Bychok, 44, who leads the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Australia, was appointed only four years after arriving in the country.

His elevation has surprised many within the Church, especially those who expected more senior figures such as Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney or Melbourne's Archbishop Peter Comensoli to receive the title.

Some conservative figures are reportedly upset by the decision, with Archbishop Fisher expected to be especially displeased.

A senior source within the Church described Fisher as likely "choking on his Talisker" upon hearing the news.

Critics have noted the pope's continued tendency to pass over right-wing appointees associated with the late Cardinal George Pell, a controversial figure in the Australian Church.

At the same time, progressives had hoped Vietnamese-Australian Bishop of Parramatta Vincent Long may have caught the pope's eye.

A difficult cross

Bychok's appointment has also been interpreted as recognising the growing multiculturalism within the Australian Church. Data from the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office shows that nearly a quarter of the clergy in Australia are overseas-born.

The new cardinal-elect, who learned of his appointment through the news, said he was in shock. "For me, it's a great mystery. God works in mysterious ways, and the pope works in mysterious ways, under God!"

Bychok acknowledged the weight of his new role, particularly for the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Australia and worldwide. "To fulfil this will of God will be a huge challenge for me, and a really difficult cross" he said.

Cardinal-Elect Bychok paid tribute to his predecessor, Cardinal George Pell, who passed away early in 2023.

"Cardinal Pell, besides all his trials, was faithful to God. He proclaimed the Word of God until the end—he was a true apostle of Christian values. That's what I would like to carry into my ministry as cardinal" Cardinal-Elect Bychok said.

In a statement shortly after his appointment, he also honoured his predecessor cardinals of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

"I will endeavour to follow the worthy example of my predecessor cardinals" the cardinal-elect said. He singled out 20th-century Cardinals Myroslav Lubachivsky, Lubomyr Husar and Josyf Slipyj.

Sources

Crickey

Catholic Weekly

The interruption occurred as Archbishop Fisher expressed concerns about what he termed an "anti-religious undercurrent" in the legislation.

Pride in Protest activist Quay-Quay Quade, rising to her feet, exclaimed "That's a load of f**king bullshit", prompting the live stream of the hearing to be cut. Ms Quade was then removed from the room.

The inquiry, led by Independent MP Alex Greenwich, is reviewing the Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTIQA+) Bill 2023. The bill aims to streamline the process for transgender individuals to change their legal sex on official documents.

One of the key reforms of the bill is the removal of the requirement for a sex affirmation procedure prior to registering a sex change. This has not yet been adopted by any other Australian state or territory.

Under the proposed bill, individuals aged 16 and above could change their legal sex via a statutory declaration. However, Archbishop Fisher expressed concerns that such self-identification could jeopardise women-only spaces and impede religious practices.

Inquiry "a sham"

After the hearing resumed, Archbishop Fisher elaborated on his concerns. He highlighted potential impacts on religious customs such as single-sex prayer, opposite-sex weddings and single-sex schooling.

"It's one thing to disagree with world religions on such matters, but quite another to deny them the right to practise their faith by making official documents deceptive regarding a person's biological or birth sex" Fisher said.

Meanwhile, outside parliament, Ms Quade labelled the inquiry a "sham" while supporters echoed chants for equality.

In contrast, activists from the Women's Rights Network Australia protested against the bill. They argued it would compromise the safety and dignity of women.

Responding to the debate, Greens NSW LGBTIQ+ spokesperson Amanda Cohn asserted that the proposed changes would align NSW with other states and territories. She dismissed the concerns about women's safety.

The inquiry also heard from the NSW Gender Centre. The group emphasised the importance of legal recognition for transgender individuals. They cited the positive impact on mental well-being and social participation.

The state government, yet to finalise its stance, raised concerns about identity fraud and public safety in its submission to the inquiry.

The committee is expected to deliver its report on the bill in June. This follows a thorough examination of the proposed reforms and stakeholders' perspectives.

Sources

ABC News

CathNews New Zealand

It is "an important contribution to the efforts to establish a Criminal Cases Review Commission - as in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada" former High Court of Australia judge Michael Kirby commented.

He considers Pell's initial conviction was "a miscarriage of justice".

Witch hunting

Last month at the Mass marking the first anniversary of Pell's death, Archbishop Anthony Fisher described Pell's conviction and imprisonment as a result of "the corrupt Victorian legal system" following a media, political and policy witch hunt.

