September 16, 2002

Dr. Derek Whitehead
New 2LD Panel Chair
.au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA)
107 Faraday Street
Carlton VIC 3053

Dear Dr. Whitehead:

	Re:  Support for "catholic.au" proposal

We have been informed that, as part of its new second level domain (2LD) selection process, auDA
is seeking evidence of community support for applications currently under consideration.  This
letter is to register the support of The Australian Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes
(ALCRI) for the "catholic.au" proposal submitted by Church Resources on behalf of the Australian
Catholic Bishops Conference.

ACLRI is the formal association of Leaders of Religious Institutes (Religious Priests, Brothers and
Sisters) in Australia.  As such it is the peak body for these organisations.  There are currently around
190 Catholic Religious Congregations, Orders and Associations of Christ's Faithful in Australia
who are members for ACLRI.  This represents more than 10,000 Religious serving in a host of
spiritually, remote rural and aboriginal communities, social justice forums, refugee assistance
agencies, neighbourhood care facilities and many other works established in response to the values
of Christianity and for the promotion of its knowledge, practice and services benefitting our society.

ACLRI and its members recognise the opportunities that the Internet brings to all of Australian
society, includings its communities.  We are concerned, however, that the current system for the 
registration domain names under .au will not be sustainable for the Catholic community in the long
term.  The present arrangement means that addresses for Catholic organisations and institutions,
located in a variety of third level domains under .au, are often long, making it difficult for users to
find resources on the Internet.  The simplification of the system will benefit all Australian Internet
users who interact with and take advantage of services offered by Catholic institutions.

Furthermore, since Church institutions offer a variety of fundamental social, education and
healthcare services to Australians nationwide, ACLRI hopes that the proposal will receive fair
review from the auDA new 2LD review panel.  We look forward to your positive recommendation
and the successful implementation of catholic.au.


Yours sincerely,


Sr Mary Cresp RSJ
Executive Director


Cc:	The Hon. Senator Richard Alston, Minister for Communications, Information Technology
and the Arts
Chris Disspain, auDA Chief Executive Officer
Jo Lim, auDA Chief Policy Officer
Tony Staley, auDA Chairman
Reverend Father Michael Kelly SJ, Chief Executive Officer, Church Resources