Australian Catholic University (ACU)

Patrick McArdle celebrates 25 years at ACU

This year marks 25 years of service at ACU by Associate Professor Patrick McArdle, Campus Dean Canberra. Patrick’s supervisor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Coordination) Professor Hayden Ramsay, congratulates Patrick on his achievement and reflects on his many contributions to the ACU community:

Writing this as someone with only four years on the clock, I think that is an extraordinary period of service. Well done, Patrick!

Patrick’s academic background is in the fields of moral theology, practical theology and Canon Law; health care ethics; education and religious education. His doctoral work on the centrality of personhood and relationships was applied to the construction of models of health care and ethics in health care but is more broadly applicable across human services activities.

A number of us have experienced the call from teaching to service and leadership. Patrick was appointed Campus Dean in 2009 and since then inevitably has had less time for areas in which he excelled academically and which he loved. Patrick received a number of teaching innovation grants and an Excellence in Teaching Award during his years of lecturing. He also supervised to successful completion a number of higher degree by research students in moral and practical theology.

Patrick has worked at a number of ACU campuses, and has served on a range of university, community, Church and government bodies and agencies. In 2016 he was appointed Chair of the Catholic Education Commission for the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn by Archbishop Prowse and in 2019 he was appointed by the ACT Minister for Education as a member of the Board of Senior Secondary Studies.

While teaching and administration have been his core focus at ACU, Patrick has found time and space to engage in research too. He has authored Relational Health Care, On Being Pastoral (with Professor A Tuohy), and Where Do We Stand? With Whom Do We Stand? People with disability and the Call of Jesus (with Mrs P Mowbray), and other articles and conference papers. Patrick’s continuing research interests include emerging issues in Canon Law with particular reference to the Plenary Council and Church administration; the moral imperative of relationality in health, ageing and disability; and questions of Catholic identity and ethos for staff and professional development in Church agencies.

On behalf of everyone at ACU, and most particularly staff and students at Canberra. I would like to salute Patrick on his achievements and wish him continued success in his future work. We need many more theologians, and we need theologically informed leadership. Thank you, Patrick, for the fine example.