One of the most evocative words in the English language is the word “flourishing”. It is a word that provokes a wide range of poetic, personal and theological truths. The English word itself derives from the Old French word florir, which means to flower or to…
When I was in Grade 5, in my local Catholic primary school, our large and often unwieldy composite class (Grades 5 & 6) must have been a trial for any teacher. It was a strange time to be at school. Classical classrooms were making way…
To wrap up such a lively and momentous experience as last weekend’s TMC Summer Conference, “Christianity and the Common Good”, is a challenge. This week our TMC teams are aiming to “value-add” and share the wealth of content and insight from the conference with you,…
This January in the south of our continent has been a tough one for our rural and regional people. The wild winds, bursts of stinking heat and even wilder grass fires have exacted a great toll on the land, on animals, on farms and on…
On this Australia Day weekend, it seems very fitting that we encourage our wonderful readers and supporters to consider attending our forthcoming interactive conference day and dinner, which is dedicated to the topic of “Christianity and the Common Good” (book here). We are aware that…
We are probably all entering the new year of 2026 with a fragile flickering of hope and along with some trepidation. Not only are the international and national reports troubling and downright puzzling, but here in Victoria on Friday, January 9, we endured a disturbing…
In an address to the United Nations in 2006 in New York at a commission entitled, “Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism”, the Vatican’s then Permanent Observer Monsignor Celestino Migliore argued that effective national and global counter-terrorism involves a delicate and principled series of strategies and responses. He said:…
1. 100th Edition of the Thomas More Centre Newsletter It is hard to believe that we are into the second week of Advent 2025 and that this is our 100th edition of the Thomas More Centre newsletter. Huge thanks to so many of our readers…
The eminent Ratzinger scholar and theologian of culture Professor Tracey Rowland, in her 2019 book Portraits of Spiritual Nobility: Chivalry, Christendom, and Catholic Culture (Angelico Press, 2019), unfurls in a series of intimate miniatures her memories of and respect for those cultures, movements and people who exemplify…
One of the first fiction books that I read as a child was written in what I thought then was seriously small grown-up fonts. The book was C.S. Lewis’ first in The Chronicles of Narnia series, the classic The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The book, first…
Popes Benedict XVI, Francis and Leo XIV have all played a key role in the elevation of the great English convert Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890): in turn recognising him a beatus in 2010, a saint in 2019 and this month in declaring him a Doctor of…
One of most striking points that Australian author and journalist Greg Sheridan makes in his recent book How Christians Can Succeed Today: Reclaiming the Genius of the Early Church (Allen & Unwin, 2025), which we featured in last week’s newsletter and discussed with him in recent weeks, is…
It has been widely acknowledged across an array of disciplines and political perspectives that a complex web of cracks has been widening across the fabric of what was once understood as Western liberal culture. It now doesn’t take an academic or a media pundit to…
There was a sense of festival and gratitude amongst the tables of over 140 people who came together to honour the “healing” evangelist St Luke on his vigil, and to celebrate the legacy of the revered bioethicist and public philosopher Nicholas Tonti-Filippini (1956-2014). It is impossible to…
It is an eye-opening exercise to compare the overlap of time between the death of our great titular patron, St Thomas More (1478-1535) and the magnificent personality of Santa Madre Teresa or St Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582), who was born Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda Dávila y Ahumada,…
It was very refreshing to witness the considerable growth in numbers at the recent classical/liberal schools conference held in Adelaide last week. This was the fourth such conference and with over 90 attendees, it included board members, principals, parents and teachers from these new independent schools.…
This week the Thomas More Centre hosted the Melbourne book launch of Professor Tracey Rowland’s book, Remembering Cardinal George Pell: Recollections of a Great Man of the Church (Ignatius Press, 2025). Professor Rowland is the very distinguished Australian theological/cultural scholar who is renowned and in demand around the…
