The Dawson Society - Audio Library

Where IS Everybody? Mapping the future Catholic Church in Australia

We've recently found out that just over 400,000 Catholics in Australia go to Mass regularly on Sundays. Why has this number dropped so much since 1996? Should we be worried? And if so, why aren't we more worried? In this presentation, Dr Philippa Martyr will share the data she's collected on the Church in Australia and the picture it paints of our possible future. What will it be like to be a Catholic in Australia by 2050 (25 years away)? What will this mean for the younger Catholics who will inherit it all? What should we be doing now to ensure that there is a future for the Church here?

Healing the Wounds of Sexual Abuse in the Church - Dr Theresa Burke

The sexual abuse crisis has polarised the Church, and injured us all. Those who have survived clerical and other sexual abuse need the Church's healing power, but they are often alienated and unwelcome because they are seen as troublemakers. Innocent people scandalised by the crisis also need the Church's healing power, but they are sometimes unable to forgive the victims for coming forward. So how can we bridge this apparently unbridgeable gap? This presentation will examine the impact of sexual abuse on the individual, the impact of trauma, and how we as a Church - all of us - can begin to help restore to victims their full dignity in Christ. It will also describe Grief to Grace, a new sensory-based model for healing sexual abuse that follows the Sorrowful Mysteries."

Catholic Public Life in Hard Times; An Augustinian Response - Renee Kohler-Ryan

What is a Catholic person to do in the face of so much turmoil in public life? Should we retreat, or should we respond by entering more fully into the public square? St. Augustine of Hippo was perpetually preoccupied with such questions. This presentation will explore some of what he has to say, and some of what we can learn from him, about maintaining a spiritual life while becoming involved in matters of public concern. Renee Kohler-Ryan is trained in philosophy and is the Dean of the School of Philosophy and Theology, University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney. She has a forthcoming book on the thought of St. Augustine and contemporary philosopher, William Desmond, on moral and political philosophy. She teaches in areas of Catholic Thought including Philosophy of the Human Person, Moral Philosophy, and Philosophy of Art. She is writing a book on the Catholic Imagination, to be considered by Catholic University of America Press.

"Dreaming with Demons" - Matt Tan

Abstract: We often associate sloth with laziness, but is it possible for a culture to be productive and still be slothful? In this talk, Dr Matthew Tan explores how Sloth is arguably the most pervasive of the deadly sins first by understanding it by its original name, the vice of Acedia. Taking its cue from the writings of the desert father, Evagrius of Pontus, the talk would take a deep dive into what the vices do to the life of monastic virtue, and how acedia acts as a spiritual opiate whose affects are more than just spiritual. It will end by looking at how monastic practice can give us clues into providing new responses to this ancient vice. Bio: Dr Matthew Tan is the private secretary of Bishop Tony Randazzo in the Archdiocese of Sydney, and an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in a Theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia. He received his doctorate in Theology from the Australian Catholic University and his License in Sacred Theology at the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He is the author of two books, the most recent of which is "Redeeming Flesh: The Way of the Cross with Zombie Jesus". He runs the blog "the Divine Wedgie" on the Patheos Catholic blog channel, and will soon be launching his theological side project "AwkwardAsianTheologian.com [https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2FAwkwardAsianTheologian.com%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1_2NBECz_4upB5BSAdDuPTjzJwx2fDblH9NWhxrKI09jJIWMev3Hpbyhg&h=AT3aeQB1fZLuf5p2PWyRHa7fZsd2hkomEv3PhyoLsQAVich_XNeGb04ka9AUJvjvwLXeXSSfy4TEeZZqzS0hdKj8p0Z3AiyrYNkbCiL2gvj-Cs1PvTIeo6FIW6K0jl5mTlLj1AE]".

"I Sleep But My Heart Wakes" - Dr Philippa Martyr

Dreams form the flipside of human consciousness: they are perennially fascinating and unpredictable. They have shaped history, art, culture, science, and religion in countless ways. Christianity accepts them as sometimes divinely inspired, but early psychology saw them as 'the royal road to the unconscious', or as a primordial soup of symbolism. So what are dreams? Why do we have them? Do Christians dream of Biblical sheep? And what attention – if any – should we pay to them?