Calls are growing for a new Catholic secondary school in Aberdeen, 50 years after the last one closed.

There are three Catholic primary schools in the Granite City, but parents and the Church say there should be an option to choose a similar education for older children.

The number of Roman Catholics in Aberdeen has grown by more than 7,000 over the last 20 years and they now make up about 8.6% of the population.

Aberdeen City Council's education convener said they had limited funding and they had to prioritise investing in the existing "deteriorating" school estate.

An open letter signed by parents and church representatives has called on the council to conduct a "meaningful consultation" into the prospect.

A spokesman for Aberdeen City Council refuted claims it had not engaged in discussions about secondary denominational education.

Among those who signed the letter is JJ Welsh, who sends his two sons to St Joseph's Primary.

He moved to Aberdeen from South Lanarkshire in 2007 and works in the oil and gas sector.

The 50-year-old concedes it is unlikely a school would be built in the next 15 years - but is keen for the discussion to be held.

"There's an assumption that denominational schools are only for children that have been baptised and are Catholic," he told BBC Scotland News.

"People from outwith are sending their children to a faith school, it's about the ethos."

Welsh said he appreciated that money needed to be spent on many other schools, and a balance had to be struck amid a "budgetary crisis".

He added: "We have just been asking for a discussion. It comes back down to a democratic point."

There are Catholic secondary schools in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Perth and Stirling but Aberdeen has not had the provision since the 1970s.

The Convent of the Sacred Heart school - a Catholic boarding and secondary school for girls - closed in 1971, and the secondary department at St Peter's Roman Catholic School shut in 1975.

Across Scotland, the number of publicly-funded Catholic schools has fallen from 421 in 1997, to 358 currently.

In 2024, Aberdeen councillors rejected a bid to create a new working group to look into creating a new Catholic secondary school in the city.

A report from officials said a consultation suggested it was unlikely to meet the minimum roll threshold of 1,000 pupils.

In September, the finance and resources committee agreed to move an item regarding Catholic secondary school provision to the next full meeting of the council. The issue had already been deferred from the education committee.

Elizabeth Spencer, whose daughter Charlotte is 10, has been campaigning since 2024 to bring a Catholic secondary school to Aberdeen.

She had been waiting to speak at the recent council meeting about the issue before an hour-long discussion led to the issue being deferred once again.

"I had a panic attack. I felt completely hopeless because of this going back and forth," she said.

Spencer said she was assessing options for her daughter, including looking at schools more than 65 miles (104km) away in Dundee.

She added: "I am just asking for them to listen to us. I feel completely abandoned by everyone, but I am adamant about her following my faith."

Meanwhile the Bishops' Conference of Scotland said it was "united" in its support for a new Catholic secondary school in Aberdeen.

"Wherever reasonably possible, parents and families should have the opportunity to choose Catholic secondary education," they added.

Archbishop William Nolan of Glasgow, the president of Catholic education, added: "Catholic secondary schools are widely available across Scotland.

"The absence of any plans for Catholic secondary education raises important questions about the rights and entitlements of Catholic families in Aberdeen. These are questions we would urge the council to address".

A Diocese of Aberdeen Catholic secondary school consultation portal is open for parents to register their interest.

Aberdeen City Council education convener Martin Greig said the council had a "clear responsibility" to ensure that pupils had the "best possible learning environment".

He said it was it was "vital" to "prioritise investment" to allow modernisation across the city.

Among current investments is £29m in the refurbishment of St Peter's RC School to improve primary education.

"The focus is on the urgent challenge of using the council's very limited funding to deal with the serious problems of our inadequate school estate," Greig told BBC Scotland News.

The issue is next expected to come before a meeting of the full council on 9 December.

The issue in Aberdeen comes as Scotland's major religious faiths grapple with a steady decline in numbers.

The 2022 Census revealed that, for the first time, a majority of people in Scotland said they were not religious.

Just over 13% of the population said they were Catholic, which represented a drop of more than 117,000 people in a decade.

And it emerged last month the Catholic Church was to halve the number of parishes it has in Glasgow and Dunbartonshire as part of a major restructuring.

However, in Aberdeen, the census found there were more than 19,000 Roman Catholics living in the city - up from 12,000 in the space of about 20 years.