Sheridan was referring to a speech by Joe de Bruyn, who used three examples to reflect on how to live a Catholic life. Joe de Bruyn is a retired trade unionist, Labour figure and Campion College board member.

Sheridan says that "at the first mention of the word 'abortion' a walkout began, which included a majority of graduands and a majority of university staff present".

"A serious vice-chancellor would have attended the speech himself" wrote Sheridan.

He is calling on the vice-chancellor to apologise to de Bruyn for the rudeness shown him and reiterate ACU's commitment as a Catholic institution to Catholic teaching.

University offers counselling

However, the university later offered counselling to those affected by the speech.

It said it was "deeply disappointed the speech was not more befitting of a graduation ceremony" and that it would refund ticket fees for graduates.

de Bruyn was being presented with an honorary degree by the Australian Catholic University.

In the speech, de Bruyn claimed abortion was the "single biggest killer of human beings in the world" and referred to is as a "tragedy that must be ended".

Living a Catholic faith in the public square

However Monica Doumit, writing in the Catholic Weekly, says that media reports were wrong to characterise de Bruyn's address as an inappropriate, self-indulgent rant about issues of life and human sexuality that had little relevance to a graduation ceremony.

Contrary to how it was portrayed, Doumit says de Bruyn's speech was not just a rehashing of the Catholic position on contentious issues, but a reflection on how to live one's Catholic faith in the public sphere.

De Bruyn told the graduands that for more than 40 years he had worked in a union that covered warehousing, retail and fast-food companies, fighting for the rights and wages of some of the lowest-paid workers in the country.

He explained that bringing these aspects of his Catholic faith to his work and advocacy was not controversial, but that bringing other aspects of his Catholic faith was contentious.

To illustrate his point, de Bruyn offered three examples: abortion, IVF and marriage. His point was summed up in his concluding remarks:

"As happened to me, you will be faced with issues in your professional and personal lives where the general opinion of the majority of the population is at odds with the teaching of the Church.

"My experience is that many Catholics cave in to peer pressure. They think their professional lives will be harmed if they promote the teaching of the Church. My experience is that this is not so.

"Despite my view on some issues being at odds with the views of my contemporaries over the past 50 years, it never affected my career at all."

Listening Church

Australia's new cardinal-designate, Mykola Bychok, has backed de Bruyn's anti-abortion speech.

"Freedom of speech is an important pillar of our society, so is freedom of religion'' he said.

"We must be free to say that which we believe to be the truth as passed to us by Our Lord. Jesus says to us ‘Be not afraid'.

"I grew up at a time when my church was banned and persecuted in Ukraine. A church of martyrs and confessors.

"We survived this persecution because people loved God and their church. They were courageous and passed on the faith to their children and grandchildren.''

Cardinal-designate Bychok said he did not believe there was any division within the Church on the sanctity of life.

While Pope Francis told the Church to be a "listening Church'', that did not mean others did not have to listen to Christ.

Sources

• The Australian
• ABC
• The Catholic Weekly
• The Australian

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 win for the state's school children.

"As Australia's largest provider of teachers, we are thrilled that the commitment we've made in our undergraduate and postgraduate teaching degrees, as well as our microcredential courses, to strengthen the focus on systematic phonics instruction and explicit teaching is being backed by this Victorian Government decision," Professor Ryan said.

Read More

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 people, to determine the gender pay gap data.

Catholic workplaces consistently reported a lower gender pay gap than the 19 percent national median gender pay gap.

The WGEA defined the gender pay gap as the overall difference between women's and men's average weekly full-time equivalent earnings in an organisation.

Catholic employers

Among those the WGEA investigated were the Australian Catholic University (ACU), Caritas Australia and the Archdiocese of Sydney.

The ACU reported a median pay gap of 14.5 per cent, Caritas 13.1 per cent and the Archdiocese chancery 12.2 per cent.

Many Catholic schools, clubs, health and welfare agencies showed smaller or negligible gaps.

In an employer statement Caritas, with a workforce comprising almost 70 per cent of women in the reporting period, said factors like parental leave options contribute to its pay gap.

"While reducing the gender pay gap can be complex, it is a critical objective for Caritas Australia" a spokesperson for the Catholic charity says.

"We wholeheartedly commit to further foster an inclusive workplace where everyone has equal opportunity to thrive."

ACU recently appointed its first Pro Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous) Kelly Humphrey.

A spokesperson says ACU's action plan to remove barriers to equity and diversity was recently awarded the Athena Swan Bronze Award. It is a national accreditation for gender equality in education.