Pell's convictions for historical child sexual abuse were quashed by the High Court, in a seven-nil single judgment in April 2020.

"When the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney and a former High Court judge criticise the legal process in one of the most important cases in Australian criminal law, it would be expected that this would be regarded as news" Henderson says.

He expected interest from the ABC, Sydney Morning Herald and The Guardian Australia - all active participants in "the Pell media pile-on" - to be interested.

"But no. They all threw the switch to effective censorship."

Henderson says 120 journalists were "engaged in the media pile-on against Pell.

"Not one has come back to me claiming that they were misquoted and/or sought changes to the text."

Media failure

When Henderson's updated edition was released, Fr Frank Brennan SJ described the journalists' failure to defend their work as "intellectual cowardice".

Following Pell's death, the High Court's judgment saw some media drop references to Pell's alleged paedophilia.

Instead, they focused on the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse findings.

Henderson says its findings regarding Pell were hostile to the Cardinal.

Cardinal Pell did not act, when in a position of authority, to protect children from paedophile Catholic priests and brothers, the Commission said.

But Henderson says no forensic or documentary evidence supported that finding. Rather, the Commission found it was "inconceivable" or "unlikely" that Pell had not acted in a certain way.

"That's not evidence, it's opinion" says Henderson.

"Moreover, the findings were inconsistent in two important instances. It was a shoddy piece of work."

State education hid paedophiles too

Despite having time, money and resources, the Commission did not undertake any case studies into paedophilia in government schools.

However, after the Commission closed in 2017, Tasmania's and Victoria's state governments have been investigating historical child sexual abuse in state schools.

Evidence shows that, like religious schools, state education departments concealed child sexual abuse and moved male teachers from school to school.

A bad name sticks

Last May, Commission chairman Peter McClellan wrote about Pell in a foreword to a book.

He said Pell told the Commission the Catholic Church did not understand the rape of a child was a crime but regarded it as a moral failure.

That claim, repeated on TV, is false says Henderson.

Pell wrote to the Commission in 2014 and, in oral testimony later, called child sex abuse "crimes".

In 1996 while Archbishop of Melbourne, Pell established the Melbourne Response to deal with child sexual abuse.

"The archdioceses and dioceses in the rest of Australia created Towards Healing the following year" Henderson says.

"The governments of Victoria and Tasmania set up their inquiries into state schools a quarter of a century later.

"The other states and the territories have not done so."

Source

• The Catholic Weekly

The ACT Labor-Greens government's proposal to allow teenagers as young as 14 to access voluntary assisted dying could see assisted suicide become available to "anyone that wants it", says Archbishop Anthony Fisher (pictured).

Every jurisdiction that has introduced assisted suicide has relaxed restrictions over time, he notes.

In setting such a low bar, Fisher says the ACT would see standards "end up in the gutter with no protections at all".

ACT Human Rights Minister Tara Cheyne has released a community consultation report. It will be used to help shape legislation to be introduced by the end of the year, she says.

Protections whittled away

"The fact is, every jurisdiction in the world that has gone down the euthanasia path has then gradually stripped away its protections," Fisher says.

"So, if we start as the ACT is proposing to start, with the bar ­already very low, well they're just going to end up in the gutter with no protections at all."

Calling the ACT government "radical", Fisher says the ACT or its leader must enforce safeguards around ­assisted suicide.

"Victoria has had euthanasia for only a year or two, and they're already talking about removing most of the protections.

"Well, if the ACT starts with ­almost none, where are they going to be two or three years on?

"My guess is it will be ­euthanasia on ­demand for anyone that wants it ...".

Cheyne sees it differently. She rejects as "arbitrary" all other Australian jurisdictions' assisted suicide restrictions

Currently, assisted suicide is only available to over 18-year olds with a terminal illness and life expectancy of between six and 12 months, or to people with dementia.

No comment

Health Minister Mark Butler and opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston have declined to comment on territory issues.

The five MPs representing ACT also declined to comment.

Informed choice

National's MP Barnaby Joyce doesn't think 14-year-olds are mature enough to make an "informed cogent decision about the most precious thing they have, which is their life.

"If you're going to go to 14, why not go to four?" he asks.

