About the Author

Gerard O'Shea is Professor of Religious Education and assistant dean of the School of Education at the University of Notre Dame, Australia (Sydney campus). His professional experience spans every level of religious education: as a father in a family; a catechist in the parish; a teacher in Catholic schools; a lecturer in undergraduate teaching programs; and a supervisor of doctoral dissertations. He spent over thirty years as a teacher and principal in Catholic schools before taking up an academic position. The combination of practical experience underpinned by academic research is a key characteristic of his published work. Gerard is fully trained in Sofia Cavalletti's Catechesis of the Good Shepherd and was one of the lead writers for the Australian religious education text series "To Know, Worship and Love." He has consulted widely in the field of religious education for Australian Catholic dioceses and recently recorded eight sessions for the Catechetical Institute of the Franciscan University of Steubenville. His handbook for training parents to educate their own children in a Christian vision of sexuality, "As I Have Loved You," has been very well received and is being used throughout the English-speaking world. Gerard and his wife Anne have five adult children and nine grandchildren. They served a five-year term as president couple for the National Association of Catholic Families, and were sent as Australian delegates to the World Meeting of Families in Mexico City, 2008.