Not just Catholic Higher Education but all of Higher Education in Australia at present is awaiting the outcome of a review being undertaken by the Federal Government which provides a large part of the funding and sets the policy direction for education in this country. We'll know more of the implications of this governmental review next year. Catholic Higher Education also seems to have been a particular focus of attention of Cardinal George Pell who was reputedly charged by the late John Paul II with "cleaning up the Church in Australia". While the strength of the Aussie dollar is posing something of a problem for most universities as the number of full-fee-paying overseas students shrinks quite dramatically, there is much speculation about in what is left of the thinking Catholic Church in Australia that the strength of the Australian economy has proved a boon for Australia's cardinal. In today's essay, Fr Daniel Donovan examines some of the evidence of what is going on and speculates, perhaps not quite as grandly as the speculation His Eminence seems to be engaged in, on some of the possibilities that seem to be emerging. Do the other bishops of Australia have much input into the policy direction for Catholic Education? Do they care? Do they have the power to do anything?

Buoyant following the international launch of Chez Pell in Rome, the Cardinal has not lost any time in exchanging his mitre and party razzmatazz for the hard hat and property development. With the Federal Government poised for its review of Higher Education in 2012, there has been a flurry of activity at Central Park (the old Carlton & United Brewery site) on Broadway between Central Square and Abercrombie St, Chippendale. Strategically, the University of Notre Dame Australia (UNDA) Campus at St Benedict's Church is located just across Abercrombie St and in the light of the 2012 Review would certainly be interested in the possibilities which the Central Park Development would afford the University to consolidate and expand its campus on Broadway.

For UNDA, its involvement with the developers of Central Park, Frasers Property, will allow it to access the emerging educational hub of Sydney alongside the University of Sydney, the University of Technology (UTS), Training and Further Education (TAFE) College, and a Campus of Boston University (BU), with their educational facilities and student infrastructures. Furthermore the site is accessible on foot from Central and Redfern stations while buses from greater Sydney and the suburbs deliver students to the door. With the Catholic Education Office (CEO) located just up Parramatta Rd in Leichhardt and the possibilities for UNDA students to cross register in courses at the other institutions there is little doubt that this profile will impress the razor gangs who inevitably stalk such governmental Reviews looking for financial savings and resource sharing possibilities.

Accordingly, the decision of the Archdiocese of Sydney to close the Catholic Institute of Sydney (CIS) at its current site 99 Albert Rd Strathfield and to re-locate the Faculty at UNDA will confer upon that University a prestigious honour of being a Pontifical Institute. Through incorporating CIS, UNDA has certainly, enhanced its profile and thrown down the gauntlet to other institutions offering theological education and training for ministry across Australia. Even at this early point, there are serious questions about the composition and survival of the Sydney College of Divinity (SCD) now that the Catholic Institute of Sydney (CIS) has been "incorporated into" UNDA which is neither a member nor an affiliated member of SCD.[1] Of greater concern would be the stifling of theological debate and research were Australian theology to fall under the mantle of Cardinal Pell and return to the scholastic approach to theology[2] and priestly formation characterised by legalism and the manuals of moral theology. Also to be considered in this context, would be the almost certain incorporation of the Australian Catholic University (ACU) into UNDA thereby placing priestly education and formation in Queensland under the oversight of the Sydney based University. Indeed the incorporation of ACU into UNDA could well put all theology and formation of Australian priests in the hands of the Archbishop of Sydney? The 2012 Governmental Review has provided Cardinal Pell with the chance to consolidate Australian theology and priest formation under his command but it would be unlikely to attract Government research dollars!

Generally, anyone who has kept abreast of the hype surrounding the Bradley Report[3] will be aware of the bottom line which is funding and the competition among the forty or so universities to attract those research dollars. It is inevitable that some of these institutions will not survive because the criteria would appear to favour the bigger and more entrenched Universities. On the other hand the Government will be looking for marketable research and financial returns from world sales. Therefore the research of Professor Glenda Halliday[4] into Parkinson's Disease would naturally attract greater funding than Religion or the Humanities because medical breakthroughs have a ready world market which translates into dollars.

Professor Peter Hoj, Vice Chancellor of the University of South Australia (Uni SA) has argued in an article in The Australian earlier this year that the universities should be divided into "research Universities" and "teaching Universities" because there would not be enough funding for all universities and that established research institutions would be deprived of adequate research funding.[5] While this suggestion ensures that there would be a larger share of the research pie to divide among the research Universities; it denies the smaller Universities a research component which is intrinsic to a university's profile. Professor Hoj's position is not unlike the pre-Dawkins years when there were Universities and Teachers' Colleges issuing academic degrees with scant funding for or investment in the trades (Technical and Further Education, TAFE). While Professor Hoj's position has a number of pitfalls, it does reveal the rather flat earth thinking of the bigger Universities when it comes to Government funding.