This week’s Thomas More Centre newsletter resonates with the life and work of the great literary and spiritual figure of the 19th century, Doctor of the Church, cardinal and saint, John Henry Newman (1801-1890). In his Mass for the beatification of the cardinal in 2008, Pope Benedict…
In many ways, the rhetoric and horror of recent weeks, particularly in the light of the appalling and fatal shooting of the 31-year-old American Christian influencer Charlie Kirk, has illustrated for many decent people around the world the lethal incoherence of what Pope Benedict XVI and…
1. Cardinal Pell: Educator and friend to the young There was the excitement of a “gala” event in the moments leading up to the Sydney book launch of Professor Tracey Rowland’s most recent book, Remembering George Cardinal Pell: Recollections of a Great Man of the Church, by…
In last week’s TMC newsletter, we recalled the voice of the philosopher Archbishop Eric D’Arcy and B.A. Santamaria in calling for an authentic “renaissance” in school-based Catholic education and particularly in religious education. We also acknowledged in that newsletter that the grounds for forming the Thomas…
“True education aims to give people a formation which is directed towards their final end and the good of that society to which they belong and in which, as adults, they will have their share of duties to perform.” -Vatican Council II, Gravissimum Educationis (n. 1). A…
It is with great sense of sad gratitude that many, especially those around the Thomas More Centre, received word that with a mysterious liturgical fittingness the retired Bishop Peter John Elliott died yesterday, August 6, on the Feast of the Transfiguration. He was 81 years old.…
“Books, you know, Charles, are like lobster-shells. We surround ourselves with ‘em, and then we grow out of ‘em and leave ‘em behind, as evidence of our earlier stages of development.” – Dorothy Sayers, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Penguin Books, 1935 This week, 90…
In the wake of the recent Home Conference hosted by the Dawson Society in Fremantle, Western Australia, many of those who attended the conference – like myself – have been provoked by the excellent presentations to continue discussing some of the issues addressed at the conference and…
This 80th edition of the Thomas More Centre’s newsletter coincides with the Catholic feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, a Marian patronage of the ancient order of hermits and contemplative women who were first founded in the 12th century in the Holy Land in…
Through this month of July, almost every second day the Church has memorials for those who have suffered and been killed witnessing to their faith in Jesus Christ – not only our great English martyrs, Saints Thomas More and John Fisher, but for those committed…
Over this last month, we at the Thomas More Centre have been exploring the symbol, reality and importance of “the home”. In part it is because the home is so central to the organic notion of human formation for good and sometimes ill. Our new…
Our martyr patron, St Thomas More (1478-1535), shares his memorial day in the Church’s liturgical calendar on June 22 with his older friend and cardinal and Bishop of Rochester, St John Fisher (1469-1535). The date June 22 is the venerable cardinal’s execution date, while More was beheaded…
The Thomas More Centre, since it was re-animated in 2023, has aimed to keep a collective ear to the ground. That is, in part, why we have launched our online conversations and our Voices of the Movement oral history project. We are listening to recover our roots…
Birthdays for older people are often embarrassing and full of unwelcome wrinkles and reminders of the passage of time. Birthdays remain important anniversaries even of those who have passed through life into the next. And this week has been a constant reminder of birthdays. We are…
In his retirement years, my father, Francis Xavier Duffy (1927-1999) and his brothers, like many Australians, became fascinated by our family history. His detective work had him browsing through newspapers, ship manifests, and church records from Galway to small Australian towns such as Maldon in…
Many of the tributes published recently for the Scottish-American social and moral philosopher Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre, who died in the United States on May 21 at the age of 96, are tinged with personal experiences and memories. That many of these originate from warring worlds…
A few years ago, in preparation for an article on the importance of cultural memory, I interviewed the organisers of what has become a most impressive and effective project called simply The Biography Program sponsored by The Knights of the Order of Malta in Victoria and Tasmania. The very…
