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 Victoria. It also involved him reaching out to other people to listen to their memories and interests.
My Dad was, in a way, a contemporary example of the long Irish cultural form of the seanchaí, which means something like “a lore bearer” – an agent of history, story, and memory. Like many other Duffys over the centuries, he was a “wordsmith”: Duffys were orators, publishers, journalists, writers, poets, bards and even theologians back over 1000 years, and they continue to be today.
Many other cultures of course have similar ancestral “storylines” and figures.
One of the fascinating things about digging up archival records of our ancestors is that it enriches and sometimes revolutionises our own stories of ourselves. As for oral histories, they infuse the “hard evidence” of physical records with colour, subjectivity and personality. Physical and oral evidence provides us with a genealogy which also incarnates our ancestors in a particular place on the Earth. We realize that these people were also agents and observers in the wider more public cultural history of certain times.
And just as families have interesting interrelationships and storylines, so do important ideas and philosophies. This is especially true of the “folk” of the Catholic Social Studies Movement – of which the Thomas More Centre is a direct descendent.
This brings me to our “Voices of the Movement” project, concerning which I’d like to thank all of our readers who have responded with enthusiasm and donations. Mark has established a registrar of “voices” (and will be driving out to conduct two interviews next week) and I am completing a template and guidelines for those wishing to take part in this promising work. Shortly we will have a simple project kit and other support get this started in earnest.
Conversations this week
Here at the Thomas More Centre we have had a wealth of live and recorded conversation.
Over at our YouTube channel, Mark has just launched another lively and intelligently engaged interview with the English patristics scholar, Fr John Behr (1966-).
Fr Behr is an Orthodox priest who holds the unusual post of Regius Professor of Humanity at the University of Aberdeen. He studied under the eminent Father Kallistos Ware and his PhD was examined by Fr Andrew Louth and Archbishop Rowan Williams, all scholars who have contributed to the Western recovery of the mystical and patristic traditions.
Fr Behr, who has written on the theology and history of the Council of Nicaea, will be visiting Australia in August to contribute to Australian theological discussion in honour of the 1700 anniversary of that seminal Council for the Eastern and Western lungs of the Church. For more information about this and his other activities during his two weeks in Australia, see the links beneath the interview.
On Monday this week I was honoured to host our second live TMC webinar for supporters and donors. Our guest was the generous and engaged Monica Doumit, who along with many other roles, is the Director of Public Engagement and a regular contributor to the Catholic Weekly.
Monica provided some pertinent insights into the threats to religious freedom and to the sanctity of life. She also provided some very memorable thoughts about some of the signs of hope that are evident with the election of Pope Leo XIV, and in the witness of Christians and the Church in a world haunted by disconnection and despair. She observed that many people realise that the coming of Christ means that “no one is finally cancelled” because Christ came to offer redemption and mercy to those who have damaged others and themselves through sin and failure. She also spoke of the growing tide of public witness to Christian faith witnessed in Sydney, and the way in which the papal conclave has attracted fascination and inquiries from people who have been hitherto indifferent or ill-informed about the faith.
She also proposed that all those who have resisted the “culture of death” – and often in small, hidden or often defeated settings – should hold onto the assurance that, in the scheme of providence, their efforts have contributed to a saving presence. I was fascinated by her notion of “resistance as formation” – a fire in which character and holiness is wrought.
Special thanks to our TMC webinar team: Gabriel, Isabelle and Gus, and to all of you our wonderful readers who joined us. There will be more to follow.
Please let us know your interests!
Anna Krohn
Executive Director
Thomas More Centre
