Archbishop of Sydney

Catholic Schools

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
2/10/2006

Catholic schools are the most distinctive contribution of Catholics to Australian life, as one in five young Australians are now educated in them.

This provides an effective rejoinder to those who are tempted to think that religion is finished, as Catholic school numbers have increased by 201,000 since 1965.  In fact the percentage of young Aussies in Church schools has increased significantly over recent years with most of this increase from low fee Protestant schools.

Generally, serious tension no longer exist today within the overall school community, unlike fifty or more years ago when low level hostility between the State school and Catholic school students often bubbled up to the surface, with an occasional open skirmish.

One reason for this improvement is that 43% of Catholics are educated in State schools and 5% of young Catholics attend other Christian schools.  This reflects the improved ecumenical relationships between the churches, the financial pressures on low income families and explicit parental search for high academic standards and the multiplicity of scholarships available for talented students.

Last week the National Catholic Education Commission held its five yearly conference at Darling Harbour, with more than five hundred educators attending from every state.

The morale was high, as the systems are well administered and the schools are overwhelmingly happy and productive centres of learning.  All were aware of our changing circumstances.  There is a succession of new challenges today’s students will face in their lifetimes through globalization, an ageing population and technological developments, not least in communications.

Much of the discussion was centred on the research report on 13-29 year old Australians “The Spirit of Generation Y” which detailed a complex and turbulent world of often incompatible religious views.

Young Australians generally are more superstitious than sceptical with a quarter believing that stars and planets affect peoples’ fates and others believing in the possibility of communicating directly with the dead, while 29% believe in reincarnation, that they had lived previously.  Can all these have been serious?

The most significant sign of changing times was a keynote lecture from Professor Kamar Omiah, a Malaysian Muslim, who lectures at the International Islamic University in Malaysia and is actively involved in inter-religious dialogue.

She spoke wisely and beautifully on the importance of commitment to one’s own religion while understanding and respecting others.

Reminding us that all the monotheist religions worship God and practise religion, Dr. Omah insisted that it is a bad mistake to worship our religion and forget God!

She made no apology for her commitment to Islam, explaining that we should not forget our differences but respect them, while rejoicing in the similarities we can find.

While believing there was little possibility of agreement on theology and liturgy, there was more hope for dialogue on ethics, as the seven deadly sins are common to all religions!  In her view Australia and New Zealand are models of multi-culturalism and multi-religiosity.  Our task is to keep it this way.