At the same time, Central Queensland University (CQUni) has successfully, attracted at least forty (40) researchers away from the University of South Australia to join its staff. Perhaps this coup by Central Queensland University will alter the research landscape of the bigger Universities in the lead up to 2012 and will be a catalyst for Vice Chancellors like Professor Hoj, to rethink their position and refrain from counting their chickens before they are hatched.

However even with such a "re-think," it will still be hard for the smaller or boutique Universities to develop their profiles to include that marketable research capable of securing Government dollars and returning profits in the global economy. It must still be conceded that those institutions involved in medical and health research, hold a commanding position for a lion's share of the funding in 2012 which is only a matter of days away.

Unfortunately, the increased value of the Australian dollar has resulted in a drop in the number of full fee paying foreign students enrolling in Australian Universities. This crisis for Australian education could not have happened at a worst time with a Government review getting closer by the day and the continuing threat of fallout from the European financial crisis.

The Parish of Darlinghurst was closed by the Archdiocese and land owned by the Parish fronting Victoria St Darlinghurst became the site of UNDA's School of Medicine and Nursing at St Vincent's Hospital. In 2010, Professor Gerard Carroll was appointed Dean of the School but only a matter of months into his tenure he resigned. It would appear that Carroll's efforts to revamp the School, while widely applauded by his peers in the medical profession failed to secure the support of the Vice Chancellor and the University's administration. The failure of the University to support and fund Professor Carroll's initiatives and reforms and his subsequent resignation as Dean will be major problems for the University as it moves toward the 2012 Review. Will the Government fund a Medical School which would appear to be at odds with the medical profession? While Professor Carroll returned to Wagga NSW as a heart specialist, he retains his involvement with the Medical Faculty at New South Wales University (UNSW). Notre Dame would have been well advised to have worked with Professor Carroll who is highly respected by his peers and has the ability to combine the rigours of academic formation with the skills of clinical practice. Professor Carroll furthermore has a unique experience of the problems of practising medicine in rural Australia and negotiating with Government departments to deliver the best outcomes and hospital facilities for patients.

Apart from the issue with Professor Carroll's resignation, the Medical School at UNDA must demonstrate that it has a Research component. While UNDA Medical School can demonstrate collaborate ventures with other institutions, it must be moving toward its own research program. In 2009 therefore a public storm erupted in the newsprint and electronic media when UNDA tried to secure the human tissue holdings from the Lucy Osburn-Nightingale Museum at Sydney Hospital meticulously gathered and documented by the husband and wife pathologists, Doctors Edmond and Patricia Hirst.[6] The work of these pathologists would have provided a basis for ongoing research programs especially their work on tuberculosis, a disease which is on the rise again today.

Researchers at UNDA would be required to restrict their topics and methodologies within guidelines developed by the Catholic Church's Teaching Authority. This is not to deny the importance of Church's contribution in bio-ethical matters to defend the dignity of the human person but it is to highlight a dimension of research not experienced in secular institutions. It could safely be concluded (all things considered) that UNDA has some way to go before it poses a major funding threat to the more established Medical Schools in Australia.

Frasers Centrepoint Limited (FCL) is an Australian subsidiary of Frasers Property Australia Pty Ltd (FPA).[7] Sometime between 2005-2007 Cardinal Pell journied to Singapore and I would like to propose hypothetically that there was an agreement between Frasers Property and/or the Archdiocese of Sydney and/or the trustees of the University of Notre Dame Australia to be part of the "joint venture" between Frasers Property and the Sekisui House Australia Holdings Pty Ltd. Details of a "joint venture agreements" were released in Singapore on July 7 2011 in fact this press release refers to the development as "Sydney's education precinct with over 100,000 students attending UTS, University of Notre Dame, University of Sydney and TAFE campuses nearby."[8]

If the hypothesis of collaboration between Frasers Property and/or the Archdiocese of Sydney and/or trustees of UNDA is correct then there arise a series of pursuant or sub-hypotheses which require answers. Clearly, the UNDA Campus at Broadway requires more teaching space and staff offices, so has UNDA planned with the two Companies named above to develop the "mixed-use" part of Central Park across Abercrombie St, from St Benedict's UNDA Campus to accommodate the University's requirements? Furthermore will the University lease rather than buy these buildings from the Developer, Frasers Property?

