Patricia Madigan

Recognising her as a respected academic and professional, the Australian Human Rights Commission commissioned her to write a discussion paper, "Freedom of religion, gender and belief: a Catholic perspective" for its Report on Freedom of Religion and Belief in 21st Century Australia.

In her paper, Madigan wrote "Religious authorities have often made women’s bodies the turf on which their own power struggles are played out...Women will need to walk a freedom road that is both material and spiritual...Religions need to examine how their teachings, practices and structures add strength to world systems that exploit women and contribute to women’s marginalization and disempowerment...Today, many Catholic women, faithful to their religious tradition, are challenging fundamentalist religious teachings which diminish them...Gender equality in both church and society is ‘mission-critical’ to poverty reduction and international peace and security, and power holders must answer for their performance in advancing women’s rights."

After the Arab Spring, Madigan published Women and Fundamentalism in Islam and Catholicism, one reviewer noted the timeliness of her work as much as its content.

Patricia (Trish) Madigan (born 1950) is an Australian religious sister, a member and leader of the Dominican Sisters of Eastern Australia and the Solomon Islands and Executive Director of the Dominican Centre for Interfaith Ministry Education and Research (CIMER).

Madigan is known nationally and internationally as "a leader in ecumenical and interfaith relations in the Catholic Church in Australia".

Patricia Madigan was born in 1950.

She entered the religious life and became a religious sister as a member of The Dominican Sisters of Eastern Australia and the Solomon Islands.

Madigan has a Bachelor of Humanities (History and Mathematics) and Diploma of Education from La Trobe University, Melbourne and University of New England; Bachelor of Divinity (major in New Testament), Melbourne College of Divinity; Master of Philosophy from the Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College, Dublin; was a resident graduate at Harvard Divinity School; Research Fellow, Institute of Gender and Women’s Studies, American University of Cairo, Egypt; then earned a doctorate in Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Sydney.

After beginning her career as a secondary school teacher and university chaplain, Madigan has worked predominantly in ecumenical and interfaith ministry in Sydney, Australia.

In 2002 Madigan participated in a Consultation of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue for the Asian region held in Seoul, South Korea.

She was a foundation member of the Women's Interfaith Network (WIN) in Sydney and a Christian representative on the Australian National Dialogue of Christians, Muslims and Jews (ANDCMJ), Australia's peak inter-religious body and was the former Director of the Commission for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations in the Catholic Diocese of Broken Bay (2003–2013) and the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney (1997–2003).

Between 2004 and 2012 Madigan was an Australian government-appointed delegate at five regional inter-governmental conferences of the Asia-Pacific Dialogue on Regional Interfaith Cooperation for Peace, Development and Human Dignity.

She was a presenter at the 2009 Parliament of World Religions and a speaker at the 2014 G20 Interfaith Forum.

She is a former member of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Advisory Committee for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations and the former Chair of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Council for Australian Catholic Women (CACW).

Madigan is the author of many books and articles about interreligious dialogue and also writes about the status of women in the Catholic Church and in other religions.

As chair of the Council for Australian Catholic Women, in 2018 Madigan was interviewed on the Catholic community's response to domestic violence and in 2019 was interviewed by the Australian Broadcasting Commission's Radio National program on the Nuns Too movement.