PODCAST: Will it be lawful to be a Christian in 2050?

Bishop Tony Percy

Thomas More Lecture

27 June 2025

PODCAST: Will it be lawful to be a Christian in 2050?

44:58

The founders of Australia deliberately set out to create a free and fair country. They succeeded.

Our Aboriginal brothers and sisters, the first immigrants to Australia, arrived by foot, wading across the archipelago, probably from Africa through India, most likely 60,000 years ago.

Sea levels rose by 150 metres 20,000 years ago, meaning that you could no longer walk from Tasmania to Papua New Guinea. Indigenous Australians were stranded, but not prisoners, traversing our continent-island-country with great freedom.

Then came the second migration from the new world. A clash of civilisations was inevitable. 11 boats arrived in 1788, loaded with 750 convicts. Imagine it. Everything from scratch.

Free and Fair Country

How is it that by the middle of the 19th Century, Australia had the world’s most productive agricultural sector, the most advanced market system on earth, accompanied by wealth distribution better that any other nation, enabling the world’s highest per capita income?

In a short space of time, a free press existed, humane reform of the convict system and its abolition, self-government emerged from the executive rule of Governors, separation of Church and State was pursued and honoured, the right of association was upheld – paving the way for a plethora of intermediary community bodies, including trade unions – a system of law was embedded that made land available to the masses and provided protection against violence, trespass and fraud.

Not the Fatal Shore, but the Garden of Eden.

The industrial revolution began in the middle of the 18th Century, spreading like a wave across Europe and the United States. Great wealth was created, but unequally distributed.

At the same time, liberal forms of thought, based on the dignity of the human person, were promoting democratic representation. A time of immense change.

What sort of society did we want? An old-style aristocratic-conservative one? Or might we dabble with Utopian Socialism? Marx in his Manifesto of 1848, peddled such a state, claiming that abolition of the right to private property would create a fairer society.

Happily, we rejected both proposals. A society based on privilege and class was snubbed, the utopian Marxist fallacy was starved of oxygen.

Rather, we chose to ‘roll the dice.’ We entered the great social, cultural, political and economic experiment, based on enlightenment thinking, of trying to construct a free and humane society.

Catholic Church Social Teaching

Running parallel with this experiment and phenomenon was the development of the Catholic Church’s modern social teaching. Pope Leo XIII, the first truly modern pope, published Rerum Novarum (1891), with its affirmation of the right to association, a just wage and the rigorous defence of the right to private property orientated to the common good.

He made the distinction between possession and use. We have the right to own things, but we must use our possessions for the benefit of others. St. Pope John Paul II would later coin the phrase: ‘All private property has a social mortgage on it,’ warning against avarice and consumerism.

After destroying the arguments for the socialisation of property on both practical and philosophical grounds, Leo brilliantly set out the role of the Church and the role of the State in pursuing free and fair societies. This is why Rerum Novarum is referred to as the paradigm for Catholic Social Teaching.

The Church has an indispensable role to play. The light of Christ must enter the temporal order, helping societies promote and maintain fundamental human values.

Do students graduating from our schools and universities have a grasp on the four cardinal virtues (Prudence, Temperance, Justice, Fortitude) and the three theological virtues (Faith, Hope, Love)? Do they understand why such virtues lead to personal happiness and are foundational to the civic order? Alas, there are no guarantees.

The cardinal virtues come from the Greeks. The word originates from the Latin language, meaning ‘hinge.’ A ‘door’ is next to useless without a hinge. You can’t open it to good things (virtue) and you can’t close it to bad things (vice). We can’t sustain and promote free and fair societies unless we are clear on pursuing goodness and rejecting evil, not just what is illegal.

The pursuit of good and the rejection of evil is the first principle of the natural law and thus the basis of culture, brilliantly espoused by St. John Paul II in Centesimus Annus (1991), 100 years after Rerum Novarum, celebrating not only the collapse of the Berlin Wall, but a society of free work, enterprise and participation.

Articulating and communicating what is good and what is evil is a key KPI for the Christian Churches. Best that we rediscover our mojo. The reform of the religious curriculum of Catholic Education is a priority for the Australian Bishops, as is the formation and education of those who will deliver it.

The State has an indispensable role to play. It should defend the dignity of the human person, promote marriage and family as the primordial community, respect freedom of religion, uphold the importance of the rule of law, including property rights, promote individual incentive. Leo says avoid government largesse through excessive taxation. Good to know someone is advocating for lower taxes.

