Editorial

ACU theology: prompt action needed

Peter Westmore

Contents - Mar 2001 - Buy a copy now Editorial: ACU theology: prompt action needed - Peter Westmore New cardinals to continue John Paul II's agenda - AD2000 Report News: The Church Around the World Seminary numbers up in orthodox US dioceses - Michael S. Rose How Archbishop Pell will implement Statement on Women in the Church Elizabeth Anscombe, R.I.P. - Robert P. George ACU theology: how orthodox, how accountable? - Michael Gilchrist Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter ordinations How monastic life can reinvigorate the Church - Fr Peter Knowles OP Cardinal Ratzinger on 'Third Secret' of Fatima What we must teach our children: Archbishop Chaput - Archbishop Charles J. Chaput New Catholic radio program to start in WA The surprise Cardinal: Fr Avery Dulles SJ - Zenit News Service Letters: Euthanasia in S.A. (letter) - Errol P. Duke Letters: Science and Christianity (letter) - Scot Chaston Letters: Enneagram workshop (letter) - Br Con Moloney CFC Letters: Church doctrine? (letter) - Frank Mobbs Letters: Anti-Catholicism (letter) - Frank Bellet Letters: Old liturgical books (letter) - Frank Carleton Letters: Latin (letter) - Karmenu Attard Letters: Supernatural order (letter) - Fr G.H. Duggan SM Letters: Misguided compassion (letter) Letters: G.K. Chesterton (letter) - Nancy McKelson Letters: EWTN tapes (letter) - John Lovegrove Letters: Vocations and orthodoxy (letter) - John Schmid Letters: Third Rite in Toowoomba (letter) - Mark Power Letters: Poem to Our Lady - Marion Craig Letters: Appeal from India (letter) - Kevin L. Fernandes Letters: Catholic education (letter) - Daniel Bryce Letters: Boredom? (letter) - Josephine Landsberg Books: Come To The Father: An Invitation to Share the Catholic Faith, Aidan Nichols OP - Christopher Quinn (reviewer) Books: Streams of Living Water: Autobiography of a Charismatic Leader - Anthony Cappello (reviewer) Books: Why the hopes of the Council Fathers of Vatican II are yet to be realised - Michael Daniel (reviewer) Books: Why I Am A Priest: Thirty Success Stories, ed. Boadt, Hunt - Katie Lindorff (reviewer) Books: The Pange Lingua Hymnal, compiled by Paul Newton - Fr Gregory Pritchard PP (reviewer) Reflection: Liturgy in the true spirit of Vatican II - Ralph McInerny

Australian Catholic University is responsible for training a large proportion of the teachers who staff Catholic primary and secondary schools around the country, and therefore the theology courses provided to its students inevitably will be of general concern to the Catholic community.

This is also a universal issue, evidenced in the declaration Ex Corde Ecclesiae (1990), by Pope John Paul II. In it, he instructed bishops' conferences to ensure that teachers and theologians in Catholic universities and other higher education institutes were faithful to Church teachings, as defined by the Magisterium.

As nothing had been done up to the time of the Australian bishops' ad limina visits late in 1998, coinciding with the Synod of Oceania, the agreed statement of the heads of various Vatican congregations and Australian bishops' representatives affirmed that this issue would be addressed. This Statement of Conclusions was later endorsed by the Bishops Conference in the first half of 1999.

Two years later, the need for action is more pressing than ever, judging from the crisis of faith afflicting at least some of ACU's theology courses (see page 8) and a substantial proportion of its graduating students (see AD2000, May 2000, p. 3).

Time is fast running out, as the percentage of Catholic school leavers practising the Faith diminishes, along with the practice rate among Catholic parents and teachers. If this cycle is allowed to continue indefinitely, the Church in Australia will become an empty shell spiritually in the not-too-distant future.

Peter Westmore, Publisher (E-mail - freedom@connexus.net.au)

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 14 No 2 (March 2001), p. 2