Catholic liberal arts college plastered with Nazi graffiti

Sydney’s Campion College was plastered with violent Nazi messages and swastikas over the summer break.

A Nazi graffiti attack on Campion College, Parramatta.

Australia’s only Catholic liberal arts tertiary institution, Campion College at Parramatta, was plastered with violent Nazi messages and swastikas over the summer break.

College president Paul Morrissey said the graffiti, including “die’’, “we love Hitler’’ and various obscenities was discovered after the Christmas shutdown, the only week in the year the premises were unattended.

“It’s something we never thought we’d see atCampion, it made us feel sick,’’ Dr Morrissey said.

Nazi graffiti attack on Campion College, Parramatta.

In the wake of Hamas’s October 7 massacre of 1200 people and the kidnapping of 240 hostages in Israel, dozens of Jewish sites around Australia have been plastered with such graffiti, including homes, shops, synagogues and Jewish centres.

Campion College, which is ­secluded from the road, is set in leafy grounds, secured by a 1.5m fence. The vandals defaced the chapel door with a swastika as well as parts of the original building, the only areas of the campus not covered by CCTV footage.

Security and surveillance have since been boosted. Police have not caught the culprits.

Dr Morrissey ­believes the college was targeted “because of what we stand for, including the Judaeo-Christian tradition, the value of Western civilisation and freedom of religion’’.

Campion’s degree and diploma courses follow a core curriculum covering history, literature, philosophy, theology and science, based on the study of the great books.

The college has several prominent Jewish supporters, including Australia Jewish Association president David Adler. Rabbi ­Shimon Cowen, director of the ­Institute for Judaism and Civilisation, is an honorary fellow of the college.

Clearing the graffiti was a big job, in time for a summer holiday school for students.

The new academic year begins at Campion later this month with an enrolment of about 200 students.