Peter Wilkinson
Dr Peter Wilkinson, DMiss.(PUG), BEd., is a missiologist and former Columban missionary priest. He has worked as Director of the Clearing House on Migration Issues (CHOMI) at the Ecumenical Migration Centre, Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs, and Guest Lecturer in Missiology at Yarra Theological Union. Dr Peter Wilkinson is a missiologist and co-author with Professor Des Cahill of the RMIT report on child sexual abuse. He is married and now retired.
Peter's recent articles
25 May 2020
PETER WILKINSON AND GAIL GROSSMAN FREYNE. Historic Church Governance Report locked down by Australian Bishops
On 4 May 2020 the Project Team commissioned by the Australian bishops and religious superiors to review the Catholic Churchs governance and management structures, presented its 200-page final report. Its 86 recommendations include the need for greater transparency and co-responsibility. The decision of the bishops to withhold the report from public view for at least 6 months has shocked many Catholics.
28 December 2018
All we want for Christmas is bishops who listen and act
This is amodified version of the Christmas editorial ofCatholics for Renewal, an Australian group seeking to make the Catholic church more Christ-like. Itishoped that the Australian ChurchsPlenary Council, to be held over two sessions in 2020 and 2021 and the first since 1937,will beenergised by the condemnations of the Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. For the Plenary Council in 2020/21 to deliver, individual bishops must engage and listen to the people of their dioceses.
19 November 2017
Catholic Church 2020 Plenary Council: bishops must tap into the grassroots without delay
The Catholic Church in Australia is in the midst of a massive and existential crisis, the greatest in its history. The Catholic bishops have responded by proposing a Plenary Council in 2020. They say it will no longer be business as usual and have promised to consult the whole Church. But no changes to business as usual and no consultation plans have been announced, and no guarantees given that every bishop will buy in. The consultation must begin without delay and start at the grassroots.