Catherine McAuley Oration to be delivered by founder of Emily’s List, the ALP lobby established to promote legalised abortion.
By Anthony Barich
MercyCare, the Sisters of Mercy’s health and community not-for-profit arm, has invited high-profile legalised abortion advocate and former WA Premier Dr Carmen Lawrence to deliver its annual Catherine McAuley Oration at Mercy Hospital, Mount Lawley at 7.30pm on November 12.
The Oration is named for Catherine McAuley, the foundress of the Sisters of Mercy.
Dr Lawrence, the first woman Premier of WA, was a founder of Emily’s List Australia, a network formed specifically to increase the number of women Labor politicians who are willing to support legal abortion, childcare and equal pay. In November 2003 Dr Lawrence was elected President of the ALP after shifting to Federal politics in 1994 as Member for Fremantle and was appointed Minister for Health and Human Services and Minister assisting the Prime Minister on the Status of Women.
Dr Maria Harries, Chair of the MercyCare Board of Governance, told The Record she had briefed Dr Lawrence on the history of the Oration and the previous speakers, and asked her to “find something challenging for us”. Dr Harries told The Record she hopes the address would “continue challenging all of us and our friends in the community of MercyCare about matters of social justice and rights – issues that would be dear to the heart of Catherine McAuley”.
“I’m really looking forward to the Oration. It’s wonderfully exciting,” she said.
“It’s a very significant event on the calendar of MercyCare.”
When asked whether Dr Lawrence’s abortion stance was a concern or consideration in inviting the former Premier, who retired from federal politics in 2007, to speak, Dr Harries said: “I don’t think I’d be prepared to enter into that debate.”
She said she was prepared to address the issue at a later date.
The decision to invite Dr Lawrence to speak on behalf of a major Catholic health care provider appears similar in some respects to the decision by Notre Dame University in the US when it came under fire for inviting President Barack Obama to give the commencement speech at its May graduation event.
At least 70 US Bishops said Obama’s support of legal abortion and embryonic stem-cell research made him an inappropriate choice to be commencement speaker at a Catholic university.
Previous speakers of the Catherine McAuley Oration include indigenous leader Prof Colleen Haywood last year and former Chair of the St Vincent de Paul Society Robert Fitzgerald, the Commissioner of the Australian Government Productivity Commission, gave the Oration in 2007.
Catherine McAuley, an heiress then aged 50, founded the Sisters of Mercy as a Catholic Religious Order for women in Dublin in 1831. In 1846 she sent her friend Sr Usrula Frayne to lead a small group of pioneer Sisters of Mercy who accompanied Bishop John Brady to the Swan River Colony in WA.
Today, there are two Mercy Congregations in Perth known as the West Perth Congregation and the Perth Congregation. MercyCare is involved in aged care, health care, education, and family and community services.
Mercy Aged Care delivers services to over 1,400 people in Perth, while Mercy Hospital, Mt Lawley, is licensed to treat 244 patients.
Mercy Family and Community Services delivers services from 11 sites across the Perth metropolitan area including childcare, employment programs, youth, training and family services.
Santa Maria College and Mercedes College were welcomed under the management of MercyCare in 2005.