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May 2025. A new pope, prelate of Peru, steps on to St Peter’s balcony with a message of peace.
May 1985. A prophet of peace, prelate of Brazil, steps on to Australia’s stage with a message of hope.
Over four decades since Brazilian archbishop Helder Camara’s visit, global Catholic voices from every continent have come together with a message of peace and hope to the Australian church.
The year 2025 marks the 40th anniversary of the Hélder Câmara lecture series, inspired by the vision of the Second Vatican Council, a vision that was echoed in the papacy of Francis, the first Latin American pope.
Foreword: Bishop Vincent Long OFM Conv
Preface: Br Mark O’Connor FMS
”Julie Thorpe has produced a lively, contemporary commemorative history of the Helder Camara lecture series curated by Mark O’Connor these past 40 years … Thorpe, as a woman from a new generation in the Church, has expertly described the sources of the stream and its constant flowing through Australian church and society producing a joyful and famished receptivity to synodality …”
— Fr Frank Brennan SJ AO, Adjunct Professor in Law, Australian Catholic University
”In Reasons for Hope, Julie Thorpe provides a rich tapestry of insights into the contemporary Catholic Church … By telling the story of the diversity of global Catholicism to an Englishspeaking audience, this book is an excellent companion for understanding the context in which Pope Leo XIV will lead the church.”
— Christopher Lamb, CNN Vatican Correspondent (Hélder Câmara lecturer, 2022)
”Who would have thought that the narrative history of a 40-year-old lecture series could end up distilling such a compelling digest of issues shaping the Catholic Church in Australia and far beyond? Yet in the hands of Julie Thorpe, key characters like Helder Camara and other annual lecturers are revealed as formidable influences on the Pilgrim Church, by shaping a ‘rough draft of the future’; by participating in ‘tradere’ …”
— Geraldine Doogue AO, ABC broadcaster and journalist