"Analysis of salaries on a level-by-level basis shows pay is close to parity for women and men at most levels for academic and professional staff" the ACU spokesperson says.

"However, for some senior staff positions which are contract-based, a higher gender pay gap is evident."

The Archdiocese of Sydney' says it has worked hard in recent years to improve the representation of women at senior levels.

This effort has seen the first female member being included in the Archdiocese's curia - the governance body which assists the Archbishop.

It has also improved parental leave access, workplace flexibility and other entitlements for all employees, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese says.

"There has been a conscious shift towards improving our support and recognition of women, which is necessary."

The spokesperson says while there is still work to do, the archbishop is paying close interest.

He is particularly interested in finding out what is being done and what is still to be done to improve the lives of women and family lives of all who work at the archdiocese.

Abut half the employees in senior leadership roles at the chancery are women.

One says that while her situation in Australia is different from that of many women in other countries, she has always felt respected and heard, given opportunities and had her contribution valued at the chancery.

"Working for the equality of women aligns with Catholic social teaching in which the dignity of every person is upheld" she says.

Source

• Catholic Weekly

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 position in Australia's societal fabric.

"Australia needs Catholic voices," Leeser declared.

"The Catholic Church is one of the few institutions in our national life that has adherents from every ethnic background, every socio-economic group, every point on the political spectrum.

"It has the potential to be the great intermediary in our national life," the Federal MP for Berowra added.

Leeser noted that the Catholic Church comprises followers from diverse backgrounds, socio-economic groups and the entire political spectrum, making it a potential bridge in the nation's life.

Leeser further acknowledged the church's transformative role in improving lives, bringing faith and hope to millions.

"Sometimes I think the church underrates its own strength and doesn't see the unique contribution it can make to Australia and that Australia is better for it making."

Preserving human dignity

Mr Leeser paid tribute to Emeritus Professor Greg Craven, ACU's former vice-chancellor and president, as one of the great influences on his life and a model of "principled decision-making."

At the synod, Francis asked for reflection on how to stay in community despite differences and how to interact with others with whom it seems at odds, These are questions "which Greg has been grappling with for years" Leeser said.

Along with calling for a stronger Catholic voice, Leeser's speech highlighted the need for the Church to advocate for preserving human dignity, citing the ACT's proposed assisted dying laws as an example.

While acknowledging the challenges the Catholic Church faces in contemporary society, including attacks on religious freedom and past mistakes, Leeser affirmed the church's role in upholding the sanctity of life, the dignity of the human person and freedom of conscience.

Sources

Catholic Weekly

CathNews New Zealand

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 Australian Catholic University (ACU) — is perhaps the greatest among them.

Newman's eloquent articulation of a universal Catholic liberal arts ideal claimed traditions from the Oxford of his happy youth.

He foresaw an institution which could explore harmonies but also probe tensions; which was committed to truth; which would dedicate itself to the pursuit of virtue and the celebration of Catholic culture; which embodied the simple love of learning; which harnessed both faith and reason in its wide-ranging engagement with those who lie beyond the reach of Church teachings.

As first rector of the Catholic University of Ireland, Newman developed and realised his vision for learning, enriching young lives and passionately defending the idea of knowledge for its own sake. All this was the science of humanity.

I have thought a great deal about Newman's vision and its importance now that my own Catholic University told us it is to make devastating cuts to teaching and research staff, and to the University's ability to engage in knowledge creation as Newman understood it.

Some 32 full-time humanities posts are being permanently disestablished.

Other staff will retire and will not be replaced.

More staff on temporary contracts will see those not renewed.

History and philosophy — core disciplines of the Catholic tradition — are the disciplines worst affected.

Theology, literature, political science, and sociology will suffer as well from these cuts.

The University claims that this is a critical moment when its academic model requires change to ensure it can meet long-term operational needs in an economically sustainable manner.

It says it wishes to align education and research better to its major thematic directions and operational needs. But it also just does not have the money.

ACU went from surpluses of over $30 million in 2020 and 2021 to a deficit of $8 million in 2022 and a forecast deficit exceeding $30 million for 2023. Critics might ask: where did the money go?

ACU says it no longer has the students or the revenues to sustain the interest in humanities fields it was investing in as recently as the start of 2023.

But the scale and speed of its retrenchment are scarcely precedented in the history of the humanities anywhere.

The effect on the lives of individual academic employees will be a hard cross to bear.

