Diocesan Leadership
Professional Development Program 2024
Welcome to the Office of Professional Standards and Safeguarding Professional Development (PD) Program for 2024. As leaders for the Catholic Diocese of Wollongong, at the centre of each of our vocations and professions is Christ. In coming together for these professional development opportunities, we go forward together with hope and humility. Let us seek the guidance, patience and wisdom of our Heavenly Father as we utilise the talents, skills and gifts he has given us to ensure the safety of all his children.
Our PD training courses have been created for those throughout the diocese who are in leadership positions, including:
Clergy
Office of the Bishop
Catholic Education
CatholicCare
Catholic Development Fund
Parish/pastoral ministries
As part of our commitment to the Child Safe Standards and the National Catholic Safeguarding Standards, the Office of Professional Standards and Safeguarding offers a variety of PD training courses that empower our leaders with information and skills to meet and exceed the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.
Attendance at training is mandatory under the direction of the bishop, and every leader within our diocese is required to complete a minimum of 10 units of PD per calendar year. Therefore, our aim is to provide a range of training options to meet your interests and needs.
To support your attendance, training is offered both online and face-to-face (at the Xavier Centre, Wollongong). We encourage you to register early in order to ensure your participation in the program of your choice as our workshops are capped and positions are limited.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us. For training inquiries, please email [email protected] or contact the team at our office on (02) 4222 2431.
Recognition and credit for prior professional development
The professional development opportunities in this program are opportunities provided by the diocese to help you in fulfilling the professional development requirement linked with your role’s leadership position. However, it should be noted that there are several external professional development courses available that will also fulfill the criteria for recognition for prior professional development. As a result, if you attend a workshop delivered by an external provider that addresses subjects related to safeguarding and professional standards, you may be eligible for credit points for your participation in the external course.
Please keep in mind that the workshop must have taken place during the same calendar year for which you are seeking credit, and evidence of attendance and completion will be required to process your application.
Applications for recognition of prior professional development have closed for 2024.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us. For training inquiries, please email [email protected] or contact the team at our office on (02) 4222 2431.
Registration for diocesan leadership modules
Registrations for diocesan leadership modules have closed for 2024. We will be releasing the 2025 module program early in the New Year on this page.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us. For training inquiries, please email [email protected] or contact the team at our office on (02) 4222 2431.
Service Agreement
Definitions
Account means the account held at your financial institution from which we are authorised to arrange for funds to be debited.
Agreement means this Direct Debit Request Service Agreement between you and us, including the direct debit request.
Business day means a day other than a Saturday or a Sunday or a listed public holiday.
Debit day means the day that payment is due.
Debit payment means a particular transaction where a debit is made, according to your direct debit request.
Direct debit request means the Direct Debit Request between us and you.
Us and we and our means the Catholic Development Fund.
You means the customer(s) who signed the direct debit request. Your financial institution is the financial institution where you hold the account that you have authorised us to arrange to debit.
Debiting your account
By submitting a direct debit request, you have authorised us to arrange for funds to be debited from your account according to the agreement we have with you.
We will only arrange for funds to be debited from your account:
As authorised in the direct debit request; if the debit day falls on a day that is not a business day, we may direct your financial institution to debit your account on the following or previous business day. If you are unsure about which day your account has or will be debited, please check with your financial
Changes by you
If you wish to stop or defer a debit payment you must write to us at least 5 business days before the next debit day.
This notice should be given to us in the first instance.
Your obligations
It is your responsibility to ensure that there are sufficient clear funds available in your account to allow a debit payment to be made.
If there are insufficient clear funds available in your account to meet a debit payment:
you or your account may be charged a fee and/or interest by your financial institution;
you or your account may be charged a fee to reimburse us for charges we have incurred for the failed transaction;
you must arrange for the payment to be made by another method
Please check your account statement to verify that the amounts debited from your account are correct.
Dispute
If you believe that there has been an error in debiting your account you should call us on 1800 047 703 and confirm the details in writing with us as soon as possible so that we can resolve your query quickly.
Accounts
You should check:
with your financial institution whether direct debiting is available from your accounts offered by financial
your account details which you have provided to us are correct by checking them against a recent account statement; and
with your financial institution before completing the direct debit request if you have any queries about how to complete the direct debit
Warning: if the account number you have quoted is incorrect, you may be charged a fee to reimburse our costs in correcting any deductions from:
an account you do not have authority to operate; or
an account you do not
Confidentiality
We will keep any information (including your account details) in your direct debit request confidential.
We will make reasonable efforts to keep any such information that we have about you secure and to ensure that any of our employees or agents who have access to information about you, do not make any unauthorised use, modification, reproduction or disclosure of that information.
However, we may use your contact details to provide information about the fund. Should you wish this not to be the case, please advise the fund in writing.
Our diocesan logo is theologically rich and very succinct. As a hand, it depicts our mission as a diocese and as individuals within the diocese, of bearing (bringing, carrying) Christ’s love to one another and to the world around us. In this, we are the hand of Jesus Christ, and we are offering ourselves to him so that he might work through us.
We can be the bearers of his love only as a response to his call and in the strength of his grace. We are reminded of this in two ways—through the symbol of the dove (the Holy Spirit) also present in the logo, and by the incorporation of the cross that segments the logo. The presence of the cross is a reminder that bearing the love of Christ will inevitably cost us if we live it authentically. However, in the way that the Cross is the portent of redemption and life—an echo of the tree of life in the book of Genesis—so becoming bearers of the love of Christ will also bring us to life.
The four fingers of the hand also represent the four regions of our diocese. The first is bluerepresenting the beautiful water of the Shoalhaven. The second is a blue and green combination representing the waters and escarpment of the Illawarra. The third is greendepicting the hills and plains of the Macarthur. The fourth is dark green illustrating the forests of the Southern Highlands.
Welcome to the Office of Professional Standards and Safeguarding Professional Development (PD) Program for 2024. As leaders for the Catholic Diocese of Wollongong, at the centre of each of our vocations and professions is Christ. In coming together for these professional development opportunities, we go forward together with hope and humility. Let us seek the guidance, patience and wisdom of our Heavenly Father as we utilise the talents, skills and gifts he has given us to ensure the safety of all his children.
