On Being a Public and a Catholic University At One and The Same Time

[Extract] What does a 'Public Catholic University' mean? To analyse this question we need to delve into the history of the only such institution in Australia and one of very few in the world: Australian Catholic University, which is a public Catholic University. The question asked invites us to address what makes a Catholic university special or distinctive in the public sector. In order to examine the issues involved we need to consider some of the differences between being 'public' and being 'Catholic' and the attributes that accrue to both terms and also to the notion of a secular society. In attempts to define 'public' there is often recognition that the term incorporates the meaning of 'secular' which carries a set of shared values; both public and secular, for example, illustrate the practice of a moral code that is independent of all religious practices and considerations. In what follows, the relevance of values is examined in some detail and brief analysis of corporate citizenship is provided as a useful example of the differences between being public and being Catholic. It seems sensible then to conclude with some comment about the special challenges for a university that tries to be both.