to consider getting our child baptised a Catholic

[VicarOfBray]

given that I am agnostic/atheist lapsed Catholic with some interest in religious issues, and dp is an anglican non-churchgoer with vaguely positive feelings towards it all.

There are lots of complicated reasons why we think we would like to have her baptised, and one very large, uncomplicated and unattractive one: the nearest and nicest primary school in our area is Catholic.

Would it be morally repugnant to get her baptised for the sake of her education?

She will inevitably make up her own mind when she is old enough anyway (as you have done!) and I think that her education is just as important (if not more important) as her denomination! I am a Catholic myself and my dd is also a Catholic and will be sent to a Catholic school, however I know of many children at the school who are not Catholic. This shows that the Catholic faith obviously has no problem with it, so why should you let it worry you!

I'm with Twiggy. Years of Catholic Primary school, convent secondary school, left home at 20 and haven't been to church since. Wonder if we went to the same schools.
We are moving house soon to the catchment area of the only non-church related school in the area. Its a really good school but everyone is obsessed with the church schools.
Very important to me to give my boys a choice. Makes me laugh to see friends who have never been in a church to suddenly start going just so they can get their kids in a school - here the requirement is 50 sundays per year attendance and it has to be the Parents, not the Grandparents taking the child. They have to sign an attendance book each week after mass!! If you go on hols etc you have to give advance notice so you get your 'credits' they are not available retrospectively!
Perhaps its because they did not have it all shoved down their throats all those years that they don't quite understand what they are putting their children into?

I am not a Catholic. My husband was raised a Catholic, but lapsed for most of his adult life. We are probably going to apply for Catholic schools for our son, because they are the best in the area, and because I really want a structured, disciplined school with a good pastoral system for my boy. He is being baptised next week (at the age of 2). We have started going to church regularly and I am attending the RCIA class in order to understand the faith better.

No, I do not believe in everything the Catholic church stands for. Yes, our main motivation is probably the school issue (mine certainly is).

I'm not really concerned if people think I am hypocritical, to be honest. I attend the church toddler group, andI would say 70% of the mums there are non-Catholics married to formerly lapsed Catholics who have suddenly (miraculously?!) started attending church and had their kids baptised. I wonder why? Of the practising Catholics, many of them do not agree with key aspects of the Catholic faith.

The entry requirements of most Catholic schools are that your child and one of his parents are baptised and practising Catholic (and the non Catholic parent promises to raise their child in the faith) - and that you attend mass. There is no 'faith test'. You can attend Mass every week and not believe a word of it, if YOU can live with it (I don't just mean 'live with it on your conscience', I mean 'live with being a Catholic publicly' - going to church etc).

We''ve thought carefully about it and decided on balance that we are going ahead with it. YANBU - but think carefully before you commit.

I think you should just go ahead and do it if you want. TBH its not like you just randomly selected a religion with a decent school- you are a catholic abeit a lapsed one and as you said yourself its part of your makeup.Being an a la carte catholic (like myself) is pretty much the norm these days imo. If the church only allowed the children of the truly devout to fill the pews and school benches I think it would have plenty of vacancies.

vicarofbray- you need to make choices to put your child in an advantageous educational position - Christ lets face it plenty other's will too. these days increasingly good schools are fiercely competitive and that includes parents playing the religious card

actually i don't agree that faith schools shoud be able to set religion as an entry criteria, after all they are funded by the whole community not just a specific faith

you do say you have an existing Christian connection, so globally you do have Christian values

the real problem is scarcity of good quality education. my wee one is nursery so i don't have these difficulties yet. not going to apply for faith school though

good luck with whatever you cjose

Its a very tough position to be in- are your morals worth more than your dc's education. When there isn't much choice around you can get a bit desperate

You will have to make promises in church which you have little intention of keeping. Only you can decide if you want to do that. In my area there is a good chance for non catholics to get into the catholic primary but not the secondry. Lots of year 5 and 6 children get baptised.

Morally repugnant, no.

But you will surely have to profess, not just in public at the baptism and by regular attendance at mass, but also presumably to your daughter at home, that you believe in something that you don't believe in. How will you manage the everyday assumption that there is a God.