And with each other

Dear ,

I just found out today that the training to become a Jesuit priest takes 13 years. Fr Frank Brennan is a Jesuit priest. He also has degrees in Arts and Laws. A combined degree is 6 years. So he spent 19 years in uni and formation, longer than he spent in the entirety of his primary and secondary schooling.

Fr Brennan is definitely a scholar as well as a priest.

James Power, who will introduce Frank, is a publican. He owns and operates "Brisbane's Worst Vegetarian Restaurant", the Norman Hotel, (which is a good place to dine after our functions). He's erudite and worldly, but I'm sure he'll forgive me for saying he's no scholar, and he's no priest.

But that doesn't mean he doesn't have a devout interest in education.

While you will definitely want to talk to Fr Brennan about his book on the Pell trial (as well as buy it - click here), and probably also his work in the law and on aboriginal issues, can I suggest you talk to James about the John Henry Newman College that he and some others are starting in Brisbane.

It will be a Catholic school, teaching in the classical education tradition.

What's the "classical education tradition"? Lots of things, but more than anything it is an education which seeks to give students access to the good, the beautiful and the true, rather than to "train" them for a job.

It's the sort of education that Frank received, and which makes him fearless in standing-up for what he knows to be true, even if it is unfashionable. Standing up for what you think is true and right is in short supply these days, but it's where not only Frank and James converge, but what the Australian Institute for Progress is all about.

The function is this Friday, 6:00 for 6:30 pm and tickets cost between $10 and $25 dollars each, which entitles you not only to the speakers, but wine, beer and antipasto. It will be in our offices at Unit 2B, 50 Logan Road, Woolloongabba. To book click here.

Look forward to seeing you here.

Regards,
GRAHAM YOUNG
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR