Columban Fathers Patrick McInerney and Robert McCulloch have been honoured for their contributions to Interfaith dialogue and healthcare respectively, the Columban eBulletin reports.
Fr Patrick has been named the inaugural recipient of the University of Notre Dame Australia’s Interfaith Dialogue Award.
Rev Dr Patrick McInerney receives the inaugural recipient of the Interfaith Dialogue Award from Abbas Raza Alvi, President of the Indian Crescent Society of Australia. PHOTO: CCCMR, via Columban eBulletin.
The award was announced by Professor Michael Quinlan, national head of Notre Dame University’s School of Law and Business, and presented to Fr McInerney by Abbas Raza Alvi, president of the Indian Crescent Society of Australia, and Elder Philip Barton of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The presentation took place at the university’s Broadway campus in Sydney at the 11th Annual Religious Liberty Lecture on September 11.
As a missionary priest, Fr Patrick was assigned to Pakistan for more than 20 years. He has a Licentiate from the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies in Rome (1986), a Master’s of Theology from the Melbourne College of Divinity (2003) and a Doctor of Philosophy from the Australian Catholic University (2009).
Fr Patrick is the director of the Columban Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations, editor of its quarterly newsletter, Bridges, and an interfaith advocate on its social media platforms.
He is a member of a number of interfaith organisations and gives talks on Islam, Christian-Muslim Relations, and Interreligious Relations to a wide variety of audiences.
In his acceptance speech, Fr Patrick expressed gratitude and appreciation for the recognition he received, but noted that interfaith is about encounter and cooperation with others.
Meanwhile, Fr Robert was presented with Pakistan’s Extraordinary Achievement Award 2025 by Chaudhry Salik Hussain, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Human Resources Development.
Fr Robert McCulloch is presented with the Extraordinary Achievement Award 2025 on 16 September 2025. PHOTO: Fr Robert McCulloch, via Columban eBulletin.
The presentation took place on 16 September during a function hosted by Ambassador Ali Javed at the Pakistan Embassy in Rome.
Fr Robert, an Australian member of the Missionary Society of St Columban, was honoured for his contribution to Pakistan in 2025 in the field of healthcare at St Elizabeth Hospital Hyderabad. This includes the construction of a new Palliative Care Day Centre at St Elizabeth which will be blessed and opened on 17 October and is the first such palliative care facility in Pakistan. St Elizabeth is already the palliative care leader in Pakistan through its free home-based palliative care nursing.
Fr Robert has also facilitated collaboration between St Elizabeth Hospital and Mater Hospital Brisbane with a MoU due to be signed this month for teaching at St Elizabeth School of Nursing and for clinical nursing development at St Elizabeth by personnel from Mater Hospital.
This article was drawn from two articles in the Columban eBulletin. Visit the original article on Fr Patrick’s award here and Fr Robert’s award here.