Professor Helen Alvaré delivers the second Tim Fischer Oration

Dr Helen Alvaré presents at the 2024 Tim Fischer Oration.

Religious freedoms were the focus of the second Tim Fischer Oration. Professor Helen Alvaré warned in her keynote that “we face a threat…way worse than ignorance or mean-spiritedness, a seeming rejection of reason itself.”

A sell-out audience of over 550 packed Parliament House’s Great Hall in Canberra on August 7 for the address, which was just the second in a biennial series of orations held to honour Australia’s former deputy prime minister.

A leading Catholic commentator in the United States, Professor Alvaré drew on her background as a lawyer, academic, wife, and mother to speak on the threats to religious freedoms and what might be done to “promote the common good” through “noble actions” in public life.

Professor Alvaré urged the faithful to be active in defending these freedoms because if they don’t, and alluding to her experience in the United States, the media, the political elite, and “Hollywood” would “have the last word”.

She highlighted a pressing need for engagement in “sexual expression issues” such as contraception, non-marital births, abortion, same-sex relations, or transgenderism.

A sell-out audience of over 550 packed Parliament House’s Great Hall in Canberra

In the United States, and she believed to some extent in Australia, there was a “new sexual orthodoxy” that was hurting the most vulnerable in society and that so-called contemporary “progress” on these social issues had led to more non-marital pregnancies, more abortions, more single-parenting, and other concerns.

“Christianity is one of the last voices refusing to bow to this new orthodoxy due to its commitment to the vulnerable, to truth and to love,” she said.

To meet this challenge, Professor Alvaré argued the faithful needed to underline that their norms and beliefs were not “moralizing” but were loving in nature and “architectural to our faith”.

The fundamental lesson was that being active in public debates was to perform a service to others and was “not an exercise in pride or triumphalism.”

“Humility, not normally considered a virtue in public life, leads to better work, more enjoyment, less handwringing, and, over the long run, more courage and energy for the task.”

She reflected on the lessons she had learned from her own journey in public life: the importance of being the “best-prepared person in the room,” of approaching people with friendship and respect, and of sincere listening to understand the other person’s perspective.

Political journalist Chris Ulhmann presents questions from the audience

“It’s really not about you,” she said to conclude her remarks. It’s about God “and everyone he’s given to you, to love and serve”.

Speaking to the Catholic Voice after the address, audience member Violet Torbey from Brisbane said the oration underlined for her the importance of humility and not shouting down people.

Another attendee, Andrea Cullen, found the oration inspiring and gave her “great hope in humanity.”

Ahead of her keynote address, Professor Alvaré had met students from the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, where they had the opportunity to hear from her and ask questions.

Professor Alvaré was also the guest speaker at a sell-out Women’s Breakfast at Canberra’s Hyatt Hotel on August 8.

Download the Transcript HERE