By UCA News reporter
A new book launched in Australia celebrates the legacy of 100 influential Catholic figures who have made lasting impacts on the Australian and global Catholic Church in recent decades.
Reasons for Hope: Helder Camara, Global Catholicism and the Australian Church by Dr Julie Thorpe was launched in Melbourne on Jul 30, the western Sydney-based Parramatta diocese said in a press release.
The book features 100 influential theologians and leading Catholic voices such as Archbishop Dom Hélder Câmara, the archbishop of Olinda and Recife from 1964 to 1985 during the military dictatorship in Brazil.
In 2015, Câmara was declared a Servant of God, the preliminary title for a sainthood candidate in the Catholic Church.
Other notable figures include US Cardinal Robert McElroy, Cardinal Charles Bo of Myanmar, Cardinal Luis Tagle of Philippines, Monsignor Professor Tomáš Halík of the Czech Republic, French nun and the Vatican’s Undersecretary of the Secretariat of the Synod Sister Nathalie Becquart, Professor Maryanne Glendon from Harvard, former US ambassador to the Holy See, Baroness Sheila Hollins of the United Kingdom and CNN’s Vatican correspondent, Christopher Lamb.
The book takes inspiration from the Helder Camara Lecture Series hosted by Marist Brother Mark O’Connor, the Vicar of Communication at Parramatta diocese.
The lecture series has been held at Newman College — owned and governed by Marist Schools Australia at the University of Melbourne.
O’Connor has coordinated the Hélder Câmara Lecture Series for the past 40 years, beginning after Câmara’s visit to Australia in May 1985.
The series is credited for fostering dialogue within the Catholic Church by bringing global voices of hope and encouragement into conversation with local Catholic communities.
These lectures now feature in the Diocese of Parramatta.
Renowned Australian journalist Geraldine Doogue launched the book during the opening ceremony alongside well-known Latin American lay leader Mauricio López Oropeza who delivered the latest Helder Camara lecture.
O’Connor penned the book’s preface.
“In a world full of violence and hatred, the gospel witness of Dom Hélder Câmara of Recife, Brazil, stands as a beacon of light and hope,” he wrote in the preface. – UCA News
