My parents are Catholic (although neither are practising these days) and am baptised Catholic as is my DD. DS will be baptised in a few months. DH is baptised in the Church of England.

I attended private catholic schools and have also attended public schools for short periods of time (12 months in primary school when we moved and for 12 months in high school, again during a temporary move) and from MY experiences, I would prefer my children to attend a catholic school.
DH had catholic education and doesn't see it as much of an issue, felt it was a minor component and that the lessons he was taught had more of a positive effect than a negative one.
I feel the same way as your DH. I never felt that religion was FORCED upon me. It was a part of our education and was a big deal at Christmas, Easter etc but on the whole it wasn't the be all and end all of our schooling.

I think it might be a bit hypocritical to send your child to a Catholic school if you have a very strong opposition to the Catholic faith and religion in school - I just don't see how that works. I guess you need to decide how comfortable you are with it.

I do however understand how hard it must be wanting to send your child to a private school when the only private option is Catholic.