Campion President named adviser on Plenary Council

Dr Paul Morrissey has been appointed as an adviser to the Fifth Australian Plenary Council from next month.

The council, which will take place in two assemblies over the next 12 months, will cover a wide range of topics relating to the future of the Catholic Church in Australia.

Dr Morrissey said he was very pleased to be asked to become an expert adviser, or a member of the “periti”, for the council.

“The Plenary Council has been a much-anticipated event in Australia for some years now, and I’m honoured to have been asked to sit on the council as a member of the periti,” he said.

Dr Morrissey has been teaching theology at university for many years. Before becoming president of Campion College in 2015, he taught systematic and moral theology at the University of Notre Dame for eight years.

Dr Morrissey completed his Licentiate in Sacred Theology at the Lateran University in Rome and his Doctorate at the Catholic Institute in Sydney. He has also published numerous papers in New Blackfriars, Nova et Vetera, Logos and Solidarity, and written dozens of articles relating to matters of faith, morals and the Church.

Advisers are one of three main groups of people attending the council’s assemblies, the others being members or “delegates”, and observers.

According to the council, advisers

…are people with particular expertise across a range of matters, such as theology, Scripture, governance, formation, ecclesiology (study of the Church), who can be called upon by members, individually or collectively, to provide advice on particular matters to assist with their discernment and decision-making.

Dr Morrissey will be joined by other eminent Australian theologians, including Professor Tracey Rowland, Dr Sandra Lynch and Professor Greg Craven.

The first assembly of the council is expected to take place from 3-10 October 2021, and the second from 4-9 July 2022.