Many ACU staff moved heaven and earth to heed the University's call to speak truth.

Some have been teaching here for years and are now forced to compete with cherished colleagues to retain their jobs.

Others left tenured positions in Britain, America, or other parts of Australia to join ACU. Only recently arrived, some will now be marooned on this island continent with no loved ones, little financial support, and no valid visa.

ACU brought over their possessions, but no one will foot the bill for their lonely return to a place of origin.

The moral tragedy of this situation is grave. It is a deplorable, heart-breaking situation which raises many questions.

Where did ACU lose its way?

Should not Newman's vision have held even in the brave new world we find ourselves in?

A twenty-first-century Catholic University cannot always conform to his golden ideal.

It must work with the secular: with research metrics, performance indicators, funding requirements, and all the knowledge-creating bureaucracy's other paraphernalia.

Those who have made decisions about our lives and futures repeatedly emphasise this.

Yet Newman's vision recognised something which risks being lost in all this: the exceptional difficulty of quantifying truth's value.

Is there a litmus test for validity of truth?

What even is a truth?

How is one truth to be separated from any other?

Is the authenticity of truth to be measured in terms of the number of pages needed to describe it or the frequency of its citation?

What of its impact factor or potential for commercialisation?

Only an unworldly ivory-tower dweller could remain self-cocooned from these questions. However, only a fool would deny that truth is not narrowly confined: it has a universality, a Catholicity.

At a practical level, truth must also be less abstract.

It must be found in the experiments scientists run, the accounts of the past historians give, arguments that philosophers reason.

A modern Catholic University must embrace all such modes of truth-telling which, properly constituted and understood, complement and inspire one another.

As Newman recognised, the Catholic University also needs to confidently embrace the daily concerns, perspectives, and languages — technical and everyday — of a wide world of stakeholders from across a global communion and academy.

ACU retains its Biblical and Early Christian Studies programmes and Theology and Religion.

It will spare a small number of history and political science posts in areas of perceived teaching "need".

But a significant question remains: is this sufficient to fulfil Newman's shining concept?

Will this lead to the impoverishment of Catholic intellectual life?

As yet incomplete research projects to be abandoned by the University, and perhaps lost to the world at large, include pioneering studies on the concept of home and problem of homelessness, on the origins of conspiracy theory, on transgender Australia and Queer Medievalism, on AI safety, and epistemic humility.

My colleagues work on understandings of gender, on stories of migration, on the entanglements of empire, and on ecologies of experience.

Such projects, disciplines, and those who pursue them, ought to be utterly central to Catholic intellectual life.

They search the innermost corners of hearts and consciences; they interrogate pasts known or unknown; they challenge perceptions of what we think we know about stories, artefacts, identities, ideas.

Charity, a primary Catholic virtue, should begin at home for the Catholic institution — and where better than through a detailed study of Catholic contributions to hospitality and treatment of the displaced and destitute?

Sexuality has been perhaps the area of the Church's greatest influence on human behaviour and the human condition. Is it not entirely fitting — indeed, essential — that a Catholic University fosters deep engagement with the difficult questions which inevitably emerge from every manner of expression of human bodily desires?

What also of our relationships to generations past and future? To art and beauty? To our fragile earthly and celestial environments?

The list of questions that were being asked by these abandoned projects is sad and long.

My intrepid ACU colleagues have pursued truths in relation to such topics and such questions without fear or favour.

They have interrogated ideas that every Catholic must ponder every day and they have answered them in language that bridges the secular-spiritual and faith-reason divides.

I suspect some see these endeavours as a threat.

They are afraid of an inexact science in which conclusions cannot be quantified and are unappreciative of irreconcilable disagreements that nevertheless benefit from being aired. But such discomfort and disagreement are part of Catholicism's universal, all-embracing identity.

As Catholics, we must all recognise that.

We must also recognise that Catholic education, especially one that benefits from the largesse of the state, is universal and for everybody. That means articulating truths in ways understandable to those of faith and those of none.

What will be lost? For what gain?

I grieve for what might have been.

And I fear there can be no optimistic chord on which to end this lament.

ACU is the second-ranked Catholic university in the Anglophone world in philosophy, and is tied for sixth-place in philosophy of religion (according to the Philosophical Gourmet Report).

Once ACU has gone down its chosen path, will it be able to recover, much less retain, its standing in the world of learning, nationally or internationally?

It seems doubtful.

Which scholar will henceforth want to settle in Australia to tell truths if it means giving up security for precarity?

