The National Centre for Pastoral Research is an agency of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
The previous iterations of the name of the agency are Pastoral Research Office (1996 – 2011) and Pastoral Projects Office (2012 – 2018).
The Office was established in 1996. Until 2003, it was located in Clayton, Victoria, on the premises of Corpus Christi College, the seminary for the dioceses of Victoria and Tasmania. It moved to the Fitzroy (Melbourne) campus of Australian Catholic University in February 2004. In January 2018, the agency moved to Canberra and is now located in Braddon. A Melbourne wing of the office is located in Box Hill, on the premises of the University of Divinity.
The National Centre for Pastoral Research has ongoing responsibility for:
- Carrying out the National Catholic Census Project (1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016 and 2021), including the dissemination of results to parishes and dioceses.
- Carrying out and reporting the results of the National Count of Attendance (2001, 2006, 2011, 2016 and 2021).
- Catholic participation in the National Church Life Surveys (2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016).
- Providing assistance to dioceses, Catholic Education Offices and other Catholic agencies in the understanding and use of NCLS and Census data.
- Providing research and pastoral planning consultancy services to dioceses and Catholic agencies.
We also undertake topical projects from time to time. These include:
- Synod on Synodality (ongoing)
- A Profile of Catholic Clergy (2024)
- Evaluating the Implementation of “Woman and Man: The Bishops Respond” (Social Justice Sunday Statement 2000) (2024 – 2025)
- Absent From the Table: Australian Catholics who do not regularly attend Sunday Mass (2024 – 2025)
- Plenary Council 2020
- Pedagogy Development: Building on Positive Learnings from COVID-19 (2021 – 2022)
- Review of the Australian Catholic Youth Festival (2020)
- Professional Development for Bishops Survey (2020)
- Church Governance Survey (2019)
- Survey of Religious Congregations in Australia 2018 (2018-2019)
- Understanding Religious Vocation in Australia Today (2014 – 2018)
- Our Work Matters: Catholic Church employers and employees in Australia (2015 – 2017)
- ‘Building Stronger Parishes’ (2009 – 2015)
Click here for our complete list of projects