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…