Sky News' favourite college opens Cardinal George Pell hall
The folk at Sky News aren't too fond of universities, suspecting them to be overrun by woke academics and young communists doing eight-year arts degrees while minoring in pro-Palestinian protests.
But the News Corp channel has a lot of love for Campion College, a small Catholic higher education institution in western Sydney, where students learn the good stuff – Western civilisation, the great books, philosophy – all taught without a hint of woke. The small college's alumni are over-represented among staff at the network, whose presenters have given it a few glowing tributes on air.
The college remains a safe haven for other conservatives too – its board of trustees includes former ACT Liberal senator Zed Seselja and former conservative shop assistants union boss Joe de Bruyn, whose anti-abortion tirade at an Australian Catholic University graduation ceremony last year led to a student walk-out.
More recently, the college came up with a tribute to another figure idolised by conservative Catholics, unveiling a new grand hall named after the late Cardinal George Pell, who spent 404 days in prison after being convicted of child sex abuse charges which were quashed on appeal by the High Court.
The hall's opening was attended by former Liberal prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott. Both men were passionate supporters of Pell after his initial conviction, with Howard providing a formal character reference to the Victorian County Court ahead of the cardinal's sentencing. Abbott delivered a eulogy at Pell's funeral in 2023, where he described the cardinal as having undergone 'a modern-day crucifixion'.
At Campion's event, the pair both spoke glowingly about Pell's 'dedication to faith, justice, and public service,' the college said in its latest newsletter.
'His tenacity and his strength and his resilience would've broken most of us, but not him. And he was sustained in that by his resolute faith,' Howard said.
Where did Campion get the money? According to its recent newsletter, the Pell hall and name came thanks to the largesse of a particularly generous anonymous donor. Naturally, our suspicions immediately fell on Australia's richest person Gina Rinehart — the billionaire mining magnate has a library at Campion College named in her honour after providing what the college called 'a transformative donation'.
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