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.