Central Park Development. Photo & Story: www.smh.com.au

Secondly when CIS and the theological students currently, situated at Strathfield move to UNDA Campus at Central Park will the Archdiocese lease residences from Sekisui Holdings to accommodate the students? Would the Singapore Companies and the Archdiocese of Sydney (hypothetically) then re-develop the current site of the Good Shepherd Seminary at 50 Abbotsford Rd Strathfield? This would appear to be a possibility because Frasers Property is familiar with the general area around Strathfield-Homebush with plans to develop a 4.9 hectare site along the Parramatta River already on the drawing board. Incidentally, prior to the election on 26th March 2011, Ms Virginia Judge, then Arts Minister in the Keneally Government, had been approached by the Diocese of Parramatta seeking to buy the site of the old King's School adjacent to the Parramatta Catholic Cathedral. However the Diocese was unsuccessful in its negotiations and eventually was allotted a small portion of the overall site. This also, raises a hypothetical question as to whether that site might have been re-developed by Frasers Property and the Archdiocese of Sydney as some kind of "Fisherman's Wharf" at Parramatta?

Then there is the site of St Vincent's Hospital in Bathurst which in 2010 ceased to treat acute cases and was scaled down for closure with the media released that it would be re-developed as a hostel nursing home facility. Clearly, there is not any money in Private or Public Hospitals but there is Commonwealth funding for Aged Care Centres so the planned re-development makes business sense. On the other hand, the Bathurst community's needs might be better served by keeping open the acute beds provided by St Vincent's Bathurst than by opening more aged care beds or at least this was the impression given by callers from the area on talk back radio programs.

Thirdly the 2012 Review will be intent on reducing the Universities (about 40) which mushroomed around Australia following the Review of Higher Education by Hon. John Dawkins in 1987. Therefore it would be safe to hypothesise that the two Catholic Universities in Sydney, UNDA and the Australian Catholic University (ACU), would merge and become a single institution with public funding. Perhaps the dropping of the adjective "National" from the ACU around 2009-2010 is the harbinger of the shape of that future institution as UNDA retains the "A" for Australia in its title while ACU forgoes its "National" identity and thereby will be more easily shuffled into UNDA-Mark II pack.

The Veech Library CIS website: www.cis.catholic.edu.au

Fourthly, there is the site of the Catholic Institute of Sydney (CIS) at 99 Albert Rd Strathfield. Originally, purchased by the Archdiocese from the Post Master General's (PMG) Department, was restored to its original external elegance while it was internally converted into lecture and tutorial spaces. Adjacent to and in harmony with the original building was built the Veech Library. One of Australia's most prestigious libraries, the Veech contains an invaluable collection of books and journals from around the world with some holdings dating from the sixteenth century. Hypothetically, what would be the use of the Veech Library at Strathfield when CIS and the theological students move to Central Park Broadway? Would this Archdiocesan asset hypothetically, be sold to perhaps the Macquarie Bank or a Singapore Company?

Fifthly, hypothetically there is the matter of providing a Vice Chancellor for UNDA-Mark II? It would be possible (but unlikely) that either the Vice Chancellor of UNDA or ACU would be appointed Vice Chancellor of the UNDA-Mark II because of the baggage and heartbreak which inevitably attend such appointments. In 2008, the advertisement for applications for Vice Chancellor of Notre Dame University in Australia failed to attract a single application with the result that a senior Lecturer, Celia Hammond was appointed to the position.

UNDA must appoint a new Dean to the School of Medicine and Nursing if it is to retain a credible program and continuity in delivering its courses. Would Dr Stanley Quek, a medical doctor and the face of Frasers Property in Sydney, be considered for the Dean of Medicine at UNDA? The appointment would certainly, cement any developing business links between the Archdiocese, UNDA and Frasers Property.

Sixthly, given the Global Financial Crises (GFC) of 2008 and the continuing marginalisation of Europe in a new world order dominated by China and India would hypothetically, the Vatican Bank (Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR))[9] consider "joint ventures" with Asian Companies in Australian Developments like Central Park?

With an ever growing centralisation of the global Church, there has been a weakening of the local Church which has adopted a corporate model borrowed from big business. Unlike Frasers Property, the Catholic Church in Australia is not and never will be simply, a "subsidiary" or a branch office of "a truly international developer with a global outlook...". The Church is a people of God not a corporation and each Church throughout the world is a different "incarnation" of the universal Church [Evangelii Nuntiandi, EN # 65]. Bishops are not businessmen nor are the people shareholders in some illusory monopoly game leasing office blocks in Central Park or residential space in Park Avenue. Jesus insisted on service among his disciples and for this reason, he warned them that it is impossible "to serve both God and money [Mt 6:24]. There is a need at the present time for the Church to reaffirm God's mission and to reaffirm her role as "the people of God immersed in the world" [EN #15].

