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Australia and the Popes

Significant events in Australia's history
during the reign of Pope John Paul II, 1978-2005

Rising standards of living:

The entire period of Pope John Paul II's pontificate in Australia is broadly characterised by rising standards of living and the access of more and more citizens to tertiary education. The nation took its place more comfortably in the world through its forays in the fields of sport, the arts, cinema, popular music and most especially through its mineral, agricultural and intellectual property exports.

Also contributing to our sense of national well-being and increasing self-confidence has no doubt been the increasing contributions Australia has been able to make to international humanitarian and peace-keeping initiatives.

As the nation took its place more comfortably in the world, Catholics took their place more comfortably as citizens within the mainstream of Australian society albeit that many of them also stopped going to church regularly. The sectarianism and discriminations that earlier generations of Catholic Australians had faced largely faded away to be memories. Many government laws encouraging equal opportunity for all Australians, equal pay for men and women, various kinds of human rights and health and safety legislation including anti-discrimination laws were actively encouraged by the Churches and reflected the new cultural sense of a nation seeking to live out the idea of "a fair go for all".

The nation welcomed many refugees from other parts of the world to the extent that our contemporary face is very multi-cultural. If anything the multi-cultural face of the Catholic Church is even more pronounced than that to be found in the general population because of the dramatic falling away from regular sacramental participation on the part of Catholics of European background.

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The textual material on these pages was sourced from a large number of places all of which can be found through the links on each page. The material was researched, assembled and produced by Brian Coyne for Catholic Australia. The images used in the Flash animations are in the public domain. Other images used are in the public domain or sourced from the webpages to which they are linked.