"It's what happens when you have a Greens left-wing Labor government and the idea the state reigns supreme over the individual. It's the removal of all forms of religion to be replaced with the ethos of the state."

Northern Territory chief minister Marshall Perron devised the world's first right-to-die laws.

He thinks it is "very hard to put a finger" on when a teenager developed the decision-making capacity to be eligible for assisted suicide.

"You'll get a different opinion from different people … 16 and 17 would be an easier step to go," he says.

"However, there is an argument to go beyond that.

"If we're talking about terminally ill individuals who are going to die and are suffering horrifically, I mean, anyone who's a parent would have to have some sympathy for the child."

Source

• The Australian

Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, has reportedly had complaints from churchgoers over priests who plan to return to delivering sermons without getting vaccinated.

Sydney's vicar-general, Father Gerry Gleeson, says a "handful" of priests have refused to get the vaccination, despite Fisher's constant "exhortations" to do so.

Gleeson says while most priests are already vaccinated, how to respond to parishioners of those who aren't vaccinated is of concern.

He says while the church respects the individual freedoms around vaccination it is faced with a dilemma.

As the church is not a corporation, it does not have the power to fire or move priests who want to continue hosting Mass while they refuse to get vaccinated.

In Australia, there have been no religious organisations expressly tell their followers to avoid COVID-19 vaccination.

On the contrary, many church leaders have reportedly been instrumental in "combating vaccine misinformation in their communities".

Places of worship opened again for the first time yesterday, but only to the fully vaccinated.

Church-goers must obey the one person per 4sqm limits on capacity. In addition, places of worship are permitted to have up to 10 fully vaccinated singers performing at services.

When the state reaches 80 per cent double-dose vaccination, places of worship will be reopened to those who are not fully vaccinated. The one person per 4sqm rule will continue to apply, however.

Source

• Sky News
• Image: Sky News Australia

The rules for opening churches are being challenged by a number of religious leaders, including Fisher and the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Kanishka Raffel.

They are also pushing Health Minister Brad Hazzard for an exemption to the 70 percent rule on the grounds no one should be turned away from church.

We told the government that worship was "an essential service, not mere recreation" for many people, Fisher says.

"We explained that all our faiths are inclined to allow all comers to worship, that many pastors and faithful would be uneasy with restricting worship to the fully vaccinated and that doing so could prove very divisive," Fisher says.

"Race, gender, ethnicity, age, education, wealth or health status (including vaccination) must not be points of division within the Christian community or barriers to communion with Jesus".

Hazzard, however, is standing firmly the state government's ‘roadmap' out of strict lockdown.

Making exceptions on religious grounds seems unlikely.

Under the roadmap, Deputy Premier John Barilaro says only fully vaccinated people will "have access to the freedoms allowed".

Listed under the freedoms for fully vaccinated adults was that churches and places of worship could open subject to one person per 4sqm rule, with no singing.

Masks will remain compulsory for all indoor public venues, including churches and on public transport, retail and business premises.

Some ministers of religion have also publicly contemplated civil disobedience if the government keeps the requirement.

"Churches have a responsibility to minister to all, regardless of immunisation status, so we will be discussing with government how we can fulfil that ministry commitment in future stages of the recovery," Raffel says.

"We want everybody to be safe at church, but we also want to make sure we minister to everybody."

Fisher says he is committed to ensuring a safe return to worship for everyone and is working with a leading infectious diseases and risk management specialist to help plan for this.

Last week before the roadmap was announced, Anglican minister Phil Colgan, said he could not imagine a scenario in which he would turn away parishioners who weren't vaccinated.

"Even if it is consistent and churches are treated the same as cinemas … I still question whether the government has the right to impose on churches something we don't accept.

"I think it's really important to note that all of our acceptance of government limitations to date I consider to have been voluntary ...

"But there might come a time, like with a vaccine passport for me, where I would say ..., 'no'...

"I can't ever see a time when I would deny someone access to fellowship on the grounds of their vaccination status."

Source

• Sydney Morning Herald
• Catholic Weekly
• Image: The Australian

The Archbishop's Afghan Refugee Appeal will raise desperately needed funds and commit Archdiocesan agencies and partners to providing pastoral, educational, health and welfare assistance to Afghan families and individuals fleeing their homeland.

Archbishop Fisher has also personally contacted Australia's Minister for Immigration, Alex Hawke, asking that the government be generous in its intake of Afghan refugees.

