Catholic Values and Australian Realities

Book excerpt: Australian Catholics have made a unique contribution to the nation. At its centre is a solid grasp of the objectivity of ethics. Persons or societies cannot "choose their own values", because what is right and wrong is founded in the way things are. In his wide-ranging book on Australian Catholic thought and action, James Franklin, author of the much-praised polemical history of Australian philosophy, Corrupting the Youth, shows how core Catholic values have played out in the issues where Catholics have challenged their host society - in debates on land rights, immigration and values in schools, and in combats with Freemasons, Protestants and Communists.