Dr Keith Suter[10] an Australian academic holding teaching positions at Macquarie University and the Sydney International Campus of Boston University has labelled the current century as "the century of China". Today the Catholic Church's membership is predominantly in these emerging countries of Asia and Africa witnessed by the fact that these countries are providing clergy to western Countries. The Chinese Catholic Church of 12,000,000 is a veritable tsunami presently seeking reunion with the Vatican but clearly it will not simply dovetail into the Roman Church with its Greco-Roman concepts and European worldview. Asia has become the new political and financial centre of the world and this will certainly impact on its dealings with Europe and the Vatican.

Whatever economic strategies employed by the new Italian Prime Minister, Mario Monti, to pare back the $2.6 trillion national debt he will not eradicate this mammoth debt overnight. While Italy does have a fairly strong economy, it has been unable to service its debt because it was pegged to the Euro. Had Italy (like Britain) kept its own currency then it could have lowered the Lira as a mechanism to moderate its crippling debt. The problems plaguing the Italian economy have implications for the Vatican which lacks any economy of its own and therefore will always piggyback on the Italian economy. Hence the fire sales of Church property around the world, the apostolic visitation to the Religious Women in America, World Youth Days, Roman Centralism, new translation of liturgical texts are some of the strategies employed by the Vatican to remain financial. However the GFC could not have come at a more inconvenient time for the Vatican coinciding as it did with the loss of massive financial support from the North American Church reeling from the payouts to victims of clerical abuse and many dioceses facing bankruptcy.

Apart from its deprivation of cash flow the Vatican has had to face the emergence of a new world order which has concentrated financial and political power in Chinese hands. While recent popes were uneasy[11] about Marxist processes which Liberation theologians had successfully translated to serve the work of the Gospel, are now facing another Marxist dilemma. If it was not possible to use Marxist processes to promote the Gospel and the "option for the poor" in Latin America then can Western Europe (Vatican included) accept Marxist money? The silence on this matter is deafening from Church officials!

Since the arrival of Cardinal Pell in Sydney in 2001, the Archdiocese has become a corporation with investments in hospitality (Chez Pell), funerals, property development, aged care, education, liturgical re-writs and so on. The 2009 re-write of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Plan reads more like a company manifest complete with mission statement, outcomes, committees, budgets, etc.. Yet the document lacked a Christological foundation[12]. For example the Church's Aboriginal Ministry is placed with "Social Welfare and Health Care". Why? Surely there are not distinctions within the Christian community but "...we are one in Christ" [Gal 3:28]? For St Paul community distinctions threaten Eucharistic integrity [1 Cor 11: 18-22]. Eucharist is the heart of Christian pastoral care "to serve Jesus in the least" [Mt 25:45] and is the antithesis of corporate ethics.

Augustine distinguishes between the City of God and the City of man and ultimately concludes that the two cities are incompatible. John Dominic Crossan in much the same manner as Augustine contrasts the ethic of the Kingdom present in Jesus with the "business ethic" of Herod Antipas and his business capital, Tiberias.[13] Or maybe the words of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (1473-1530) the once Lord Chancellor of England express the same truth when a year before his death he lamented "If I had served my God as diligently as I did my king, He would not have given me over in my grey hairs." Vatican II provided a vision for the Church as it moved toward the Third Millennium as "the Church in the modern world" which is completely consistent with the insights proffered by Augustine, Crossan and Wolsey — a community of pilgrims in the power of the Spirit. The Church is not and never can be "the Church of the modern world" which would negate the mission entrusted to the Church by Jesus [Jn 17, especially vv.17-26; Mt 28:20]. Jesus told Martha that she was concerned about many things but only one was necessary [Lk 10: 41-42], has the corporate Church forgotten this advice of Jesus? So..."Give my regards to Broadway, Remember me to Central Square, Tell all the gang at Abercrombie Street, That I will soon be there."