Thousands have fled Kabul and Afghanistan in the last two weeks following the Taliban takeover of Kabul, completing its control of the country.

Read More

This growth came despite predictions parents would withdraw children because of the financial pressures caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Almost two-thirds of the nation's schools are government-run schools, 20 per cent are Catholic, and 15 per cent are independent.

Nationally, the independent sector grew by 2.6 per cent last year, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show. This was ahead of government schools' 1.3 per cent growth and Catholic schools' 1.2 per cent.

Independent Schools Australia said the system's strongest growth was in schools that charged below $6000 a year.

Between 2016 and 2020, the independent sector's market share grew by 9.5 per cent. Independent growth was faster than both public schools (5.9) and Catholic schools (1.5).

Enrolment growth in Catholic system schools has been slowing over the past 10 years. The Mitchell Institute has argued that migration could be a factor, as new arrivals are more likely to attend a government or independent school.

Catholic leaders have also blamed fee rises in some dioceses and the abuse scandals within the church.

Catholic education celebrated its 200th anniversary this week. The head of the Australian Bishops' Commission for Catholic Education, Archbishop Anthony Fisher, wrote to parishioners acknowledging the damage caused by the scandals.

"This damaged many children and families, as well as the credibility of church institutions, including schools, in the eyes of many," Archbishop Fisher wrote. He said trust was being rebuilt as the failings were corrected.

The chief executive of Catholic Schools NSW, Dallas McInerney, said Catholic schools now taught more students than at any other time in its 200-year history. 2020 enrolment growth in the sector was the strongest since 2015.

"We've successfully bounced back in recent years. We are expecting even higher growth in 2021 with many new and upgraded schools. We have invested $173 million in 2020 in high growth areas across Sydney," he said.

In the state of Victoria, independent school growth was four times faster than in the Catholic sector in 2020, official figures show.

Sources

Sydney Morning Herald

The Age

But to ensure vital health information reaches everyone in our community, we need a range of spokespeople, including religious and community leaders.

However, church leaders have expressed concerns some Christians may face an "ethical dilemma" over Australia's COVID-19 vaccination plans.

Sydney's Catholic and Anglican Archbishops and the leader of Australia's Greek Orthodox church told Prime Minister Scott Morrison that the University of Oxford's candidate vaccine, set to be given to Australians if it proves successful, is potentially problematic because its production method relies on cell lines from an electively aborted foetus.

There are many examples of religious community leaders helping vaccination programs.

I experienced this first-hand in 2013, when I supported a catch-up immunisation clinic at a large Samoan church in Western Sydney, which aimed to reduce the measles risk among the Pacific Islander community.

One community member who participated told me: "Most Pacific island people go to church. Maybe this is one of the best channels to go through. Ministers, because their job is spiritual health as well, will give out information for the health of their people."

That was the first time an Australian church had hosted an immunisation clinic. But the idea of religion crossing over with immunisation is not new.

The earliest recorded example of "variolation" (or inoculation) was an 11th-century Buddhist nun's innovative practice: She ground scabs taken from a person infected with smallpox (variola) into a powder, and then blew it into the nostrils of a non-immune person to induce immunity.

Several centuries on, things are more vexed.

While major faith traditions endorse the principles supporting the public health goals of vaccination, hesitancy has been documented at an individual clergy level, and concerns have been raised at an organisation level from time to time.

The church leaders who wrote to Morrison have asked the government not to pressure Australians to use the vaccine if it goes against their religious or moral beliefs.

Sydney's Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher called on the government to pursue arrangements for alternative vaccines that do not involve the foetus-derived cell lines.

What's a cell line anyway?

A cell line is a population of cells that is grown continuously in the laboratory for extended periods.

Once established, cell lines have an unlimited lifespan and so are a renewable and reliable system for growing viruses.

Some cell lines, called human diploid cell lines WI-38 and MRC-5, came from three abortions performed for medical reasons (including psychiatric reasons) in the 1960s.

These abortions were not done for the purpose of harvesting the cells.

Cells taken from these cell lines are used to grow the virus, but are then discarded and not included in the vaccine formulation.

In Australia, several licensed vaccines have been manufactured using cell lines that originally came from this foetal tissue from the 1960s. This includes the vaccines against rubella, hepatitis A, varicella (chickenpox), and rabies.