We have enjoyed a free and fair society for a long period of time, thanks to the foundations laid by the governors of the colony and the founding fathers. They were men steeped in enlightenment thinking and so practical at the same time. As representative government took shape by the middle of the 19th Century, the grand experiment was well and truly underway and shaping who we are today.

Australia 2025

But ‘Houston, we have a problem.’ The recent unlawful, unjust take over by the ACT Labor-Greens Government of Calvary Public Hospital on the 3 July 2023 is symbolic of what is happening in Australia in an array of public square issues.

For instance, the NSW Government recently tried to pass legislation that would force doctors and nurses to participate in abortion by referring pregnant women to an abortion provider. This would have been a direct violation of freedom of conscience. It matters little whether you are a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, agnostic or an atheist. Compelling someone to act against their conscience is a violation of human dignity.

We should be clear: the aim of anti-religious secularists is to ensure Christians are not involved in the practice of the medical profession. Fortunately, the legislation was amended. But they will be back again, trying to make it de facto illegal to be a Christian in the public square.

Again, in NSW, we have seen the passing of Voluntary Assisted Dying legislation giving authority to those in the medical profession to suggest VAD to patients. Note, the patient doesn’t have to initiate the enquiry, the medical practitioners can lawfully raise the issue. Incredible.

Has it not occurred to legislators that there is an imbalance of power when someone is sick and vulnerable in hospital? Because of this imbalance, because reason can be clouded by emotion, it is probable that someone will choose VAD without full consent. Legislators have tried to cover their tracks, but litigation will ensue as night follows day.

Recently a woman told me about her brother who was in four different hospitals (three in NSW, one in the ACT). The common denominator in each hospital was the suggestion of VAD by medical professionals. He is now back home recovering. The ‘slippery dip of immorality’ is rapid and real.

Back to Calvary. You will recall that the Federal Government of Australia had invited the Little Company of Mary to run Calvary Public Hospital. The government reasoned that providing another public hospital would facilitate getting top public servants to Canberra.

The hospital began in 1979, with a 120-year lease. After 44 years, the lease was ripped up by the ACT Government without the slightest whiff of consultation and no guarantee of just compensation. They acted not according to their own Lands Acquisition Act 1994 but rushed and rammed the legislation through parliament.

I said at the time, that every Australian should be worried. Other private health providers should be anxious, certainly those in private education should be nervous, and ordinary landowners should be fearful. It was an assault on the rule of law, and on the natural law, since reason and justice were contravened.

What was the motivation? The ACT Government claimed it was to bring about a more integrated health system. But a government abortion inquiry (2022) gave it all away. The subsequent report noted that almost all abortions in the ACT are performed by medical centres outside the hospital system. To repeat: very few, if any, abortions are performed at The Canberra Hospital or Calvary Public Hospital. Read it in the government’s own report.

At the back end of the report it stated that Calvary Public Hospital carried out its medical care with ‘too much of a religious overtone.’

Religious discrimination, pure and simple.

During the fight, I began to wonder if I was a masochist? I enjoyed the wrestle because so much was at stake. The 50,000 plus people who signed the petition obviously thought the same.

Intermediary Institutions

As the rounds of the fight unfolded, I began to realise a truth that former Prime Minister John Howard had uttered some years back. Howard claimed that Robert Menzies’ greatest decision was to fund private-Catholic schools. It seemed like an overstatement.

But what the funding allows is the growth of intermediary institutions – think sporting clubs, religious groups, social bodies, art, educational, medical, cultural, work-related bodies, unions, confraternities, professional institutions, etc.

These institutions lie between government and the individual. They are our best weapon against the ever-present threat of the socialist agenda, relentlessly trying to enlarge the government footprint.

It dawned on me that even if we are not entirely satisfied with the quality of our private health and educational services, it is still worth fighting for them, because they stop the long march of socialism. When we act to promote and defend them we are acting not just for ourselves of course, but for those of other faiths, and those of no faith.

Howard was on the money. No doubt it was not lost on Menzies, who spoke about such matters in his Forgotten People Addresses.

The Fight

We simply must fight. We cannot stand by while the principle of subsidiarity is abused before our eyes.

That principle, so brilliantly articulated by Pope Pius XI in Quadragesimo Anno (1931), not only aims to protect us against an over-arching state, but it is a fundamental call for ordinary citizens to get involved in public and political life, especially in those intermediary institutions essential to our cultural well-being as a nation.