Thanks for your patience… we encountered a technical problem publishing this TMC newsletter. Perhaps it was meant to be as this is our 70th edition of the TMC Newsletter and now coincides with the election of Pope Leo XIV. The new pope, formerly Cardinal Robert…
In these times there is much secular media and church chatter about the deliberations for the selection of the next pope in the Catholic Church. A great deal of this is simply ill-informed and stereotypical political banter. There is also some intelligent discussion which indicates…
“I am a servant of Christ, my God, and trusting in Him, I have come among you voluntarily, to bear witness concerning the Truth.” (Attributed to St George, soldier & martyred pre-315 AD) Each day during the Easter Octave is treated by the liturgy and…
The media and the online ecosystem have been alive with polarised headlines and images depicting more widely the fragmentation and social upheaval – particularly heightened since the covid-19 experience – throughout England and in the United Kingdom. As is common these days, there are vastly…
This August marks the 80th anniversary of publication of the final cosmic/dystopian volume That Hideous Strength (THS) of C.S. Lewis’ first fictional series, written well before the uber popular Narnia series. One leading educationalist has told me that he reads THS every year, partly because it is an exciting…
If there was ever the need to be reminded that nobility is a quality of the soul and character and not of social status or political power, Professor Mary (Sheehy) Shivanandan (1932-2025) was a clear and convincing demonstration. Professor Hayden Ramsay, the new president of…
Just before the opening prayers of the Mass for the Unborn Child on Sunday, March 23, attended by a full-to-standing-room congregation in St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney’s Archbishop Anthony Fisher delivered a pithy warning about the dangers of a recent bill before the NSW Parliament. The…
Like so many of the recent and more historically distant popes, St John Paul II reflects upon the centrality of St Joseph for the Christian faith. In his apostolic exhortation Redemptoris Custos or The Guardian of the Redeemer (1989), John Paul II unfurls the many forms of guardianship undertaken…
I was a multi-tasking student in my twenties. I worked at least three jobs each week, bicycling between venues: teaching RE at a girls’ college, researching bioethics at the St Vincent’s Bioethics Centre and alternatively pulling beers or popping champagne bottles at the Arts Centre…
There are reports, images and videos emerging gradually from the recent back-to-back “superstar” conferences in London recently. Australia’s Professor Tracey Rowland’s article, “A Week at Canary Wharf”, in the always topical Catholic World Report captures very well the “vibe”, the promise and the adroitly skimmed philosophical and theological differences…
At the time of writing, Pope Francis at 88 is critically ill. On the hour news commentators report him rallying, slipping and improving by small and swinging increments. It seems like the end of an era, but who can tell? In the wider world, something…
This week London Docklands, once a flurry of the creaking timbers, navvies and tarred rigging of imperial trade, has become a busy hub of big ideas by notable figures across many fields. We have yet to digest all this mind-exchange, debate and speech-giving, and perhaps…
Last Christmas, my generous and book-loving husband gave me a reprint of a now-classic book. The book, The End of the Modern World: A Search for Orientation, by the eminent Italo-German priest and theologian Fr Romano Guardini (1885-1968), has been reprinted by the Brooklyn-based publishers, Angelico Press.…
There was a sense of a convivial but important moment in the room earlier this week in Melbourne. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the launch of Dr Kevin Donnelly’s edition of Defend the West: The Culture of Freedom with my husband, Anthony. The…
In 1943, Australia was living in the shadow of World War II which it had entered as a nation in 1939 under prime minister Robert Menzies. The global war against tyranny had become all too real for Australia. In 1942 there was the Japanese bombing…
An experienced and grounded mental health professional remarked in an informal and recent conversation: “Everyone I speak with is weary and anxious … they are certainly not ready for 2025.” I have noticed this phenomenon. Even though time waits for not one of us, it…
When I was young, I often wondered how it was that my father, Francis Xavier Duffy (1927-99) – a father of 11 children with a travelling full-time profession, a garage full of furniture repair and making, and a garden that was as close to self-sufficient…
