The Rationalist Society of Australia has warned the federal government and New South Wales government that taxpayers have little appetite for funding private evangelising activities of faith groups, with an upcoming Catholic event raising the prospects of a repeat of the World Youth Day controversy.
In letters to the federal and state treasurers on Friday, the RSA sought confirmation on whether their governments would ask taxpayers to help cover the costs of the Catholic Church’s International Eucharistic Congress in Sydney in 2028.
According to media reports, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has invited Pope Leo XIV to Australia to attend the event, which the Catholic Church expects to draw thousands of people from overseas.
In 2008, the federal and state governments paid a combined $184 million to support the Catholic Church in hosting World Youth Day in Sydney, sparking a public backlash about the use of taxpayers’ money for a religious event.
In September last year, after the Vatican announced Sydney as the host of the 2028 International Eucharistic Congress, Sydney’s Catholic Archbishop, Anthony Fisher, said that he viewed the event as an evangelising opportunity.
Catholic media have reported that the event would be largest Catholic gathering held in Australia since World Youth Day 2008 and would make Sydney the global capital of Catholicism for one week. Among the highlights of the event would be the opening and closing masses and a eucharistic procession through the streets of the city.
In his letters to Jim Chalmers and Daniel Mookhey, RSA Executive Director Si Gladman said Australian taxpayers – who increasingly identify as not religious – have little appetite for funding private evangelising activities of faith groups.
“This is especially so when the faith group in question has enormous wealth and land holdings, enjoys immense benefits under tax and charity laws, and has a long and shameful record of avoiding accountability to the wider public and of frustrating the efforts of victims of child sex abuse to access fair compensation for abuse cases,” he wrote.
Mr Gladman also warned Mr Chalmers that federal government funding of the 2028 event could raise the prospect of legal challenge.
In 2007, a constitutional challenge to federal government funding of the World Youth Day event commenced in the High Court. Known as the ‘Vescio case’, it raised the argument that federal government funding of a religious and evangelising event like World Youth Day contravened the prohibition in section 116 of the Constitution that the Commonwealth shall make no law for establishing any religion.
“While the case did not proceed to full hearing for technical reasons, Justice Michael Kirby indicated in a preliminary ruling that ‘the s 116 question is reasonably arguable’. As such, there would be a real prospect that federal government funding for the 2028 event could be the subject of a legal challenge,” wrote Mr Gladman.
As the RSA reported last year, the federal government footed the travel bill for Pope Francis’ private missionary activities in Papua New Guinea.
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Si Gladman is Executive Director of the Rationalist Society of Australia. He also hosts ‘The Secular Agenda’ podcast.
Image: HM Treasury (Flickr, CC)