Throughout the first half of the twentieth century control over their schools was central to the sense of a Catholic identity
for English Catholics,and its defence was a priority of their bishops.The 1994
education act threatened the financial viability of these schools.Between1942 and 1944 the devided and uncertain response of the Catholic Hierarchy of England and Wales to the state’s proposals for educational reform opened the way for the intervention of lay Catholics into the education debate.The Sword of the Spirit movement is commonly remembered as the central organization for lay initiative in Church affairs.However,for Catholics and for participants in the education debate the Organization known as the Catholic Parents’ans Electors’ Association(CPEA) was more significant.From local initiatives in Ilford,south-east London,and Bradford,in the north,between 1940 and 1942,the CPEA expanded,until by 1944 it could claim a nationwide membership running into tens of thousands,as well as the enthusiastic support of the Catholic Press.It engaged in vigorous
political activity,in most cases without the sanction of clerical authority.To some extent the movement troubled Catholic authorityas much as the education issue itself.With the reestablishment of authority,following the appointment of a new cardinal-archbishop of Westminster the movement foundered but was by no means extinguished.It embodied the extending power within the Catholic Community of an urban middle class,related to,but increasingly distinct from,the growing Catholic professional elite exemplified by the growth of the Newman Association.The CPEA could be harnessed by the clerical leaders of the Catholic community,but its history indicates the social,psychologicaland political stresses attendant on educational change in a minority community.