My last public appearance for the Thomas More Centre in 2024 was a joyful one. It started with an invitation from Katrina Currell (from St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Timboon) to talk about the vision and the work of the Thomas More Centre with representatives from…
In an intriguing and lyrical short poem, the Nobel Prize-winning, Anglo-Irish, Celtic-revivalist poet William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) in The Seven Sages grazes over the passing on of tangible wisdom, humility and narrative from one generation to the next. In the poem Yeats published in 1933…
The weeks in the wake of the American celebration of Thanksgiving are always salutary for us in Australia. We so often think of ourselves as self-made or we take our good fortune lazily for granted. Actually, it is impossible to take the life of the…
In 1989, the writer Paul Gray published an intriguing interview in the AD2000 journal in which he asks the great agnostic late 20th-century Polish philosopher, Leszek Kołakowski (1927-2009), to comment upon the state and role of the Catholic Church. He answered plainly that the role…
In a simple brochure about the Thomas More Centre, we try to convey something of a potted overview of the mission and aims of the TMC. We explain that the TMC is a “formational movement” that aims to foster “the common good” in the development of an…
Great public intellectuals are not common in the self-consciously pragmatic culture of Australia. Even rarer is it to find a philosopher who draws from an unapologetically faith-informed mind and hope-guided experience of long-term chronic pain and illness. The late, widely revered Catholic ethicist, Professor Nicholas…
This week, we’re taking the opportunity to provide an update concerning TMC events, courses, and interviews. UPCOMING EVENTS BRISBANE: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27 – TALK ON COURAGE. Dr Craig Heilman will be giving a TMC talk at Indooroopilly Library entitled, “The Virtue of Courage: Can it Still…
A series of original and helpful travel books include those written by the artist, photographer and writer, the English-born Siobhan Wall. The books are all headed by the word “quiet” – hence her books include: Quiet London, Quiet New York, Quiet Barcelona and variations on…
The most recent Thomas More Centre event in Melbourne had a positively festive air. For so many years, many of our friends in Melbourne have lived under a type of existential pall. So many factors have come together to weave this cloth. To name but…
Realistic hope has been a feature of the early years and founders of the Thomas More Centre. It was a hope carried on by the pursuit of deep faith, intelligent discussion and rich friendships. We aim to carry that on today. Sometimes, that involves working…
We extend a cordial invitation to you for our special book launch event with the renowned Australian theologian, Professor Tracey Rowland. Professor Rowland is currently the John Paul II Research Professor at the University of Notre Dame Australia and a member of the Pontifical Academy…
It may have struck people as unduly militant, but our first in-person event for the Thomas More Centre in Melbourne was a conversation with Catholic priest, broadcaster, activist and scholar Fr Sam Randall on the topic, “Communities of Resistance”. The title was chosen carefully. It…
Despite the highly secularised and anti-theistic forces dominating the modern era, one of the most instantly and globally recognised women of our times is Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Since her canonisation in 2016, Mother Teresa’s universal feast day has been celebrated on September 5 each…
So often in our discussions about the Thomas More Centre and our exploration of contemporary ways to refresh it for the future, we bump into memories of events and inspirational figures from the past. Some of these figures are vividly alive through their words and…
One of the strengths of an extended Catholic family is the great richness of surprise, learning and conversation it affords, even at odd hours of the day or night. When I was in my early 20s, I recall a very memorable and spontaneous encounter with…
In his insightful and now classic book about St Thomas Aquinas, G.K. Chesterton reflects on the cultural and religious importance of saints at certain points or epochs of history. Chesterton calls these heroes of holiness powerful “antidotes” against the moral, intellectual and spiritual diseases of their…
Anna is taking a break from the newsletter this week, so we’re sending through a simple bulletin letting you know what we’re up to. Concerning our recent activities, the first thing to note is that we’ve posted four videos to our YouTube channel. These include Mark’s…
