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From Convicts to High Court Judges
James Franklin’s latest book, Catholic Thought and Catholic Action, is a superbly engaging account of dramatic moments and characters from Australian Catholic history. It includes stories of the heroic, the good, the bad and the ugly, uniquely blending an Australian-style Canaletto canvas with a wide-visioned Namatjira landscape. With an array of fascinating historical photos, there is continual interpolation between the local stories and their wider historical contexts.
As the new arrivals first set foot on Australian soil, the French Revolution and Irish rebellions echo in the background. Franklin highlights from the outset that it was not only bodies that were transported from 1788 onwards, but also ideas of justice and dignity, which the new bedraggled Catholic convicts carried with them, however imperfectly they represented this new phase of salvation history. They “embodied a tradition of ideas and ideas-led action different from the rest of the population”, a…
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins