Grace and Dis-Grace: The Australian Catholic Church’s 70-Year Engagement with Governmental Migration Policy (1948–2018)

Abstract

From 1948 to 1988 the Australian Catholic Church, together with the Australian government, embarked on a steep learning curve as they grappled with the programmed intake of large numbers of post-World War II immigrants, a large proportion of whom were Catholic. Australian Catholic Church records show a church growing in its understanding and developing, at the same time, a coherent theology of migration appropriate to an Australian multicultural secular society. As migration numbers reached a peak in 1988–1989, and bipartisan political support broke down, the Catholic bishops took on a more prophetic role of reflecting on the moral and ethical dimensions and the implications of the migrant presence for contemporary church and society. Their 2007 landmark statement Graced by Migration embodies a mature theological understanding of its journey up to that time. However, in recent times, Australian policies and practices regarding migrants and refugees have been frequently critiqued as “disgraceful.”