Archbishop Denis Hart intervened to cancel a planned keynote speech by MP Cathy McGowan at a Catholic Social Services Victoria conference this month.

The reason given was that her views are contrary to Church teachings.

Ms McGowan, who describes herself as a practising Catholic, co-sponsored a "marriage equality" bill in Australia's Parliament last year.

Her planned speech was not on marriage, but on the importance of giving the underprivileged and marginalised a voice and access to those in power.

The speech at the conference is called "The Mary MacKillop Oration".

Ms McGowan said the decision to revoke her invitation was "very sad" and seemed at odds with Pope Francis's view the Church's doors should be open to discussing issues.

"Mary MacKillop was known for her support of regional and rural communities, she's a woman, she got in trouble with the bishops, they called her insubordinate and stopped her speaking, so this decision now with me is really ironic, I reckon," Ms McGowan said.

A spokesman for Melbourne archdiocese said there is no malice in Archbishop Hart's decision and he did not want to embarrass Ms McGowan.

"But he would see with a conference such as this that the keynote speaker should be in line with Catholic teaching on that very important topic," the spokesman said.

Ms McGowan has been replaced as the conference keynote speaker by barrister Julian McMahon, the 2016 Victorian of the year.

Catholic Social Services Victoria executive director Denis Fitzgerald said Ms McGowan had been invited to give the oration due to her work supporting marginalised groups, including refugees and asylum seekers.

Asked why the invitation was revoked so close to the event, he said Archbishop Hart "probably hadn't turned his attention to it" until recently.​

"It would have been better had Catholic Social Services factored in all relevant issues before we invited Cathy," he said.

Sources

• Sydney Morning Herald
• Image: News.com.au

Archbishop Hart was asked by Fairfax Media for comment on a case at the Academy of Mary Immaculate in Fitzroy last year.

A student at the all-girls school started a change.org petition after being told by a year-12 co-ordinator that she could not bring a female partner to the formal.

The petition received 1250 signatures and hundreds of comments in support.

The school changed its stance to allow the student to bring a female date.

Archbishop Hart said he appreciated the school's turnabout and believed it had "shown great sensitivity in what is an unusual scenario".

"Students in a secondary school are growing up and in developmental stages where relationships are more like strong friendships and are not usually permanent, they are not in a situation where they are committing," Archbishop Hart said.

"The Catholic Church respects any relationship but always sticks quite firmly with its teaching that a relationship in the eyes of the Church is heterosexual, between a male and female, and that is something we would always stand by."

Academy principal Sr Mary Moloney said the philosophy of allowing students to choose whomever they wish to accompany them to our school formal will continue into the future.

The executive director of Catholic Education Office Melbourne, Stephen Elder, said such decisions were best dealt with by individual schools (rather than at a systemic level) where all local concerns and sensitivities could be taken into account.

It has been eight years since Victoria's Education Department instructed state schools to allow gay couples to attend events together, because discrimination is unlawful under equal opportunity legislation.

Australia's largest youth-led organisation for LGBTI people, Minus18, welcomed Archbishop Hart's comments.

But the group said more needed to be done to make formals inclusive, by, for example, allowing trans- and gender diverse students to dress in the clothes they prefer.

Sources

• The Age
• Image: Herald Sun

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president, Archbishop Denis Hart, wrote to a parliamentary inquiry into Australia's advocacy for the abolition of the death penalty.

"The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference would be happy to assist the Australian Government where it can to make contact with appropriate Holy See diplomats," the archbishop wrote.

"It would also be pleased to assist where possible with making representations to other national governments with the assistance of the respective National Catholic Bishops Conferences," he added.

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Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart and CatholicCare have called for protection for faith-based groups that do not want to give adoption services to same-sex couples.

But, under the Victorian government's bill, faith-based groups will not be granted exemptions to refuse services to same-sex couples seeking to adopt.

A CatholicCare submission stated it risked breaching equal opportunity laws if it declined to provide adoption services to people based on sexual orientation.

"Adoption is about the best interests of the child, not about the rights for same-sex couples. It is not just or fair to impose such an agenda on adopted children," the submission said.

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He said the Church was working to improve its processes to help whistleblowers.

"I always think there's room for improvement," he said.

"I do think that one of the things that we want to do together as a community and Church is really to identify how we can do things better."

Archbishop Hart acknowledged that the Church was too slow to act in the past when dealing with paedophile priests.

He admitted that in one case the Church took 18 years to de-frock a priest, but it was "better late than never".

He said the Church was restricted by the fact that the law had to be changed and by the priest being in prison.

Archbishop Hart also admitted that one of his predecessors, Archbishop Sir Frank Little, had covered up abuse reports.

"Archbishop Little kept all these things to himself and there were no records," Archbishop Hart said.

Pressed on whether there had been a cover-up, he said: "Well I have to agree with that."

He added: "The only person who's ultimately responsible is the archbishop at the time.

"We were too slow to realise what was going on. These awful criminals are secretive and cunning."

He said he believed Archbishop Little simply couldn't believe a priest could do such a thing.

Archbishop Hart admitted that the Church had been too keen to look after itself when instructing that complaints remain confidential.

"The question of confidentiality of these matters was probably kept in one sense too much in that the Church was too keen to look after herself and her good name and not keen enough to address the terrible anguish of the victims," he said.

Questioned about compensation for victims, Archbishop Hart said he believed the payments the Church made were generous when compared with what the state paid.

Sources:

ABC News

Sydney Morning Herald

The Australian

Image: ABC News