17th Annual St Thomas More Lecture and Dinner
24 June 2022
"Celebrating the feast of Thomas More, we are honoured that Australia’s celebrated journalist and commentator on contemporary affairs Paul Kelly will speak on Politics and Religion - The Growing Clash.
I am delighted to offer a brief reflection on Thomas More who was no stranger to such a clash."
- Fr Frank Brennan SJ AO
"It is a great pleasure for me to present the 17th St Thomas More Forum Lecture in 2022.
I want to salute this Forum for the role it places in religious and intellectual life. It is an honour and humbling to deliver a lecture with such a glittering list of former speakers. I want to acknowledge Father Frank Brennan who spoke last year on the campaign against Cardinal Pell and whose role in documenting this monumental injustice has been crucial.
The life of St Thomas More is linked to my theme tonight – the relationship between duty to the state and duty to God. More’s integrity and intelligence took him to the highest office, but his refusal to put the authority of the king before the authority of God brought his execution. His life reminds us that serving both state and God is an honourable task but there are occasions when a choice needs to be made."
Paul Kelly is Editor-at-Large on The Australian. He was previously Editor-in-Chief and he writes on Australian politics, public policy and international affairs.
Paul has covered Australian governments from Gough Whitlam to Scott Morrison and is a regular television commentator on Sky News. He is the author of nine books including The Hawke Ascendancy, The End of Certainty and The March of Patriots. His most recent book, Triumph and Demise covered the Rudd-Gillard era.
Paul has been a Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
17th St Thomas More Forum Lecture and Dinner 2022
Click the thumbnail images below to enlarge and use the arrow keys to scroll.
https://stthomasmore.org.au/politics-and-religion-the-growing-clash?print=1&tmpl=component#sigProIdfdf4b22f00