Roman Catholic - Chaplaincy at The University of Queensland

PROFILE

As Roman Catholic chaplain at the University of Queensland, I am the latest in a succession of Jesuit priests who have filled this position: Peter L'Estrange (1981-83) who was recently appointed Rector of Campion Hall, Oxford, and Steve Astill (1989) who is working in Nigeria, are the most recent.

So I have been here for twenty-two years or so, and it has been a very rich experience for me to work with such an ecumenical, and now multi-faith, team of chaplains as we have at UQ, while living (until 2003) with 160 students and staff at St. Leo's College. Since the beginning of 2004 I have been part of the Jesuit community at St Ignatius Presbytery, Toowong.

Mass is celebrated at lunchtime on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Chaplaincy, as well as 9am Mondays at St Leo's, and 5pm Wednesdays at Duchesne. The Catholic students group on campus is called the Newman Catholic Society (after John Henry Newman) and a good part of my time goes into working with them. An Orientation camp is held in February/March and somtimes a mid-year camp in July. We used to have a custom of visiting schools in September-November to tell prospective students about Newman and its camps and other activities.

for the last ten years there has also been a Chaplaincy Youth Worker, spending five hours a week here, and paid by the Catholic Archdiocese. Currently the worker is Paul Plant. it has been a really effective way of integrating chaplaincy with the student activities.

Fr. Norbert Olsen SJ, who has been chaplain to St Leo's but is now Assistant Priest at Toowong, has also contributed to the University Chaplaincy in a number of ways.

One of our great needs is to bring more women to the team. At times there have been Catholic sisters working here part-time: Srs. Sandra Lupi RSM in 1985-86, and Christine Jorgensen RSC in 1987-88. Then Chris was full time in 1990 but gradually transferred to Griffith until 1994.

Before coming to Brisbane I had ten years at Aquinas College, a residential college for the University of Adelaide, first as university chaplain and then as head of the college. I grew up in Melbourne, and my main area of study has been in Applied Mathematics, which still keeps me going with areas for research.

The Newman Catholic Society meets each Monday at 1pm in Room 538 of the Michie Building. Please contact Fr Ian Howells on (07) 3365 6656 for further information.

LINKS

Roman Catholic Church

Celebrating over 40 years of Chaplaincy at UQ