Church leaders in Scotland want city of Aberdeen to provide a Catholic high school

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