A letter from
from the Convenor

Dear Students,
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to Catholic culture on Campus in 2009! This Catholic Student Handbook outlines various activities and societies which, with God’s grace, will enable you to grow in your knowledge and love of Jesus Christ and His Church whilst studying at the University of Sydney.

Perhaps not surprisingly, one’s time at university is both exciting and challenging. We rightly enjoy meeting new people, forging new relationships and immersing ourselves in the plethora of extracurricular activities which are made available to students.

That said, university can also be a time of great change and uncertainty. We are forced out of our comfort zones as we come to terms with an impersonal world, which is, at times, indifferent, if not hostile, to the truths of the Catholic Faith.

I recall my days studying for an Arts/Law degree at Sydney University during the 1990’s. As a then Protestant Christian, I was confronted, often aggressively, by those who challenged beliefs that were, and still are, at the core of my being such as the existence of objective truth, the very existence of God and the deity of our Lord. As Catholic Christians, we are often confronted by well meaning people who seek to lead us out of the Church that Jesus founded into their particular group.

For these reasons, with God’s grace, we at the Chaplaincy will seek to serve you during your period of study. We extend an invitation to join us in friendship and community as we worship the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in the unity of his Body—the one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

We also invite non-Catholics who are searching for the truth about God, themselves and their place in the world to examine the Catholic Faith with an open mind. It is our conviction that it is only within the Catholic Church that one will find the answers to these questions. This is not a result of human ingenuity or cleverness but of God’s gracious guidance.

Thomas Waugh
Convenor
Catholic Chaplaincy
University of Sydney
University of Technology, Sydney