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The Movement
How the Movement saved Australia from the Red Menace, fought the yellow Peril, started the rift that split the Labor Party and the Catholic Church, and caused the greatest scandal in the history of Catholicism in Australia.
This body of Catholics, acting with the moral and financial support of their bishops, secretly operated in one of the country's two largest political parties and most of the country's major industrial unions. The Movement damaged the credibility of the Church and the condition of Australian democracy. Yet most people outside the Movement knew nothing of its activities, and for twelve years its security was largely unbreached.
What events precipitated the split in the Labor Party? Why was it that Bob Santamaria was able to attract so many followers who shared his conviction that Australia was in imminent danger from Communism? Did they act as patriots, or Catholics, or both? The legacy of the Movement has yet to run its course, for the fears of the Church's ambitions in Australian political society provoked bitterness and distrust among both Catholics and Protestants.
This is the first time that the Movement's history and the conflicts within the Catholic Church have been so fully documented. It is of primary importance in the study of Australian political and religious history.
This body of Catholics, acting with the moral and financial support of their bishops, secretly operated in one of the country's two largest political parties and most of the country's major industrial unions. The Movement damaged the credibility of the Church and the condition of Australian democracy. Yet most people outside the Movement knew nothing of its activities, and for twelve years its security was largely unbreached.
What events precipitated the split in the Labor Party? Why was it that Bob Santamaria was able to attract so many followers who shared his conviction that Australia was in imminent danger from Communism? Did they act as patriots, or Catholics, or both? The legacy of the Movement has yet to run its course, for the fears of the Church's ambitions in Australian political society provoked bitterness and distrust among both Catholics and Protestants.
This is the first time that the Movement's history and the conflicts within the Catholic Church have been so fully documented. It is of primary importance in the study of Australian political and religious history.
198 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1972
4 people want to read
About the author
Paul Ormonde
6 books2 followersPaul Ormonde was an Australian journalist and author.
He was born in Sydney to Margaret (née Fraser) and James Ormonde (later a New South Wales Labor senator). He went to St Patrick's Christian Brothers College, Strathfield and afterwards worked as a messenger boy at The Daily Telegraph before becoming a journalist.
In 1954 he began working for the The Sun News-Pictorial in Melbourne. There, he became involved with The Catholic Worker and met Marie Kilmartin. They married in 1955 before later separating.
Ormonde went on to work for The Sun, the Australian Broadcasting Commission, and The Herald. He later worked for Carlton & United Breweries.
He edited two books, Catholics in Revolution and Santamaria: The Politics of Fear, and wrote The Movement and A Foolish Passionate Man.
He was born in Sydney to Margaret (née Fraser) and James Ormonde (later a New South Wales Labor senator). He went to St Patrick's Christian Brothers College, Strathfield and afterwards worked as a messenger boy at The Daily Telegraph before becoming a journalist.
In 1954 he began working for the The Sun News-Pictorial in Melbourne. There, he became involved with The Catholic Worker and met Marie Kilmartin. They married in 1955 before later separating.
Ormonde went on to work for The Sun, the Australian Broadcasting Commission, and The Herald. He later worked for Carlton & United Breweries.
He edited two books, Catholics in Revolution and Santamaria: The Politics of Fear, and wrote The Movement and A Foolish Passionate Man.
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