Catholic uni sends anti-Greens message

Catholic uni sends anti-Greens message

The entire student body and staff of the Australian Catholic University (ACU) in NSW have been advised to not vote for the Greens at the request of the Australian Catholics Bishops Conference.

Close to 8000 students and 400 academics were sent “The Greens Agenda: A Message from Catholic Bishops in NSW” just five days before the election by ACU’s Directorate of Identity and Mission.

The document warns that the Greens would seek to “force non-government schools to employ teachers whose views, values and lifestyle are contrary to the religious traditions of these schools,” would reduce funding for private schools, and would treat personal drug use as a health and social issue, “and therefore acceptable”.

It also warns that the Greens would remove abortion from the Crimes Act, legalise euthanasia, and push for same-sex marriage.

The Star Observer was contacted by ACU staff and students who were appalled that the university had been used for a political purpose.

A member of ACU’s teaching staff said he strongly objected to the email and colleagues had asked to be removed from the Directorate of Identity and Mission’s database after receiving it.

“Here we have a publicly-funded university whose email system is being used five days out from an election to lobby the entire student population with a strongly political message from a religious organisation,” he said.

“Many of our students are undergraduates and will be first-time voters at this election. It’s hard enough for young people to get involved in the political process without being influenced in this sort of way.”

He said colleagues were concerned about plans by ACU to compel students to undergo two core units in Catholic Identity if the email was any indication of what that would entail.

An ACU student said she was, “stunned, upset and distressed,” after reading the email.

“I felt like my trust had been violated, like the university had invaded my private inbox and then forcefully told me what to think and who to vote for. The more I read, the more angry and ashamed I felt,” she said.

“It was a grossly inappropriate email to send to students. ACU is a public university open to all and receives significant public funding. It should not be party political and should not be telling students who to vote or not vote for.”

An ACU spokeswoman defended the email, saying it merely informed students about Greens policies and was not a directive on how to vote.

“ACU is a Catholic university, and it is therefore appropriate for us to occasionally circulate matters of Catholic interest,” she said.

You May Also Like

19 responses to “Catholic uni sends anti-Greens message”

  1. The big issue is that ACU is using the mailing list for political campaign against gay rights and maybe encouraging homophobia. According to ACU’s statement above “ACU is a Catholic university, and it is therefore appropriate for us to occasionally circulate matters of Catholic interest”, however, when ACU is looking to increase the number of students to pay fees, ACU states that welcome all religious and races and do not discriminate. Catholic interest in only one direction: to get tuition fees from students. After ACU gets their tuition fee, start promoting “Catholic interests”!!!???

    At ACU, I witnessed this week one group of students making fun on a gay student, I acted immediately to stop that behaviour, but who knows if that sort of behaviour was not indirectly endorsed by those emails against gay’s rights?

    ACU does not have and does not encourage any gay group like universities such as UNSW, UTS, Macquaire, SydUni they all have Queer spaces…..

  2. Church and State undivided and undecided! The institutions of State and the institutions of the Church must remain seperate. Certainly there dialogue between the institutions is useful. It is, however, one thing for the doctrine of the Church to espouse the morality (so called) of its institutions. It an another thing for it to use the public (tax payers funds) to direct its authority. Regarding leaving the Church if people don’t like it, is benign at best and ignorant at worse. One more thing…I am not convinced that the Bishops have control over the ACU, particulary when the Chancellor is a retired Australia Army Officer.

  3. Using the university email is a gross violation not only of trust, but also what this university says it is on about in its mission statement – ACU “…aspires to be a community characterised by free inquiry and academic integrity” – what? Only if this freedom and integrity does not oppose the antequated views of individuals within the heirarchy of the catholic church who still possess 15th century views on society.

    As an ex-student of ACU, I am shocked to hear of this latest issue, however I am not at all surprised. This kind of thing was on the cards for quite some time, as the uni struggles to decide which master to serve – the public (and its students) or the Church and its individual nutjobs.

    The bottom line is that this university is a PUBLIC institution and while it remains so, should not be bowing down to pressure from fringe dwelling ultra-conservative catholics who do a poor job of representing the many tolerant and socially just people of catholic, christian or other faiths who have passed through the walls of the university.

    If the university has such a desire to promote one-sided, non-inclusive and intolerant views, then it should get out of the game right now and become a private university – truly steeped in 2000 years of ‘catholic intellectual tradition’ – because that is where it will end up: 2000 years ago, past its used by date.

    It should be noted that the majority of staff working at ACU are good people and it is a pity to see minority elements with different agendas, ruining such a caring and fostering institution for students and staff of all beliefs and backgrounds.

  4. I go to ACU in Melbourne and we didn’t receive any of this surrounding the Victorian election. From what I can tell, based on testimonials and this sort of thing, the church is far more actively involved in the NSW campuses. I find ACU a welcoming uni for all religions, people and cultures. I can’t believe that the admin would do something like this and I know that the Melbourne admin wouldn’t. I have friends who are out at ACU and they aren’t treated any differently at all! I am hetro myself but I haven’t seen any discrimination.

