Grace and peace, I hope this note finds you well.
As you may be aware the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has released an Election Statement 2025 - ‘Called to bring hope in the Year of Jubilee’. Please click the link to access the Election Statement Election Statement 2025
Our faith calls us to engage in democracy, to build, in the words of Pope St John Paul II, “a civilisation of love” and to contribute “to the good of society in a spirit of truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom”.
This election coincides with the Holy Year of Jubilee, themed ‘Pilgrims of Hope.’ Pope Francis reminds us that “all of us have received the gift and task of bringing hope wherever hope has been lost, lives broken, promises unkept, dreams shattered, and hearts overwhelmed by adversity.”
To bring hope, we must first become people of hope; as Pope Benedict XVI declared: “The one who has hope lives differently.” The Jubilee reminds us that voting is not just a civic duty but an opportunity to advance the common good and pave the way for hope.
With this in mind, we call to our consciousness the 54,000 young people educated in our Catholic schools, the 20,000 people supported by Centacare Catholic Community Services, those who we reach out to in prisons, hospitals and nursing homes and those who are in need of the basics of shelter and food. It is important that we continue to advance the common good in these areas.
Education is always a prominent topic in election campaigns and the National Catholic Education Commission, together with Catholic Education SA, has identified key issues and priorities for our school communities. Underlying these priorities is the recognition that Catholic schools save taxpayers billions of dollars and ease pressure on government-run schools. To remain sustainable, we need the government to provide continued policy stability and funding certainty.
I encourage you to find out as much as possible about your local candidates’ views on issues that we, as Catholics, are compelled to uphold, including the sanctity of life, caring for the vulnerable, support for families, fostering a just society and responsible stewardship of God’s creation.
In Domino,
+Patrick O’Regan
Archbishop of Adelaide