The Catholic church has previously grappled with this issue.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, ethicists at the National Catholic Bioethics Center and the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life declared the abortions from which the cell lines were derived were events that occurred in the past.

Most importantly, they acknowledged the intent of the abortions was not to produce the cell lines, and therefore being immunised is a morally separate event from the abortions themselves.

In 2017, the Pontifical Academy for Life reiterated this stance, stating: …we believe that all clinically recommended vaccinations can be used with a clear conscience and that the use of such vaccines does not signify some sort of cooperation with voluntary abortion.

Moreover, it concluded there is a "moral responsibility to vaccinate […] to avoid serious health risks for children and the general population".

Health comes first

Supporting public health goals is the key principle previously applied by major faith institutions in situations where ethical issues around vaccination have been raised.

One previous example is the use of gelatin - which is made from pig skin or bones and is forbidden as a food by some religions - in vaccine and medicine capsules.

After reflecting on the issue, the Kuwait-based Islamic Organization for Medical Sciences declared in 1995: …the gelatin formed as a result of the transformation of the bones, skin and tendons of a judicially impure animal is pure, and it is judicially permissible to eat it.

The Grand Mufti of Australia released a letter in 2013 supporting this judgement, ruling it is acceptable for Australian Muslims to take vaccines containing pork-derived gelatin.

In the case of both gelatin and human cell lines, religious organisations have called on vaccine manufacturers to use alternative methods where possible.

Yet given the urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic, it may not be feasible or ethical to delay or seek alternative vaccines.

This sentiment was outlined by Reverend Kevin McGovern, a Catholic priest and adjunct lecturer at the Australian Catholic University and the Catholic Theological College, in a recent piece for the ABC: Developing ethically uncompromised cell lines and vaccines is important. In the crisis of this pandemic, developing and using an effective vaccine so as to save lives is even more important.

While this article is reflecting on religious organisations and vaccination, at an individual level it's important to note that people who profess to decline vaccines for religious reasons may, in fact, be motivated not by theological concerns but by their own personal views about vaccine safety, perhaps influenced and echoed by others in their clustered social networks.

For example, US-based studies have suggested some parents circumvent vaccine requirements by claiming religious exemptions, in the absence of a personal belief alternative.

To move forward, it's important public health officials work with religious leaders to ensure they are equipped with accurate information about the potential COVID-19 vaccine, its development process and the rationale for its use. Engaging these leaders and building trust are crucial steps into the intersection of religion and vaccination.

• Holly Seale is a Senior Lecturer at UNSW. She has previously received funding from NHMRC and from vaccine manufacturers for investigator-driven research. She is Deputy Chair of the Collaboration on Social Science and Immunisation. She does not hold any religious affiliation or funding, nor endorse any religious organisation.
• The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of CathNews.

The Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill 2019 passed the Legislative Assembly on August 8 by a vote of 59 to 31.

"If a civilisation is to be judged by how it treats its weakest members, New South Wales failed spectacularly today," commented Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP. Read more

Making good his statement, Fisher has publicly committed the Archdiocese of Sydney to a pilot programme aimed at ridding the archdiocese's services, schools and parishes of slavery-tainted goods and services.

The pilot program Fisher is referring to is the fruit of work the Archdiocese of Sydney began last year.

It started with a fact-finding Antislavery Task Force that assessed the archdiocese's reliance on dubious suppliers.

The task force eventually established a response that included anti-slavery diocesan-wide procurement guidelines, anti-slavery education for officials charged with procurement and parish families, and welfare services for victims of trafficking or slavery.

John McCarthy QC, a former Australian ambassador to the Holy See, says victims of modern slavery are everywhere and in every industrial sector.

Because of the extent of the supply chains that eventually reach Catholic institutions, the possible exposure of the church to modern slavery is enormous.

McCarthy says the Catholic Church in Australia is both the largest employer and the largest procurer of goods and services in the country outside the public sector.

He says as one-in-five Australian children are educated in Catholic schools and one-in-10 hospital patients and elderly care residents receive care in Catholic health facilities, ridding the church's supply lines of slavery should have a meaningful impact in Australia.

Given this, he wonders what the impact would be like if the global Catholic Church committed itself to purging slave-produced goods from its supply chains.

