Praise grows for Rome Centre

Caption: Br David Hall, Dean of the La Salle Academy

ACU’s new Rome Centre continues to impress after recently hosting Australian Catholic education officials for an event celebrating our new La Salle Academy for Faith Formation and Religious Education.

Many of the 80 guests were attending the Catholic Education Congress, which was being held in Rome, and expressed their excitement about ACU’s physical presence in the Italian capital.

Guests included members of the Catholic Education Office, Commission leaders, school leaders, bishops, priests and members of various Rome-based Religious Institutes.

Since its opening in September, the Rome Centre has hosted a number of events involving prestigious universities across Europe, and this has significantly boosted ACU’s international profile.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Greg Craven said the La Salle Academy event once again reinforced the value of establishing the Rome Centre.

“Those in attendance left with much exuberance and excitement about what the Rome Centre can offer their various constituents in the future,” he said.

Professor Craven told the guests the Rome Centre provides opportunities for ACU students and the broader Catholic sector in the future.

“Our Rome study centre offers students and scholars a rich life experience. It offers them the chance to pursue their studies while immersed in a city steeped in the living history and tradition of the Church,” he said.

Br David Hall, Dean of the La Salle Academy, told guests the Academy was committed to training teachers and leaders of faith formation and religious education in a way that extends their competency and efficacy.

“We aim to expand their theological literacy, and equip them with a new set of skills so that they can help the Church find doorways through which contemporary Australians can enter and bring faith and life into dialogue,” he said.

“Above all else, however, teachers and leaders need to be witnesses: People who live by the spirit of faith.”