YOUR correspondent, L M Wright (CL 18/4/04), calls us to examine our priorities in allocating the resources available to the Church in advancing the Gospel message.
In particular, your correspondent raises questions about the Catholic education system and the development of the university (Australian Catholic University, ACU) here in Brisbane. It is sensible to review priorities from time to time and to ask those to whom resources are directed to give an account of their stewardship. As far as the university is concerned, I would want to assure your correspondent and your readers that we are very conscious of our obligation to contribute to the mission of the Church.
To give just two examples, ACU has for some time here in Brisbane and on its other campuses sought to work with indigenous communities to improve the opportunities for education for their people. ACU has, as a result, an enviable record among Australian universities in terms of the recruitment, retention, graduation, and employment of indigenous students. Further afield, the university is working with agencies in East Timor, in PNG, and on the Thai-Burma border to improve educational infrastructure and create educational opportunities for people in those countries. In all this it is motivated by its commitment to Catholic principles of social justice and the recognition of the dignity of all people.
Not so long ago the bulk of staff in the Catholic education system, both in Church schools and those engaged in catechesis in the state system, were drawn from religious orders that ensured, through their novitiate training, the spiritual and intellectual formation in the faith of their members. This was true of nursing staff in Catholic hospitals and for many involved in welfare agencies and was true of the vast majority of those in positions of management and leadership. Sadly this is no longer true and we face the future with a necessarily smaller contribution by religious orders to the life of the Church.
The challenge is to the laity and to the preparation of those among it who will work in professional roles and in leadership and management in our schools, hospitals, welfare organisations, and in the community more generally. This requires technical expertise that university education can provide but, importantly, a commitment to our Catholic identity and the values that entails. A Catholic university, in which this identity and value system suffuse the institution and in which theology and religious education take their rightful place beside their secular counterparts, is arguably the best environment for the education that is required for the work of the Church to be advanced in the new millennium.
The Holy Father in his Apostolic Constitution on Catholic Universities, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, says: ‘I would like to manifest my deep conviction that a Catholic university is without any doubt one of the best instruments that the Church offers to our age which is searching for certainty and wisdom. Having the mission of bringing the Good News to everyone, the Church should never fail to interest itself in this institution. By research and teaching, Catholic universities assist the Church in the manner most appropriate to modern times to find cultural treasures both old and new, nova et vetera, according to the words of Jesus (Mt 13: 52)’. Here at ACU we have studied the Pope’s words and the criteria he has set for Catholic universities to ensure that we are one with the Church’s mission.
PROFESSOR JOHN O’GORMAN
Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Quality & Outreach)
Australian Catholic University
Banyo, Qld
