Nineteen students graduated from Australia’s only Catholic liberal arts college last month, including two WA students.
Perth’s Ben McCabe and Sam Green joined their classmates at Campion College’s December 12 graduation ceremony at its Old Toongabbie campus in Western NSW.
There was a distinct Perth flavour to the ceremony, with Archbishop Emeritus Barry Hickey celebrating the graduation Mass on his first visit to Campion.
During his homily, Archbishop Emeritus Hickey said he was pleased to be able to visit the college and appreciated its location.
“We thank God for all the rich learning, the formation and spiritual insights that the students receive during their years here; and that the graduation class will now take to the world beyond,” he said.
He encouraged the graduates to go out into the world “with a sense of mission”.
“I’m simply saying to those who are graduating… to go with eyes wide open, not to think that their future lies, unless they have a special calling, in being on the sanctuary, or power sharing in the Church’s decision makings, but to know that they have a responsibility to renew, may I say to redeem, the social order; the temporal order,” Archbishop Emeritus Hickey said.
“What is going on in the world at the moment, which I describe as a spiritual battle, requires a new impetus among the lay people of the Church to renew that temporal order, and make sure that what is happening is stopped and replaced eventually by the values that we receive from the teachings of Jesus.”
Campion College’s stated mission is “to form future leaders of society and the Church by a broad program of learning in the liberal arts that integrates the insights of faith and reason”.
It was established in 2006, and now has more than 100 alumni from around Australia and overseas.