Australian Catholic University (ACU) announced the appointment of a new senior adviser Wednesday, after leading churchmen accused it of failing to uphold its Catholic identity.
ACU said Dec. 11 that it had appointed Fr. Gerald Gleeson, currently vicar general of the Sydney archdiocese, as its senior adviser of Catholic identity and mission.
When he takes up the newly created part-time role Jan. 13, Gleeson will help the university’s vice-chancellor and president Zlatko Skrbis “to ensure the university remains a vibrant, relevant, and inclusive community rooted in Catholic values and teachings,” ACU said.
The new post was announced days after Skrbis was reappointed as vice-chancellor, despite opposition from two Australian archbishops, who have called for a Vatican investigation into whether ACU is remaining true to its Catholic identity.
Sydney’s Archbishop Anthony Fisher said in a Dec. 4 letter to Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, that he and Melbourne’s Archbishop Peter Comensoli would welcome a Vatican probe of Australia’s only public, taxpayer-funded Catholic university.
But another Australian archbishop decried “relentless public attacks” on ACU’s embattled leadership in a Dec. 6 letter, highlighting deep episcopal divisions over the institution’s direction.
In the Dec. 6 letter, obtained by The Pillar, Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane urged members of the university’s corporation — the body at the top of its governance structure — to issue a public statement in support of the leadership team.
Coleridge, the ACU corporation’s president, noted that the university’s senate, or corporate governing body, had signaled its confidence in Skrbis when it reappointed him as vice-chancellor for a five-year term, beginning in January 2026.
The archbishop said he was concerned that neither ACU chancellor Martin Daubney nor pro-chancellor Virginia Bourke had received a comparable public expression of support.
The 76-year-old archbishop called on corporation members to release a statement saying: “At its recent meeting, the senate of ACU voted to renew the contract of the vice-chancellor and president, Professor Zlatko Skrbis. This was a vote of confidence in the wake of the relentless public attacks to which he has been unfairly subjected. The members of the corporation wish to thank him for his service to the university and to congratulate him on his reappointment.”
The draft statement went on: “The same kind of relentless attacks have been directed at the chancellor and pro-chancellor, and these have taken a heavy personal toll on them. The members of the corporation of ACU wish to state publicly their support for the chancellor and pro-chancellor, and to thank them for their service to the university through this turbulent time.”
Coleridge suggested releasing the statement Dec. 9, if a majority of the corporation’s members agreed. The letter did not appear to have been published at press time.
The ACU, which opened in 1991 and describes itself as one of the world’s top 10 Catholic universities, has more than 32,000 students based on seven campuses in Australia and one in Rome.
The controversy over ACU’s Catholic identity ignited in January, when the university named lawyer Kate Galloway as its dean of law. A 2018 paper that she co-wrote describing abortion as “a touchstone for social, ethical, and religious norms” provoked a backlash, including a petition calling for the appointment to be reviewed.
Galloway was reportedly reassigned as a “strategic professor” with a payment of 1 million Australian dollars (around $637,000).
The ACU made worldwide headlines in October when graduating students walked out of an honorary degree acceptance speech by former labor union leader Joe de Bruyn that criticized abortion, IVF, and same-sex marriage.
In response, the university promised to reimburse graduation fees, and offered counseling services to graduates, students, and staff.
In a Nov. 13 letter to pro-chancellor Virginia Bourke, Archbishop Fisher resigned as chair of ACU’s committee of identity, which provides “advice and guidance on issues relevant to the Catholic identity and mission of the university.”
The archbishop remains a member of the committee, as well as the university’s corporation.
Fisher met with Cardinal Tolentino and education dicastery staff at the Vatican Oct. 22. Tolentino then met with Skrbis and ACU’s chancellor Martin Daubney Nov. 7.
Fisher said in his Dec. 4 letter to Tolentino that the cardinal had urged the ACU’s leaders to “mend communion between the university and the rest of the Church in Australia.”
Australia’s bishops discussed the ACU at their Nov. 4-8 plenary meeting in Sydney.
ACU’s pro-chancellor Virginia Bourke wrote a Nov. 6 letter to bishops defending the university’s handling of the graduation ceremony controversy.
ACU said in its Dec. 11 announcement that Fr. Gleeson, who is retiring as Sydney’s vicar general, would be “a vital link between the university community, Church authorities, and external stakeholders” when he takes up his new advisory role in January.
The university noted that Fr. Anthony Casamento, its vice-president, was due to “finish up at ACU in April.” Casamento, a member of the Michaelite Fathers, was director of identity and mission at ACU from 2011 until his 2017 appointment as vice-president, according to the university’s website.
ACU said it would “shortly advertise the role of pro vice-chancellor or deputy vice-chancellor, Catholic mission.”
Commenting on Fr. Gleeson’s appointment, vice-chancellor Zlatko Skrbis said: “Fr. Gleeson’s academic expertise in philosophy and ethics, his extensive experience in Catholic education, Church administration, and his important role in the life of the Church will be an enormous asset to ACU.”