Source

• America Magazine
• Image: Everything Girls Love

The archbishops say Catholic educators are concerned non-government schools are starting term three with no idea about how much funding they would receive from the Turnbull government in 2019. Read more

At present Australia is waiting for the results on a referendum on same sex marriage and Parliament is considering legalising euthanasia. The bishops will discuss these themes at the festival. Read more

At his installation Mass last week, Archbishop Anthony Fisher vowed to improve the Church's record on safeguarding children.

He said the Church would emerge from a period of intense public scrutiny about clerical child abuse "humbler, more compassionate and spiritually regenerated".

Archbishop Fisher apologised for sexual abuse committed by clergy, spoke of survivors'
"harrowing experiences" and the "shameful deeds of some clergy".

He also mentioned "serious failures of some leaders to respond".

The Catholic Church in Australia has been grilled at a Royal Commission on abuse, as well as at various state level inquiries.

Continue reading

In an opinion piece on abc.net, Archbishop-elect Anthony Fisher wrote that "modernity struggles with any kind of love that goes beyond feelings".

"People today are less and less willing to commit, for the long haul, to another person or a small community of persons, come what may, even when the loving is hard," he added.

It is this "fundamental problem" that faces the family, rather than the "hot button" issues in the media during the synod on the family, the archbishop stated.

Factors contributing to the "shrinkage and fragmentation" of the modern family include urbanisation, industrialisation and a view of the institution as being founded solely on the affections of the couple for each other.

Archbishop-elect Fisher wrote that there are some positives in the modern outlook, such as greater respect for freedom and the equality of the sexes.

But when "concepts of love and sexuality are unmoored from religious values and mores . . . major stress points become evident".

These include: "disconnection of domestic relations from marriage; disconnection of sexuality from love and procreation; and the relegation of the family to the private sphere".

Archbishop-elect Fisher stated that the results are plain to see.

"In our grandparents' day, nearly everyone was married; now fewer than half are.

"Of those who ever give marriage a try, it's generally only after a long period of experimentation and cohabitation, even though this radically reduces marital sticking power," he wrote.

"Many adults think children are an optional extra for their marriage.

"Many children grow up without the experience of a Mum and Dad committed to each other and to them over the long haul. "

Archbishop-elect Fisher wrote that the memory of a genuine marriage culture remains, but sometimes this manifests itself in the phenomenon of serial monogamy.

Sources

• ABC
• Image: Catholicism Pure and Simple

In his first news conference last week, Archbishop-elect Anthony Fisher, OP, said he was determined to do everything he could to make sure the abuse didn't happen again.

To the survivors of abuse and to the Church's youth, Archbishop Fisher said: "To both of them I say, no excuses, no cover-ups. I am ashamed and I'm sorry for where we've failed you in the past."

He said victims have to be put first.

"It's been harrowing to listen to the stories of the survivors of abuse as I have done here as Bishop of Parramatta," he said.

"The Catholic Church in Australia is going through a period of public scrutiny and self-examination," he said.

"I hope it will emerge from this purified, humbler, more compassionate and spiritually regenerated."

But victims' advocates in Australia believe the new archbishop will be little different in this area from his predecessor, the combative Cardinal George Pell.

Victims' advocates cited "callous" comments Fisher made at World Youth Day in 2008, when he said the parents of two abuse victims, one of whom who had subsequently committed suicide, were "dwelling angrily on old wounds".

The Vice-Chancellor of the Australian Catholic University, Professor Greg Craven, said Fisher was referring to journalists in that remark.

But Nicky Davis of SNAP said: "Many survivors believe the only place where we will be first under Bishop Fisher is in media statements, mentioned dismissively with an insincere apology, and then ignored."

A former lawyer, Archbishop-elect Fisher was ordained as a Dominican priest in 1991.

He was appointed auxiliary bishop in Sydney in 2003 and has been Bishop of Parramatta since 2010.

He also founded the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family in Melbourne and was co-ordinator of WYD2008.

Archbishop-elect Fisher, who was appointed to his new role last week by Pope Francis, said he wants to build on the strong foundation left by Cardinal Pell.

The new archbishop said the Church has a role in helping a nation of migrants live together.

One day after being named archbishop, he said he would try to meet Muslim leaders in Sydney after the anti-terror raids.

He said faith leaders had to play a role in ensuring calm and harmony.

Sources

• The Guardian
• Sydney Morning Herald
• ABC
• SBS
• Image: SBS