It has been so refreshing to spend time with the fresh and nimble-minded young people at the YPAT retreat some weeks ago. It was especially delightful to have some donors and mentors from the earlier Thomas More Centre (TMC).

TMC is uniquely blessed with this intergenerational continuity of interest and affection.

This week we want to pay a timely tribute to two very different but authentically Australian priestly patrons to the TMC: one a long-serving parish priest who tirelessly promoted a deepening sense of vocation amongst the baptised, and the other a bishop with a keen devotion to Catholic social teaching and the ethics of life.

Fr Carl Ashton had a powerful influence in the lives of his parishioners and those working in the Australian Family Association and the TMC. The first anniversary of his death falls this July and he provides a model for the many dedicated parish priests who, with prayer, sacrament and sound teaching, support lively lay involvement in important issues.

Fr Ashton served as a parish priest for 60 years in the Parramatta Diocese, serving at the parish of Mt Druitt South for an astonishing 42 years. As befitted his demanding post, he was humble, austere and tough-minded. He was firm but softly spoken, traditional and pastorally expansive, teaching scripture class in the state school each week and travelling across Sydney to attend and carefully follow public talks and lectures.

Born in Sydney in 1937 and ordained in July 1962, Fr Ashton only retired from his parish during the covid19 pandemic due to a frailty of voice. During the long era of his priestly ministry, Fr Ashton supported lay groups and encouraged his people to become socially involved in life issues and the common good. He openly promoted the active reading of AD2000 and News Weekly, at times swimming against the fashionable tides within the Church.

Bishop Emeritus Kevin Manning died last week at the age of 90, another hard-working and energetic supporter and patron of lay formation and the TMC.

Bishop Manning died in his home region of Bathurst. He was born in Coolah – the second of a family of seven children – during a time of economic hardship and the Depression.

Throughout his life he retained a keen sensitivity to workplace ethics and relations, directly addressing the issues of the theology of work, justice for migrants and in reaching out to other Christians and faiths to expand the Church’s mission in this area.

Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher told The Catholic Weekly: “Bishop Kevin Manning was my predecessor as Bishop of Parramatta (1997-2010), having previously served as Bishop of Armidale (1991-97) and later taking on the administration of the Diocese of Wilcannia-Forbes as a ‘retirement’ job (2010-12) … Behind all these achievements there was a no-nonsense country boy, a humble man of God, and a good shepherd.”

Bishop Manning served in the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference as secretary and was concerned about the response to new medical technologies and ethical challenges. According to Dr Mary Walsh, her husband Dr Nicholas Tonti-Filippini – Australia’s first public bioethicist – was approached and supported by Bishop Manning to work as a researcher and secretary for the Bishops’ Conference.

Bishop Manning actively contributed to the early TMC Summer Schools and talks. He provided the support and land to the new Campion College and oversaw its opening in 2006.

In 1994, while Bishop of Armidale, Bishop Manning was the keynote speaker at the TMC Summer School in Melbourne. He gave a paper explaining and promoting Pope St John Paul II’s important renewal and restatement of the foundations of Catholic moral teaching: Veritatis Splendor (1993).

He said on that occasion, presciently in light of more recent “identity” ethics: “When we become radically individualistic, we do not obey or discern what is objectively true. Rather we decide for ourselves what is 'true'. We create our own 'truth'.”

The bishop also defended the importance of moral and intellectual formation of the faithful using his own plain-speaking gift for communication along with citations from the Pope’s document: “Conscience can fail for it is “an eye in need of light, a voice in need of supporting voice from law and authority”. Its machinery can malfunction. Hence its judgment is not measured by deserting objective truth but by searching insistently.”

In 1998 and 1999, Bishop Manning encouraged a TMC Summer School in Parramatta and was keynote speaker at a Spring School in Sydney. At this event the Bishop gave a memorable talk about a topic long close to his heart – the importance of lay disciples and the spirituality of work.

He told his audience, in words which lose none of their vitality today: “You are the ones who are going to change the workplace. You draw your spiritual energy from the altar, from (Christ’s) Sacrifice. You take it and apply it wherever you are, so that you are consecrating the world.”

Anna Krohn
Executive Director
Thomas More Centre