The two key issues are as I have presented them. Property rights, that is, the rule of law, and freedom of religion.

It was Patrick McMahon Glynn, a brilliant Irishman, always the smartest bloke in the room according to Alfred Deakin, who persuaded the founders of the Federal Constitution of Australia, to include a reference to God in the preamble:

‘WHEREAS the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth….’

And then the masterful Section 116 of the Constitution, protecting religious liberty. In essence it says:

No official religion. No compulsion in religion. No restriction on religion. No religious discrimination.

How utterly brilliant, made even more so when we realise that most of the founding fathers were not believers in God at all.

Naturally, there are questions about the jurisdiction of Section 116, but the point is this: the constitution aims to let the citizens of the country breathe the air of freedom, including religious freedom, enabling the nation’s footsteps.

We lost the fight to save the hospital, but we were emboldened that so many people joined in the fight.

Lest we get depressed, we should remember a recent fight that ended in success. Catholic Cemeteries prevailed over the NSW Government.

Why the different outcome? A very good question.

Catholic Cemeteries were able to demonstrate that they run cemeteries better than anyone else. Most importantly, however, Catholic Cemeteries did some serious ‘street fighting.’

It was Archbishop Daniel Mannix of Melbourne who said:

‘With regard to politicians, forget about reasoning with them. Just hit them at the ballot box.’

That threat of ‘ballot box damage’ shook the NSW politicians. They were given clear indications that their seats were in danger. Suddenly they awoke from woke. Threat of losing their seats jolted them. The ‘street fighting’ worked. We failed to do this in our fight to save Calvary.

Goulburn School Strike: Lessons

A dramatic struggle in the middle of the 20th Century is also instructive. Remember the Goulburn School Strike?

In 1962, there were six Catholic Schools in Goulburn, educating over 2,000 students. Believe it or not, one kindergarten class had 84 children in it.

One school had inadequate toilets. Auxiliary Bishop John Cullinane thought it best to shut the school down as funds were not available.

700 people attended a public meeting on Monday 9 July 1962. They decided – 560 to 140 – to shut the six Catholic schools down and enroll students in state run schools.

On Monday 16 July 1962, 1300 children marched on the state schools, with 640 getting entry by lottery. The strike was to have a duration of six weeks. It lasted a week.

Robert Menzies called an early election for 1964, promising to fund science blocks in all schools – state and private. The age of public funding for private, independent schools began.

Public funding for Catholic schools did exist before the Public Instruction Act 1880, which abolished it. St. Mary of the Cross rejected funding for her schools, arguing that it would compromise values. A saint with prophetic flair.

Three learnings emerge from the incident:

It’s not primarily the (1) bishops, but the (2) baptised, and the baptised need to (3) foster controlled aggression.

Auxiliary Bishop Cullinane played down the role of the episcopate: ‘Not me, the laymen,’ he proclaimed.

Speaking to the 700 people at the public meeting, the Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn, Eris O’Brien, emphasised the proper and rightful role and mission of laypeople:

‘I respect you as Catholic citizens and intelligent citizens. If you want to use your citizen rights in this way, I am not going to restrain you. Whether it is wise or not, I am not going to intervene. You are making a gesture of protest, and now you have made it, I am going to stand behind you.’

Veteran Catholic journalist, Ken Sully, fills out the picture, observing the wider implications for the Church in Australia:

‘The controlled aggression, the belief in acting for justice, brought confidence. And that because the Goulburn Catholics were winners and showed the rest of the Australian church that it had the capacity to win.’

The Way Forward

Let me conclude with some observations and suggestions and then open the room for dialogue. Five points.

1. Why?

We must clarify why we engage in the public square. If we don’t do this, people will not join us. It was G. K Chesterton who said:

‘The true soldier fights not because he hates those in front of him, but because he loves those behind him.’

If we lose our why, we lose our way.

We are fighting for our children, who are the supreme gift of marriage, and we are fighting for the freedom and fairness of our land. We are fighting for justice.

We are fighting because we love our children; because we love our country.

We don’t hate our adversaries, and our language and disposition must convey this. For all we know, our opponents may well have the best of intentions. St. John Fisher, contemporary of St. Thomas More and fellow martyr, famously pronounced:

‘I condemn no one’s conscience: their conscience may save them, and mine must save me. We should remember, in all the controversies in which we engage, to treat our opponents as if they were acting in good faith, even if they seem to us to be acting out of spite or self-interest.’

