The position of the Catholic Church in Australia has been seriously weakened by the extraordinary remarks and interventions of the vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University, Professor Zlatko Skrbis, says Australian columnist Greg Sheridan. Sheridan was referring to a speech by Joe de Bruyn, who used three examples to reflect on how to live a Read more
Australian Catholic University has welcomed the Victorian Government’s commitment to an explicit teaching and learning approach, including structured phonics, in classrooms. ACU executive dean of education and arts, Mary Ryan, said Victorian Education Minister Ben Carroll’s announcement to mandate the practices as part of an update to the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model was a Read more
Women with Catholic employers are well-supported financially, with a smaller gender pay gap than their peers. Released on 27 February, the first national Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) report also notes some say their employers could do more to uphold all their employees’ dignity. The WGEA investigated about 5,000 companies, each employing more than 100 Read more
Australian Liberal MP Julian Leeser has urged his country’s Catholics to be a stronger voice in public life and not underestimate their influence for good. In a powerful address at the Australian Catholic University’s Melbourne campus on 11 October Mr Leeser (pictured), known for his Jewish faith, stressed that the Catholic Church possesses a unique Read more
The idea of a Catholic University has been foremost in my mind in recent days. Catholic means “universal”, but what makes a university Catholic? Greater intellects than mine have considered this question before. John Henry Newman — a saint of the Catholic Church and the patron saint of the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy at Read more
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 Read more
The Vice-Chancellor of the Australian Catholic University, Gregory Craven, says the legal action against Cardinal George Pell was in reality “an atrocious and deeply frightening” campaign run by “The Victorian Police and the ABC”. On Tuesday, sex abuse convictions laid against Cardinal Pell were overturned by Australia’s highest court after he spent 405 days in Read more
Pope Francis I’s weekend announcement of a new council, the Group of Eight (G8), to advise him on Catholic Church governance and reforming the Church’s central administration (the Roman Curia) has been called the “most important step in the history of the church for the past 10 centuries” by Church historian Alberto Melloni. The group includes Australian Read more
Research into the behaviour of Catholic clergy treated by the Encompass Australasia clinic in New South Wales was under way when it was closed in 2008, according to a Fairfax Media report. The clergy sex abuse study, titled ”Sexual Boundary Violations Among Catholic Religious”, was conducted under the approval of the human research ethics committee Read more
Australian Catholic University vice-chancellor Professor Greg Craven has called for a renewed age of Catholic public intellectualism to promote and defend Church values and teaching. Catholic intellectuals should weigh into public debate, along with the bishops, he said. “If you send an aircraft carrier out without a destroyer flotilla, you deserve everything you get,” he Read more