Who will dare speak truth to power when that power may strip them of their livelihood in the blink of an eye?

• Miles Pattenden is, for the time being, Senior Research Fellow in Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the Australian Catholic University.

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

On Tuesday, sex abuse convictions laid against Cardinal Pell were overturned by Australia's highest court after he spent 405 days in jail following an initial ruling which found him guilty in 2018.

Mr Craven said for months the Victorian police would give interviews speaking of "charges that would be made" and referring to complainants as victims. Read more

The group includes Australian cardinal George Pell, who effectively represents Oceania in its concerns. These concerns could include our distance from decision-making in Rome, the appointment of bishops, and the understanding of our region. More general concerns for the G8 may include making the central administration more efficient, improving social communications, and recruiting more professional lay people, including women.

The decision to create the new advisory group seems a positive move to address the various scandals that have gripped the Vatican. Yet, the G8 has larger implications. It is formed in the context of a long-running debate about collegiality amongst the bishops and emerges from discussions that occurred before the recent conclave that elected Pope Francis.

"Collegiality" is a term used by Catholics to refer to the shared responsibility for the care of the Church that is held by the College of Bishops, with the pope (who is bishop of Rome) as head. Much debate over collegiality centres on the balance of power, responsibility and cooperation, particularly amongst the pope and the bishops.

While there have been some forums designed to promote collegiality since the Second Vatican Council, some bishops have been reported as feeling somewhat marginalised as power has been centralised. Nevertheless, for the bishops themselves, collegiality not only concerns power and identity, but more importantly, the mission of the Church: that the members of Church (especially the leadership) are working together - not at cross-purposes - to advance the cause of Christianity in the world. Continue reading

Sources

• Joel Hodge in The Conversation
• Image: Vassallomalta

Joel Hodge is a lecturer in theology at Australian Catholic University.

The clergy sex abuse study, titled "Sexual Boundary Violations Among Catholic Religious", was conducted under the approval of the human research ethics committee of Australian Catholic University.

Encompass Australasia's former chief clinician, Dr Geraldine Taylor, said the project involving the files of clergy treated by her organisation was "incomplete" and only in the data-gathering stage when Encompass closed.

She said the research had been "archival in nature" and examined de-identified files collected by Encompass Australasia between the time it was established in 1997 and 2004 in order to "to contribute to an understanding of child sex abuse".

Dr Taylor said the aim of the project had been to explore "factors like attachment styles, personality attributes etc. of offenders".

"Researchers did not have access to client identities, demographics or content, therefore reporting issues [to police] were not relevant," she said.

An ACU spokeswoman said national rules governing human research required approval by a human research ethics committee.

"In this case Encompass, which had no HREC of its own, sought ethical approval from the HREC of ACU," she said.

Encompass Australasia, located at Kincumber on the NSW Central Coast, was established by the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference and the Australian Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes.

It accepted about 1100 clergy and lay people for "assessment" between 1997 and 2008 to determine their suitability to work with children and vulnerable adults. But several hundred clergy were treated for serious psychosexual problems during that period, including paedophilia.

Fairfax Media said Encompass Australasia's clinicians also treated patients suffering from depression, alcoholism, drug abuse and other mood disorders, and its clinical programme was well regarded.

Sources:

Sydney Morning Herald

Image: SBS

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 told guests at a dinner at the Sheraton Hotel on Saturday to mark the assembly of the Order of Malta.

"We've always been a nursing and military order; is it perhaps that we began to reflect on the notion of military fervour," Prof Craven said, "acknowledging that the battle today is intellectual not physical ... we, as an order, have a fund of intellect and resource that as a base can be used intellectually as well as physically."

In the past, he said, there have been great English speaking intellectuals, such as Chesterton and Waugh in England and BA Santamaria in Australia.

"We tend to rely on the bishops to carry the whole weight of the argument in public," he said.

"But If you look around the lay Church for Catholic public intellectuals, where are they? How many are there?

"Is it not remarkable that we are the only organisation in Australia that when media seek a comment on Catholicism up pops an opponent of Catholicism.

"It's a bit like Julia Gillard being asked to explain the Coalition policy on climate change as favourably as she can."

Prof Craven said he does not see the Church as losing in the public debate.

"And I don't think our opponents see themselves as winning; otherwise they would not be so frightened or so aggressive. Or they wouldn't be seeing the Catholic Church as their chief stumbling block, which is precisely what it should be.

"We should revel in their opposition and take it for what it is."

Sources

• The Catholic Weekly
• Image: Australian Catholic University