We fight because we love those who are behind us.

2. Controlled Aggression

We need controlled aggression (assertiveness). Not anarchy. Not violence. Think the two peaceful revolutions in the Philippines and Poland in the 20th Century, important historical events showing the necessity for faith, prayer and justice if we want action.

Written articles serve a purpose, as do radio and TV interviews. But if we are to be effective in the public square we must mobilise. If not, we will continue to experience diminishment in the public square.

By 2050 we will have succumbed to the secular city. Christianity won’t be outlawed, but in practice it might as well be.

We will be forced out of the two most important professions, medicine and education, one looking after the needs of the body, the other the soul.

Christians will be pressured into silence, their public objection not placing their lives at risk, but threatening their livelihoods. We will be second-class citizens and that should worry everyone, since once you allow one group to suffer discrimination, then by what criteria are others not subject to discrimination and persecution?

To be clear, it belongs to governments to promote and maintain the common good. The common good is critical. It is all those conditions that allow citizens to flourish. Think education, health, rule of law, freedom of conscience and religion, free press, markets that are free and just, protection for the vulnerable, just wages and working conditions, etc.

We must keep governments accountable. Of course, it takes time and money. Everything has a price tag. Perhaps that’s one of our major problems: getting people to put their money where their mouth is. Not always easy.

We should be convinced that it is not the role of governments to favour one interest group over another. One of the reasons we have had a free and fair country is because we have taken self-interest and turned it into public-interest. Call it the Australian-Genius if you like. We have found solutions that give everyone a go, not just noisy minorities. I think this is a most important point, one that cannot be overstated.

Catholic Education educates 20% of Australia’s children, saving the governments billions of dollars. The fight is no longer over toilet blocks, but about culture. Militant atheists, cultural Marxists who love victimhood status, and anti-Christian types want to dismantle our schools by denying us the light of faith and reason.

Yes, we write articles, appear on radio and TV, but we don’t threaten socio-political action against those who act contrary to justice. We don’t unleash simple communication strategies that get right to the heart of the matter. Parents are the primary educators of their children, not the state. Much is at stake.

No anarchy. No violence.

History is our witness. We can act for justice with controlled aggression and win important victories, especially for those who have no voice.

3. Language, language, language

Our 4,000-year experience of faith is a gift, and we have been good at choosing how to present the truth to different generations. Pope Leo XIV made this point in 2012.

The great preachers, he noted, have always been great rhetoricians. It’s not the other way round. They were expert rhetoricians, and thus, and then, superb preachers. They communicated the truth in the language of the time, thereby accessing people’s hearts. St. Thomas Aquinas said something similar. He noted the importance of human experience in the reception of truth. The truth, he said, is received according to the mode of the receiver (Cf. Summa Theologiae, 1a, q. 75, a. 5; 3a, q. 5. Cf. 1a, q. 12, a. 4).

For instance, in our fast-paced media world, characterised by bite-sized messages, it will be worthwhile digging deeper into our philosophical tradition, exploring Aristotle’s use of what is known as an ‘enthymeme.’ It is an argument where a premise or premises are not stated but presumed by the audience.

We are familiar with Trump’s use of MAGA. This enthymeme presumes that America was once great, no longer is, and that America can be great again. Two premises in this argument are not stated but presumed by the audience. Extremely effective.

The coalition used this technique to great effect in the 2019 federal election. Bill Shorten was cracking down on franking credit refunds. The coalition’s message? Labor is ‘punishing pensioners.’ The simple message enabled voters to make a ‘logical leap.’

In the 2025 federal election campaign notice what happened with Dutton’s work from home policy. Labor prosecuted the argument, without stating it overtly, that Dutton is going to punish women, since women like the opportunity to work from home.

There is no reason why we cannot get smart and use our messaging in clever ways to communicate truths that impact people deeply.

The messaging for Calvary Public Hospital was easy. It was about property rights. Specifically, the confiscation of legitimate, lawful property. People understood what was happening and what might happen in the future and so joined the fight. We lost, but not because our messaging was flawed. Rather, it was our lack of political fight.

Let’s take some other issues.

One of the most dramatic moral-social issues we now face is the scourge of pornography. A few weeks ago, it was reported:

Pornography has contributed to rising rates of violence against women, harmful sexual behaviours and peer-on-peer sexual abuse at levels never before seen. A generation of boys are being exposed to rape, porn, sadism, torture, and incest porn at the click of a button (Cook, Pornography: Our new public health crisis, Catholic Weekly, p.1).

