Women religious welcomed to join the Australian Catholic Ministry Register for the first time

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Australian Catholic Safeguarding Limited (ACSL) is pleased to announce that women religious are now invited to make use of the Australian Catholic Ministry Register (ACMR).

The ACMR is a national database which supports communication between dioceses and religious institutes about the credentialling of clerics and religious in the practice of their ministry. This allows for Church entities to satisfy the requirements of National Catholic Safeguarding Standard 5.7.1 more easily.

Women’s Orders are now being formally invited to consider whether they would benefit from use of the ACMR.

ACSL CEO Dr Ursula Stephens said that the opportunity for women to make use of the ACMR had long been intended and is now possible because of the recent completion of significant improvements to the Register.

“We are delighted to be in a position where we can formally invite women religious to use the Register and commence the process of onboarding.”

“During the establishment of the Register it had been decided to focus on clergy and male religious. We’re very proud to now be extend this invitation, both because women religious will be able to benefit from the Register and because it means that the whole Church will now have equal access to the ACMR.”

“The ACMR is an important safeguarding tool, as it allows users to manage the movement of people within their institutes and between institutes without needing to fill out multiple safeguarding declarations. This means that institutes can save a lot of time while still ensuring that people are safe and appropriately credentialed to carry out ministry across jurisdictions.”

“The improvements ACSL has made to the ACMR since integrating it into our services is a real milestone and we feel confident that the Institutes who wish to consider using the Register will find that it is easy to use and may save them a lot of the time.”

ACSL is currently in the process of writing to congregational leaders to make them aware of this opportunity and will begin processing applications for Women Religious to join the register from the 1 November 2021.

Women religious who are interested in learning more about the ACMR can find an introduction to the Register, Frequently Asked Questions and other material at our website. If they have any questions about the system, would like to discuss it or require any assistance they are welcome to call ACMR Supervisor Llywellyn O’Brien on the details below.

ACMR Supervisor, Llywellyn O’Brien     Email: ACMR@acsltd.org.au       Phone: 0448 108 101