Campion team victorious in Archbishop’s Debating Cup elimination round

On Thursday the 17th of August, the Campion College debating team went up against the Macquarie University Catholic Society for the first elimination round of the Archbishop's Debating Cup.

The top of the debate was, “The Catholic Church bring back Friday abstinence.” Despite Campion losing the coin toss and arguing the negative, our debaters were victorious.

Our first speaker, Augustine Italiano, introduced the topic and argued that the lack of Catechesis around the Church’s teaching on abstinence and social issues required greater attention from the Church.

Francis Zaar spoke second and provided examples of contemporary implementations of Friday abstinence which did not deliver a ‘spiritual revival’ as intended by the Bishops Conference of those dioceses.

Our final speaker, Nicholas Brennan, summed up the primary arguments of the negative team, whilst rebutting the arguments for abstinence stated by the affirmative.

We offer our congratulations to both teams for a rousing debate and wish to thank our adjudicator, Fr John Doherty, as well as all those who joined us for the night. We now look forward to the semi final which will take place in early September.