Researchers are telling us that the average age for viewing pornography is now 11.

What might our message be? Why not try:

Pornography is manipulation.

The men and women who are photographed and filmed are manipulated. The men and women viewing it are manipulated. Accompany the message with an image projecting feelings of despair, with bowed head in hands.

The messaging doesn’t take the high moral ground, trying to arouse guilt in users, but shifts the blame to producers, while at the same time having the unstated premise that viewing porn is not good.

What about ‘womb to tomb’ issues?

Our message is usually that abortion and VAD are wrong. No surprise there.

Former Prime Minister Paul Keating was more than effective when he once said about VAD:

Wrong way. Go back.

We could use this effectively. The metaphor communicates brilliantly that if we go down the VAD route, we can expect head-on collisions.

What about abortion? Why don’t we say:

There is forgiveness, mercy and healing for abortion.

The gravity of abortion is assumed, not stated, but we now give the hope of forgiveness and healing. In fact, this enthymeme contains the fullness of truth: sin can be forgiven and wounds healed.

The message suddenly becomes compassion, not judgment.

Tying abortion and VAD to our demographic crisis would be sensible, giving another angle. China will be half its population by the end of the century, perhaps worse. By 2050, Russia will be almost non-existent, so serious is the problem.

Would it be difficult convincing people that our main economic resource is our people and that having children is socially responsible?

Couldn’t we speak of humanity as the ‘seed’ that the nation needs to nourish and let flourish. Simple message, accompanied by a beautiful image would be effective.

On all the great social issues, surely, we can find the language and images that put us on the right footing, rather than find ourselves always on the backfoot.

4. Follow the money

We human beings are quite good at making money, building wealth, and in Australia’s case, distributing it.

The Australian-Genius is to have natural mechanisms to help wealth distribution. Think a just wage, universal health cover, superannuation, a public and private health system and education mix the envy of most countries.

Unfortunately, we are also good at developing industries around immoral behaviour. This is exactly what pornography has become – an industry. It has grown prolifically with the advent of the internet and is worth more than $100 Billion worldwide, wreaking havoc among the young and not so young. The same can be said for the gambling industry, reality TV, violent movies, social media, etc.

Why don’t we get smart and try and work out a way to buckle their finances? No easy task, for sure, but we should put our minds to it. We should put as much time into the money-question, as we do with the moral-question and the legal-question.

Cut the money. Save our children.

For instance, it was reported recently that Planned Parenthood obtains almost 40% of its funding from the US Government. The government is now promising to slice and dice the funding. Let’s see.

Cut the money. Save our children.

And as we speak, with VAD being legalised all over the western world, an industry is well and truly underway.

Cut the money. Put it towards palliative care.

5. Humbly rely on Almighty God

We should take the advice of our constitution and ‘humbly rely on Almighty God.’ In the heart of Rerum Novarum we find this profound insight, rarely quoted:

Nothing is more useful than to look upon the world as it really is – and at the same time to seek elsewhere for the solace to its troubles.

By taking Leo’s advice, we are putting into practice two wonderful and complementary gifts of God: reason and faith.

Reason identifies the plethora of personal, familial and social problems that every generation must face.

Some of them have human solutions, many do not.

God is our ‘elsewhere.’

We are used to petitioning God for our personal and familial problems. It seems so natural to spontaneously turn to God to ask help with problems at home, at work, with friendships, etc.

Leo XIII encourages us to turn spontaneously to God to ask for insight into, and help for, the great social questions of our time. Getting on our knees, in unison with others, will be an immense help.

To our question.

Will it be lawful to be Christian in 2050?

If we sit on our hands, we have no assurance. If we commit to succession planning, then we have hope.

I think of my father. When the Snowy Mountains Scheme was completed and opened in 1972, the question was asked, ‘Will the town of Cooma survive?’ Construction had begun in 1949, injecting enormous amounts of wealth into the region.

My Father got involved with the local council, along with several other smart, community minded people. They forged a collective ego, with a clear mission: make Cooma survive and thrive. They succeeded.

Succession planning is the most important task of any organisation, including the Church.

If we can engage the generations below us, encouraging them to work and go two-by-two (Luke 10), then we should be confident.

We have a 4,000-year history.

Our spiritual and social tradition is profound. Let’s articulate it in simple language and people will respond.

Bishop Anthony Percy

Thomas More Lecture 2025

27 June 2025