Australia has been known since its European discovery as the Great South Land of the Holy Spirit. Australia was also the first nation to adopt Our Lady Help of Christians as its principal patroness. In 1844 at the First Provincial Synod of Bishops, and again in 1885 at the first Plenary Council of Australasia, the nation was dedicated to St Mary, Help of Christians.  From Napoleon’s imprisoning of Pope Pius VII ( and Pius VI) and his subsequent release to Sydney’s city garbage dump being offered by the British colonialists as the first site of a Catholic Church in Australia (they didn’t like us much back then!), which later became the best real estate in that city (ha!), Our Lady has been a constant help to Christians throughout the world. As we look forward with hope to the new year of 2025, we look to Mary for her continued help and care in the life and activities of the Australian Catholic Medical Association and its members and friends.   Our Lady Help of Christians, pray for us! We also will continue to look back and remember both our history and our identity against the constant tide of forgetfulness. As St John Paul the Great wrote in his book Memory and Identity, these two realities are closely aligned and integral in the living out of Truth in Love. Another who understood the importance of memory, especially in the face of tyranny and the pressure to forget, was Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. “No-one in the modern age understood memory as well as Solzhenitsyn. More than any other exemplar of modern remembrance he withstood organised and violent pressure to forget.”   So in the spirit of resisting the ‘tyranny of forgetting’, ACMA will continue our ‘Covid in Review’ series, understanding these recent years to be a very significant period in the history of medicine and public health, especially in relation to the practice of ethical medicine and the undermining of trust in the healthcare professions.  One of the journalists who documented many of the excessive covid responses in the city of Melbourne was the courageous journalist Rukshan Fernando who is highlighted in our Covid in Review segment below.  We hope you enjoy the selection of articles, videos and news pieces on offer and wish you the very best for 2025. View this newsletter online Feedback is always welcome. Please write to us: admin@cmanews.com.auSuggested topics and articles are also welcome.     ———————————————————Previous ACMA newsletters can be found here.    ———————————————————Become a CMA member here 
Upcoming Events
CMA NSW will hold their Opening Mass for 2025 on Saturday February 8th, 10.30 am at St Patrick’ Kogarah National CMA and Raphael Network Retreat. Multiple cities. Saturday July 5th. Details to follow.  CMA Victoria will be hosting the 2nd National ACMA conference in Melbourne on The weekend of St Luke’s Feast Day, Saturday October 18th 2025. More details to follow.
ACMA NEWS
Eulogy for Mr Kevin Andrews
Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott delivered the eulogy at the state funeral for Mr Kevin Andrews.  Read here
Support Jillian’s Presidential Bid
The ACMA endorses Dr Jillian’s bid for the Presidential position at the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. We encourage all ACMA psychiatrist members and friends who are eligible to vote to engage in the election process and consider supporting Dr Spencer.  Watch Jillian here
A Catholic Medical School in the UK?
St Mary’s University, Twickenham, which recently celebrated the 175th anniversary of its foundation in 1850, is hoping to open the first Catholic Medical School in the UK.  Read here
Doctors call for Covid vaccines to be pulled
The Hope Accord which is an international petition calling for the suspension of mRNA covid vaccines makes the Australian mainstream news.  It seems ‘news.com.au’ may be reading the ACMA newsletter! Read here
Should Pope go to Gaza?
Before the recent cease fire following Trump’s intervention, ex-CIA operative Philip Giraldi wrote a piece calling for Pope Francis to visit Gaza to bring a cessation to hostilities.  Read here
Parents Can’t Fight Porn Alone
“The reality is that children’s welfare is not the concern of parents alone.”  As Joseph Doyle wrote in 1962, “The state has not only a right, but a duty, as parens patriae, to care for those citizens who cannot care for themselves. This includes not only orphans, but also those [children] who, while under the supervision of others, do not receive the minimum standards of care set by the state.”  Among these minimum standards, we submit, is protection from pornography.” Read here
Gender Ideology Breaks Medicine
A presentation from the recent Bigger Picture Conference on ‘Returning to Reality’ by Helen Joyce, author of ‘TRANS: When Ideology Meets Reality.’ Watch here
Jennifer Bilek on Trans and Transhumanism
Jennifer Bilek, is author of Transexual, Transgender, Transhuman: Dispatches from The 11th Hour, which highlights the connections between technology, transsexualism, and transhumanism.  In this interview she discusses her book and the complex background of the Trans Movement; it’s funding, it’s backers and it’s foundational ideologies. She wrote The Billionaires Behind the LGBT Movement in First Things in 2020.