Past Events

MOST REVEREND ANTHONY FISHER OP

Archbishop of Sydney.

Are we living in a post-Christian Australia? So some people proudly proclaimed when more people marked “no religion” on the last census than marked “Catholic”. Declining religious affiliation in the secularising West, damaged Church credibility after the Royal Commission, relentless hostility to faith from sections of the media, bureaucracy and academy, the drip by drip reduction of religious liberties… there are reasons to think faith is doomed in Australia. But I wonder… The Archbishop’s talk addresses questions on where the Church is going in the face of these challenges, and whether ‘post-Christian’ is really an apt description for our culture.

Archbishop Anthony Fisher completed his studies in Arts and Law at the University of Sydney and soon set off into the world of Corporate Law.

After practicing in a city firm in Sydney, the future Archbishop Fisher joined the Dominicans. He studied for the priesthood in Melbourne before further studies took him to Oxford where he received his Doctorate in Bioethics.

In his almost 15 years as a Bishop, his episcopal ministry has seen him serve first as Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney, including as the coordinator of World Youth Day 2008; Bishop of Parramatta and now as the ninth Archbishop of Sydney.

​Archbishop Fisher is a prolific writer and through his letters, lectures, preaching and diocesan projects has addressed a range of questions and matters from the existence of God through to the contemporary challenges for life, marriage and family.

​For a full biography of Archbishop Anthony Fisher please visit www.sydneycatholic.org

THE RELIGIOUS ROOTS OF POPULISM

DR ADRIAN PABST.
Reader in Politics, University of Kent.
With response from Most Rev. Anthony Fisher OP, Archbishop of Sydney.

Since the French Revolution Western politics has revolved around the left-right divide. With Brexit, Trump and the run-off between Macron and Le Pen in France, we are seeing a shift away from this old opposition towards a new polarity between liberals and anti-liberals. In one sense, this marks a revulsion against secular liberalism and its attack on traditions and practices rooted in Christianity and other faiths. But in another sense, some populist revolts are driven by forces that apply religion to advance a counter-modernity which is just as secular as the liberalism it opposes precisely because it appeals to the unmediated will of The People and related concepts originating from modern secularism.

Adrian holds a number of roles. Since 2007, he has been an associate editor of the critical theory journal TELOS. In 2015 he joined the academic board of the Foundation Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice whose main mission is to promote Catholic Social Thought. He is also a trustee of The James Madison Charitable Trust, which is dedicated to the study of federal systems – linked to his role as Director of Kent’s Centre for Federal Studies.

In November 2017 he was appointed as a Fellow of the The National Institute of Economic and Social Research where he works on a Nuffield-funded project about British fiscal policy.

During his study leave in 2018, he is the Sir Peter Lawler Visiting Fellow at the PM Glynn Institute (Australian Catholic University), a public philosophy, politics and policy think-tank where he works on the labour tradition with a focus on Catholic Social Thought and distributism.

Please visit the University of Kent for full biography