Church builds reach
THE Catholic Church, or its related entities, employ more than 4000 people, pay $ 182 million in wages and deal with tens of thousands of clients and students every year in the Townsville diocese.
Bishop of Townsville Tim Harris provided the statistics to highlight the importance, and growing reach, of its school system at a Bishop’s Business Breakfast.
“The schools are growing. I can only put that down to the leadership that we’ve had in the diocese,” Bishop Harris said.
“Many of our students are not Catholics, their parents are not Catholics, but they sense that everyone is welcome.
“It’s interesting this debate that’s going on at the moment about our right to discriminate. You go to a Catholic school and I don’t think there’s too much discrimination going on.”
About students are en- rolled in the 30 Catholic schools across the diocese, amounting to 26 per cent of all primary students and 34.6 per cent of secondary students.
Centrecare North Queensland attends to 11,000 clients, while other organisations providing services in the region include North West Queensland Indigenous Catholic Social Services, Mercy Community Services, St Vincent de Paul and Ozcare.
“We employ 2581 staff in our systemic schools with a wages bill of $ 142 million,” Bishop Harris said.
“While Ignatius Park College and St Patrick’s College do not directly come under my day- to- day oversight, they are part of our Catholic family of schools and educate nearly 1500 students and employ 246 staff with a wages bill of nearly $ 21 million.”
More than $ 32 million in construction was undertaken in Catholic schools, with another $ 38 million worth of projects, including at Southern Cross Catholic College, being undertaken this year.