Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference

Logo of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference

The Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ACBC) is the national episcopal conference of the Catholic bishops of Australia[1] and is the instrumentality used by the Australian Catholic Bishops to act nationally and address issues of national significance.[2] Formation of the ACBC was approved by the Holy See on 21 June 1966.[3]

Membership

Membership of the Conference comprises bishops from 34 dioceses and ordinariates from 28 territorial dioceses and from 6 other structures, specifically the Eastern Catholic dioceses for Chaldean, Maronite, Melkite and Ukrainian Catholics; a military ordinariate; and an Anglican ordinariate, the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross.[4]

Organisation

The conference has a president and a vice-president, a permanent committee, various bishops commissions and a general secretariat. The commissions deal with subjects such as canon law, justice, ecology and development and pastoral life.

Archbishop Denis Hart, Metropolitan Archbishop of Melbourne, was elected as the president of the ACBC at the bishops’ plenary in May 2012. The previous president of the conference was Archbishop Philip Wilson who was elected to a two-year term in 2006 and re-elected in 2008 and 2010.

The secretariat is based in Canberra under the management of the Reverend Brian Lucas. The Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference meets at least annually.[3]

Activities

In July 2013, the Conference made a submission to ASIC relating to continuing exemptions of Charitable Investment Fundraisers from certain fundraising and licensing provisions under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth),[5] the largest charities being Catholic funds.

Opposition to LGBT Rights

In May 2015 the Conference produced a booklet entitled, "Don't mess with Marriage".[6][7]

The ACBC was a significant lobby-group in relation to the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey. It campaigned for the No side, saying: "Vote No, to keep marriage as a unique relationship between a woman and a man... the consequences of changing marriage are very real".[8] Subsequently in February 2018 the ACBC publicly intervened to call for a religious freedom act which it argued would protect protect religious exemptions to discrimination law in a submission to the Ruddock religious freedom review. It argued in favour of the right not to have to employ LGB staff or teachers if doing so would undermine Church teaching and risk their contribution as role models to students.[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Welcome". Catholic Church in Australia. Retrieved 31 October 2011.
  2. ↑ submission-australian-catholic-bishops-conference-15-february-2016
  3. 1 2 "Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference". Catholic Church in Australia. Retrieved 31 October 2011.
  4. ↑ "Official website". Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  5. ↑ Submission of Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference
  6. ↑ "Australian Catholic Bishops: Don't Mess with Marriage". Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. 28 May 2015. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
  7. ↑ "Don't mess with Marriage" (PDF). Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. 2015. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
  8. ↑ Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference. "Plebiscite on marriage". Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  9. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/feb/15/catholic-church-says-its-hiring-practices-do-not-discriminate-against-gay-people
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