Australian election: Bishops say Catholics have a vital role in shaping nation’s future 

Kristina Millare By Kristina Millare for CNA

March 31, 2025 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 0 Print

 

A view of the Opera House in the port zone of Sydney. / Credit: Benh LIEU SONG vía Flickr (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Rome Newsroom, Mar 31, 2025 / 10:33 am (CNA).

Australian bishops on Sunday said the country’s Catholics have a vital role to promote the common good when they head to the polls on May 3 for a national election.

The Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference’s Commission for Life, Family, and Public Engagement — chaired by Archbishop Peter Comensoli — released “Election Statement 2025: Called to Bring Hope in the Year of the Jubilee” after the Australian government announced the election date over the weekend.

“Our faith calls us to engage in democracy, to build, in the words of Pope St. John Paul II, ‘a civilization of love’ and ‘to contribute to the good of society with a spirit of truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom,’” the March 30 statement read.

“The jubilee reminds us that voting is not just a civic duty but an opportunity to advance the common good and pave the way for hope,” the bishops’ conference said.

The conference identified four key issues that Australian Catholics should consider before casting their vote in May: the dignity and value of every human being; religious freedom and conscience rights; fairness, justice, and the common good; and responsible stewardship of God’s creation.

In the statement, the bishops’ conference said Catholics have an “obligation” to form their consciences “through reason, sacred Scripture, and Church teachings” to respond to the country’s important political and social issues and discern what will advance peace and justice in society.

“Conscience is our inner guide, enabling us to discern right from wrong and judge what is good and just, and we have a duty to follow it faithfully,” the bishops’ statement said.

“This demands careful consideration of the facts and the background to our decisions and a commitment to prayer to discern God’s will,” the statement continued.

Commending the statement to Catholics and to all people of goodwill, the bishops condemned discrimination, hatred, and violence against other citizens and called for a renewed commitment among Australians to resolve issues “peacefully through dialogue and democratic processes.”

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New Zealand bishop resigns over ‘unacceptable behaviour’ with young woman

October 4, 2019 CNA Daily News 2

Palmerston North, New Zealand, Oct 4, 2019 / 03:10 pm (CNA).- The Vatican announced Friday that Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a bishop in New Zealand, following an investigation into a complaint of “unacceptable behaviour of a sexual nature” made by a young woman.

Bishop Charles Drennan, 59, was the subject of an investigation by Cardinal John Dew of Wellington. Drennan had led the Diocese of Palmerston North since 2012.

Under Vos estis lux mundi, recent guidelines for investigations into misconduct claims against bishops which Pope Francis announced in May, metropolitan archbishops are placed in charge of investigations into suffragan bishops. Cardinal Dew is Archbishop of Wellington, to whom the rest of New Zealand’s diocesan bishops are suffragan.

Dew said Oct. 4 that upon receiving the young woman’s complaint, the New Zealand Church’s independent investigation body, the National Office of Professional Standards (NOPS), contracted an “independent, licenced investigator” to investigate under Dew’s oversight. The woman requested that details of the complaint remain private, Dew said.

In its Oct. 4 bulletin announcing episcopal resignations and appointments, the Vatican did not specify the reason for Drennan’s resignation.

Bishop Drennan stood aside from his duties during the investigation and both he and the complainant participated in the investigation. Dew said the Church has been in ongoing contact with the woman and is committed to continuing to support her.

“The Catholic Church has no tolerance for any inappropriate behaviour by any of its members. I encourage anyone who experiences such behaviour to bring it to the attention of the Church, police or any organisation with which they feel comfortable,” Dew said Oct. 4.

The Associated Press reports that Drennan was a member of the New Zealand church team of priests and sisters selected to respond to the country’s Royal Commission inquiry into sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults in state and faith-based care between 1950-1999. He was also secretary of the New Zealand bishop’s conference.

Drennan was also chosen by the nation’s bishops as a delegate from New Zealand to the Vatican’s 2015 Synod on the Family, and he also attended the Synod on the New Evangelization in 2012.

He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Christchurch in 1996, and was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Palmerston North in 2011, succeeding as ordinary the following year.

 

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