The Olympic Games in Paris are teaching us many things. One thing is clear: that the moral, historical and artistic language and symbolism of Europe’s secular elite are clearly incoherent and bankrupt. The notorious “drag supper” tableau on the river Seine has been called out…
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…
1. What is Paideia? It was a great honour to be one of the speakers at an engaging colloquium entitled, “Authentic Humanism and the Crisis of Culture”. The day-long event on July 6 took place in the Italian Club in Hobart, and was hosted by Dr…
There is a word, originally of French derivation: élan. That word captures well the people and the atmosphere at this year’s week-long YPAT program, which concluded on Monday, July 1 in Campion College, Sydney. Élan conveys a sense of fresh energy, confident style and a certain flair…
In the New Testament, the Greek word oikia is used to encompass several important social realities. The word can mean dwelling place but it also captures the immediate context of our social belonging; our household along with its cultural and religious matrix. The term reaches…
I played an amusing game with the AI (artificial intelligence) search function on my computer yesterday. I asked the ghosts of the ether a bland question: “What is the role of G.K. Chesterton?” About a quarter of a minute later the nifty little digital elves…
I have a vivid and decades-old memory of this day: the Feast of Our Lady Help of Christians. It is of a plain parish school hall with bare floorboards and hard seats. A whole school of primary children heave to their collective feet, enthusiastically billowing…
The month of April and May in Western Australia are important for pro-lifers as this is when the prayer vigils during Lent commence and when abortion was legalised in WA. In keeping with this theme, the Thomas More Centre in Perth decided to focus their…
On Tuesday this week, I was very honoured to be invited to speak with the newly formed young women’s discussion group that met at Campion College in Sydney. We unpacked the lapidary term, “the culture of life”, first coined by Pope St John Paul II…
In 1994, Pope John Paul II was everywhere. In this year, he shored up his work on the nature of moral theology from the year before, evangelised on the dignity of the person, established diplomatic relations with Israel and underlined the importance of the family…
There is a sense of national and personal shock around Australia this week. Six people (five women and a man) and their attacker at the Bondi Junction knife attack are dead. Each death, including that of the disturbed attacker, sends ripples of tragedy into their…
“For if you do not understand a man you cannot crush him. And if you do understand him, very probably you will not.” (Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Humanitarianism and Strength, c. 1908) This telling comment, like so many by G.K. Chesterton, comes from an article invariably…
Unfortunately, we don’t have Anna writing our newsletter this week. Many of you have written to say how much you enjoy her reflections, and we hope to publish them all on a blog soon. In the meantime, if you’d like to access any of the…
I have been surprised and delighted to meet with and hear from some of the first generation of Thomas More Centre participants. Now some of these men and women have growing adolescent and young adult children of their own. They recount memories of their TMC…
St Thomas More, our centre’s titular inspiration and patron saint, was a master of words across a number of tongues. He was a prodigious letter writer, a poet, a composer of prayers, an orator and a legislator. Thomas More was not a mere literary stylist.…
“He was shocked by their mediocrity, cultural and spiritual. He could not understand why these young priests were setting out to make a professional career of clerical advancement. He rarely discovered one with an “authentic passion for study. They were so little curious to understand…
The activity of the Thomas More Centre in the online space is picking up! Two interviews – one with Alex Dee and the other with Larry Chapp – have been posted to our YouTube channel, while three more interviews are due to be posted over the…
Our mission at the Thomas More Centre is to promote the enduring tradition of Christian intellectual, cultural, and contemplative thought. To this end, we are fostering open-minded and stimulating conversations about subjects that concern the human condition and the common good. Because personal connection is…