Fr Daniel Donovan, submitted to Catholica 29 Nov 2011

FOOTNOTES:
[1] The following are members of the Sydney College of Divinity:

• Australian College of Ministries (ACOM)
• Broken Bay Institute (BBI)
• Catholic Institute of Sydney (CIS)
• Garden City College of Ministry
• Kingsley College (Melbourne)
• Nazarene Theological College, Australia and New Zealand (NTC)
• St Andrews Greek Orthodox Theological College
• Salvation Army Booth College
• United Theological College (UTC)
• Emmaus Bible College, Australia
• New South Wales College of Clinical Pastoral Education

The Affiliated Institutions are:

• Australian Catholic University (ACU)
• Edith Cowan University
• The University of Sydney
• University of Western Sydney

[2] Scholasticism is a "method of critical thought" which dominated the teaching of academics in medieval European universities from the time of Peter Abelard to the sixteenth century (1100-1500). Prior to Vatican II the work of the scholastics especially that of Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) shaped Catholic theology and priestly formation. Catechisms which were written by theologians were used to teach the faith. Catechisms covered the three "C's" of Christian life: the Creed (belief), the Code (commandments/ morality) and the Cult (public and private prayer). Manuals of Moral Theology such as Hieronymus (Jerome) H. Noldin (1838-1922) Summa theologiae moralis and Dominic M. Prummer (1866-1931) Handbook of Moral Theology provided answers for the clergy to all moral problems and seldom highlighted the role of personal conscience in Christian living and moral development.
[3] Professor Denise Bradley who is a retired Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Australia was assigned by Julia Gillard (when Education Minister) to prepare the Report which underlies the Review of Higher Education planned for 2012.
[4] See details of Professor Halliday's research at University of New South Wales (UNSW) online by entering her name on Google.
[5] Perhaps it might have been as a response to Professor Hoj that Central Queensland University (CQ Uni) has attracted some forty plus researchers away from the University of South Australia to programs at CQ Uni.
[6] See Harriet Veitch November 5 2008, http://www.smh.com.au/news/obituaries/a-career-at-the-cutting-edge=of-medicine/2008/1... Dr Patricia Hirst and her husband, Edmond, research are held in the Lucy Osburn-Nightingale Museum at Sydney Hospital and is open to the public on Tuesdays and is well worth a visit. It is of special interest to anyone who is interested in the history of public health and medical research in Australia. A visit can be arranged by calling Museum's curator, Mrs Elinor Wrobel OAM 612-9382-7427. This collection is a public resource and must never be allowed to fall into private hands.
See Nelson Trieu, lessons from the Hirst Estate decision- Hunt & Hunt www.hunthunt.com.au/.../Comm­_Lessons_From_Hirst_Estate_Decision
[7] Frasers Property Australia is a Singapore-based parent company. See http://frasersproperty.com.au/fpg/ on this website Frasers Property Australia is named as "truly international property development company, currently active in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand and via our parent company Frasers Centrepoint Limited, in Singapore, China, Thailand and Vietnam." Among the developments in greater Sydney in which Frasers Property is involved are:

• Central Park Sydney (old brewery site, Broadway)*
• Habitat, ST Leonards
• Lorne Killara
• Lumiere, Sydney
• Putney Hill
• Trio, Camperdown
• Parramatta (4.9 hectares) alongside the Parramatta River 1 km from Parramatta CBD

*Frasers' first two residential stages, One Central Park and Park Lane, are now selling off the plan." See http://www.frasersproperty.com.au/fpg/sydneypark.html
[8] See Frasers Centrepoint Press Release (July 7,2011) p.2
[9] See Wikipedia Institute for Works of Religion, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute­_for_Works_of_Religion See also, Robert Hutchison (1997), Their Kingdom Come: Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei, New York, N.Y.: St Martin's Press.
[10] A complete profile of Dr Keith Suter can be found online at ICMI speakers & entertainers, www.icmi.com.au
[11] Carl Bernstein & Marco Politi, (1996), His Holiness: John Paul II and the Hidden History of Our Time, New York N Y: Bantam Books. These authors have managed to present an interesting account of John Paul II and his opposition to Liberation Theology in Latin America and any hint of Marxist processes, especially pp.230-231
[12] See my article, Starting Afresh with Christ-an Exercise in "Big Church," on Catholica (Feb 12 2008) http://www.catholica.com.au/gc2/dd/006_dd_print.php
See especially p.4, I have treated more fully the inclusion of the Church's ministry to the Aboriginal people under "Priority 5" (B3), Pastoral Care, Social Welfare and Health Care. Then as now little has changed, I called attention to two issues 1) nature of Church 2) relationship between the Aboriginal community and the Archdiocese of Sydney which emerge from including the Church's ministry to Aboriginal people in this nomenclature. The treatment of Aboriginal people in the Redfern community by the Archdiocese of Sydney continues to be a low point in any ecclesiastical history and highlights a practice devoid of a solid Christological foundation. Was it pastoral care when police were used to remove the Aboriginal people from the Church?
[13] John Dominic Crossan (2010), The Greatest Prayer: Rediscovering the Revolutionary Message of the Lord's Prayer, New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, especially Ch 6.
 

[Index of Commentaries by Dan Donovan]