decision to the Finance and Resources Committee with a view to having it overturned. This will be decided later this year.

“Of course, it is not only Catholic families who wish to send their children to Catholic schools,” the bishops say. “All over Scotland thousands of families who are not Catholics send their children to Catholic secondaries attracted by their distinctive ethos and mission.”

Father Michael Kane, the Director of the Communications and Evangelization Office at the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, said children attending Aberdeen’s Catholic primary schools currently have no opportunity to continue their Catholic education as they grow older.

“This represents a significant gap in their educational provision,” he told Crux Now.

The priest said the campaign to establish secondary schools is being led by parents who want their children to receive a continuous Catholic education, as provided for within Scotland’s state education system and as exists elsewhere in Scotland’s large population centers.

Kane also said this request “reflects a clear and growing demand for denominational secondary provision in the city.”

Despite a history of tensions between religions in Scotland and the country’s rising secularism, he said that probably isn’t the reason for the lack of a Catholic secondary school in the city.

“We trust that no anti-Catholic sentiment or religious bias underlies this situation,” Kane told Crux Now.

“Catholic schools are not simply good for Catholics; they are good for Scotland,” he said.

“Our schools welcome pupils of all faiths and none, providing inclusive and diverse learning environments consistently recognized through school inspections,” the priest continued.

Kane claimed many non-Catholic parents choose Catholic schools because of their educational standards and strong ethos.

“Catholic secondary provision in Aberdeen would therefore benefit the wider community, increase parental choice and offer an additional educational opportunity to families throughout the city,” the priest said.

“Given Aberdeen’s growing Catholic population, changing demographics and the clear wishes of parents, we are keen to understand what rationale the Council can offer for consistently voting down any serious consultation about a Catholic secondary school,” Kane said.

Bishops’ Conference of Scotland says the Church and parent groups would welcome the opportunity to work in partnership with Aberdeen City Council on the issue.

Follow Charles Collins on X: @CharlesinRome

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