Despite unprecedented access to a multitude of media tools and stimulation, many people today experience profound existential isolation, mental confusion and the fracturing of identity. Different generations have their own digital intoxicants of choice – Facebook, Tumblr, Snapchat – each platform creating and clamouring for…
Many (many) years ago, while working in bioethics, I was invited by some teachers to a Catholic boys’ school to talk to the students about virtue and the culture of life. I was tempted to drop the phone (yes, it was what is now a…
In this newsletter, we will once again reminisce about the wonderful experience that is the Democratic Conference. On a warm and sunny weekend in Sydney, from February 2 to 3 in the beautiful facilities and grounds of Campion College, the National Civic Council – along…
We have had an amazing weekend! Great company, great conversations, great community building. Soon we’ll be on the road, driving back from the amazing experience that was the Democratic Conference 2024, but we just had to give you a brief report while we digest the…
Welcome to the latest Thomas More Centre newsletter. On Thursday, January 25 in Brisbane, our Queensland organiser and scripture enthusiast Mark Makowiecki followed up his earlier talk on the ‘new Adam’ with another entitled, “The New Eve: How Mary Undoes the Fall of Woman in…
Catholic bishops have the responsibility to be “governors and sometimes judges, as well as teachers and sacramental celebrants, and are not just wall flowers or rubber stamps”. These typically punchy and memorable words were written by Cardinal George Pell, in an article in The Spectator magazine that…
On Thursday, January 11, the Brisbane branch of the Thomas More Centre began the year with a talk by our very own Mark Makowiecki entitled “The New Adam: How Jesus Undoes the Fall of Man in the Gospel of John”. About a dozen people gathered…
Happy New Year and welcome to the first Thomas More Centre newsletter of 2024! Since the launch of the ‘TMC redux’ last June, we’ve been building up our capacity to produce edifying content and deliver informative events such that 2024 promises to be a big,…
Thank you for your friendship and interest in the revival of the Thomas More Centre throughout 2023! It has been wonderful to receive so many encouraging emails, letters, and phone messages about the TMC and our Social and Cultural Studies this year. 1. Thoughts to…
On Friday, December 1, the Thomas More Centre held a Christmas lunch for approximately 40 sponsors, volunteers, and friends of the National Civic Council and Australian Family Association in Perth. Warwick D’Silva, West Australian manager of the Thomas More Centre, welcomed all present at the…
In a way, no great idea is completely fatherless or motherless. Looking from afar, it may seem curious that two thoroughly Mediterranean-Australian brothers, Dr Joe and Bob Santamaria, should dedicate their collaborative formational and cultural project – the Thomas More Centre – under the banner…
Events are in full swing at the Thomas More Centre around the country, just before the year comes to a close. In Perth, a few young people joined NCC WA president and TMC youth officer for WA, Warwick D’Silva, in the office to talk about…
Last week’s Thomas More Centre newsletter was an engaging piece by Mark Makowiecki, our Queensland organiser. In it Mark reports and reflects upon a talk given in Brisbane for the TMC in early November by writer and Chesterton Society Secretary, Gary Furnell. Gary’s talk touched…
In the wake of Anna’s wonderful reflection on the nature of “creativeminorities” last Wednesday, it was fitting that a group of us gatheredin Brisbane on Thursday, November 9 to hear Gary Furnell speak about the creative genius in a talk entitled, ‘Jacques Maritain and the…
It is very clear that in addition to his great service to the public and religious domains of the realm and of Europe of his time, our great namesake, Saint Thomas More, remains both a stellar but also very practical prophet of cultural, spiritual and…
Since launching the Thomas More Centre digital newsletter a fortnight ago, TMC executive director Anna Krohn has been busy outlining the importance of fostering “creative minorities” – of building a movement that holds firmly to the unchanging principles of Christian social teaching while adapting itself…
This week we are with colleagues on the road in the Victorian regional cities of Geelong, Bendigo and Ballarat. At the dinners I am explaining some of the elements of what I like to call the “Thomas More Redux” movement. A few puzzled people have asked, “Why…
This week, eyes are on the outcome of the October 2023 referendum on the “Voice to Parliament” and coming to grips with the meaning of the demographics and the voting patterns. There is a temptation to “tidy” the results into polarities. In reality, neither the…