    Also Michelle, my ENTER [or ATAR as it is now] was high enough to get me into my chosen field at both Monash and Deakin. Melbourne no longer runs my course. In fact, Monash doesn’t either… but ACU has the best reputation in the country for teaching and nursing and as I am doing the former I chose to go to ACU. So, instead of making sweeping generalisations you should really consider the facts.

  5. I’m an ACU student & it’s not like we followed what the email said.
    I’m sure, based on how many students I know check their uni emails, most didn’t even realise they got this email.
    I remember the email but I also remember ignoring it when I saw it was of no importance to me.

  6. Julian

    The Nazi Bishops did not run the camps, but helped with moral guidance. As a result millions died including thousands from our community, and good hard working priest who stood up to the vile disgust you advocate of Church mixed with State.

    I certainly do not want the Bishops using public money for moral guidance.

    The link below is happy snaps of Catholics mixing Church with the State.

    http://alamoministries.com/content/english/Antichrist/nazigallery/photogallery.html

  7. ACU is a public university as well as a Catholic one which is the issue here. If it wants to continue sending discriminatory emails, it should remove itself from its public standing and become a private institution that can continue to discriminate at will if that’s what it wants to do.

    The problem is also that ACU sent the email to students- this is not what they pay education fees for. If the email came from a student body such as a student union, that is another matter. But this was endorsed by the University itself, and it shouldn’t be acceptable for a public university to tell students how to vote.

    Hopefully the email made anyone who did believe in gay relationships, euthanasia and abortion rights vote for the one political party that supports these issues- the one party ACU did not want its community to vote for.

  8. In responsse to why are students at ACU.
    Most of them can’t get into anywhere else their UAI scores were so low!

  9. I too work for ACU, and am appauled that our public email system was used for this proper gander.
    I will inform the media everytime they do something like this again.

  10. Julian – as long as ACU receives public funding, this sort of action is grossly inappropriate. If the Church wants to spend their own money to push their bigoted, hateful agenda, fair enough. But as long as they are spending my tax dollars, they should keep their nose out of politics and focus solely on the task of education, which is why they receive public funding in the first place.

  11. ACU has every right to send out an email, especially when it discusses Greens Party policy on cutting funding to Catholic based education. If the staff and students are in favour of destroying Catholic based education, why are they even at ACU?

    A bit put off by the spin put on these facts

  12. Hello? ACU is a CATHOLIC University. It is the Bishops who have the SOLE authority to act as the official voice for the CATHOLIC Church in NSW. It is their responsibility to communicate and make clear the teachings if the Catholic Church on the issues that clearly were part of this election. They NEVER “told” or “forced” any Catholic student or staff member to vote or not vote for the Greens, but merely pointed out the simple fact that a vote for the Greens would be a vote for a party that would seek to enact laws diametrically opposed to the clear teaching of the Catholic Church, which can be found clearly stated in ANY Catechism. To those students / staff at ACU who are critical of the Bishops for promoting CATHOLIC teaching in a CATHOLIC university: if you don’t accept Catholic teaching, then LEAVE the CATHOLIC university :) OMG, are these whingers actually serious?

  13. Since when has ACU ever made sure that queer students or staff feel valued or supported at ACU?? Never…

    Stunts such as this just reinforce that they either think we don’t exist amongst staff or in the student body, or they think that we don’t notice the discriminatory nature of the literature they disseminate.

    Think carefully about the messages you are sending out ACU… better still… be proactive in supporting your GLBTI staff and students.

  14. How embarrasssing. As an academic at ACU I feel that such political interference in academic life at a publically funded university is completely unacceptable. That is even aside from the insidious messages of intolerance and hate that the Bushop’s message contained. I hope that the 8,000 students who received it disregarded it, and saw it for what it was. For gay and lesbian students in particular (lets assume 800 of the 8000), they no doubt now feel rather uncomfortable at ACU, and questioning whether they are welcome at all!

  15. Make the Catholic Church pay taxes. It clearly broke Federal laws being a political lobby group.

  16. The Catholic stance against the Greens was the same as the Catholic stance against the Communist. I personally wont vote for Green or Communist however I am against religious organisations telling people who or who they should not vote for.

  17. Prior to the 2010 Victorian State election Melbourne archbishop Hart also ran a campaign that directly attacked the Greens. The Greens got their highest vote at a Victorian State election ever.

    The bishops have painted themselves into a corner on equal marriage; they know that a majority of Australians – and a majority of Catholics – support it and have stopped listening to them. I’m sure that they feel compelled to be seen doing something to counteract it and so they resort to these extremist attacks. But if history is any guide, these tactics will backfire on them.

  18. I worked for ACU as a sessional academic in Victoria last year and loved it, however that was when the anti-discrimination laws that Ballieu is about to repeal, were set in place, so me being an ‘out’ lesbian or greens voter wasn’t a problem. Aren’t we used to the Catholic Church dictating to the flock? I know MANY gay and lesbian academics and students who will disregard the ACU directorate, most students who attend ACU aren’t even Catholic (again, they cannot discriminate). The Church is obsolete in 2011, having driven modern people running and screaming from their doors. This is just them trying to ‘have something to do’..