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Anthropologist Fr Gerald Arbuckle SM (left, pictured with ACU Chancellor, the Honourable Martin Daubney AM KC,) has been awarded Australian Catholic University’s top honour.
He is now a Doctor of the University; this is the highest honour a university can bestow.
His honorary degree citation says Arbuckle’s doctorate recognises his “contribution to the academic tradition of the Church and for bringing the interplay between faith and reason to bear on complex religious and social policy issues for the betterment of society.”
Known as the priest and anthropologist who asks the tough questions, he has tackled topics like fundamentalism, conspiracy madness, and the culture of abuse and cover-ups in the Church.
“I am especially pleased with this award,” he says.
“The type of work I’ve done has often meant that I must struggle to academically and pastorally pioneer new ground. This can be an exacting task but a thrilling one. So I am most grateful to the Chancellor and Senate of ACU for this honour,” Arbuckle says.
“It acknowledges the important role that the social sciences have in proclaiming the Gospel.
“The more we understand the complexity of the world around us, the better prepared we are to help people grasp the relevance of Gospel values in their lives.”
Not content to receive his award, Arbuckle continued to pose questions and challenges during his graduation speech.
“The world is awash with these alarming theories today. Autocrats use them to gain and hold onto power. So what are they, why do they flourish in times of chaos and do the scriptures say anything about them? These urgent questions need pastoral answers,” Arbuckle says.
“The pandemic was an illness, but it has catalysed enormous political upheavals in nations, and massive injustices in many parts of the world, and opened the way also for anarchy and populous figures to emerge.”
Speaking to ACU graduates, Arbuckle said that in this (post-Covid) world, we have to find some balance and that for centuries The Good Samaritan story has acted very well as a moral foundation of Western society.
Challenging graduates, he said it was their task to re-own and live the Good Samaritan values of justice, compassion and mercy and in so doing, they will help to maintain our democratic way of life.
A little bio
Before leaving New Zealand, he and John Faisandier wrote The Church in a Multi-Cultural Society: The Pastoral Needs of Maoris and Polynesian Immigrants. Based on a nationwide survey, they wrote the 1975 report at the then New Zealand Catholic Bishops’ Conference’s behest.
Since 1990 Arbuckle has been the co-director of the Refounding and Pastoral Development Unit, Sydney where his mission focus has been to preserve Good Samaritan values of compassion and justice in public and private healthcare institutions.
As an anthropologist, he has been a consultant to global private and public healthcare systems.
In 2008 he was appointed to a NSW government Independent Panel to oversee the reform of the state’s public hospital system.
2010 saw him at Oxford University researching issues confronting England’s National Health Service.
He later delivered Oxford’s Martin D’Arcy SJ Memorial Lectures on Humanising Healthcare Reforms.
Graduating in social anthropology from Christ College, Cambridge University in 1963, Arbuckle is now an international award-winning author who has written 25 books on various anthropological quests, including institutional ageing, refounding the Church and maintaining the Catholic ethos in healthcare and schools.
In his research and lecturing, Arbuckle has chiefly concentrated on ways in which the original founding values of our institutions can be maintained and fostered.
Approaching his 90th year, Arbuckle works on his 26th book. It’s about conspiracy theories.
Arbuckle’s Marist connection goes back to his days as a St John’s College, Hastings, New Zealand where he was a pupil.
Sources
- ACU (Supplied)
- Supplied
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