B. A. Santamaria
Encyclopedia
Bartholomew Augustine "B. A." Santamaria, otherwise 'Bob' (14 August 1915 - 25 February 1998), was an Australia
n political activist and journalist and one of the most influential political figures in 20th century Australian history. A highly divisive figure, with strongly held anti-communist
views, Santamaria inspired great devotion from his followers and intense hatred from his enemies. While he regarded his own career as a failure, and never held public office or joined a political party, Santamaria was the guiding influence of the Democratic Labor Party
.
. The son of a greengrocer who was an immigrant from the Aeolian Islands
in Italy
, Santamaria was educated at the Catholic primary school of St. Ambrose behind his father's shop, and then at St Joseph's in North Melbourne by the Christian Brothers
. He finished his secondary education at St Kevin's College as dux of the school, which was then in East Melbourne. A teacher who greatly influenced the young Santamaria was Francis Maher, who belonged to a newly founded Catholic organisation, the Campion Society. Santamaria then went to the University of Melbourne
where he graduated in arts and law. He completed his Master of Arts
with a thesis titled Italy Changes Shirts: The Origins of Italian Fascism.
Santamaria was a political activist from an early age, becoming a leading Catholic student activist and speaking in support of Franco
's forces in the Spanish Civil War
. He also was a strong supporter and wrote about Mussolini
's regime in Italy
, but denied that he had ever been a supporter of fascism
. He always disliked and opposed Hitler
and Nazism
. While favouring, on the whole, Mussolini's policies up until 1936, he attributed Mussolini's late alliance with Hitler to the failed policies of Anthony Eden
and expressed regret that Mussolini went with Hitler.
Santamaria was married in 1939 and had eight children, several of whom became prominent in various professions, but none of whom followed him into political activism. In 1980 his wife, Helen Santamaria, died. He later married Dorothy Jensen, his long-time secretary. His brother, Joseph Santamaria, was a Melbourne surgeon and was prominent in the Catholic bioethics
movement.
, particularly the encyclical
Rerum Novarum
of Pope Leo XIII
. He was the first editor of the paper which declared itself opposed to both Communism and Capitalism which it saw as the greater threat.
Although the Catholic Worker group campaigned for the rights of workers and against what it saw as the excesses of capitalism
, Santamaria came to see the Communist Party of Australia
, which in the 1940s made great advances in the Australian trade union movement, as the main enemy. In 1937, at the invitation of Archbishop Daniel Mannix
, he joined the National Secretariat of Catholic Action
, a lay Catholic organisation concerned to permeate and improve society.
During World War II
Santamaria gained an exemption from military service (it was later alleged that this was obtained through the political influence of Arthur Calwell
, a leading Catholic Labor
politician, but both men later denied this; it has also been attributed to the influence of former Prime Minister James Scullin
and Archbishop Mannix). In 1941 he founded the Catholic Social Studies Movement, generally known simply as "the Movement" or Groupers, which recruited Catholic activists to oppose the spread of Communism, particularly in the trade unions. The movement gained control of the Industrial Groups
in the unions, fighting the Communists and gaining control of many unions.
This activity brought him into conflict not only with the Communist Party but with many left-wing Labor Party members, who favoured a united front
with the Communists during the war. During the 1930s and 1940s Santamaria generally supported the conservative Catholic wing of the Labor Party, but as the Cold War
developed after 1945 his anti-Communism drove him further away from Labor, particularly when H.V. Evatt became Leader of the Labor Party in 1951. Seven Labor MPs, elected from Victoria and associates of Santamaria, criticised Evatt's leadership over the next four years.
in 1955, Santamaria's parliamentary followers were expelled from the Labor Party. The resulting split
(now usually called "The Split", although there have been several other "splits" in Labor history) brought down the Labor governments in Victoria
and Queensland
.
In Victoria, Mannix strongly supported Santamaria, but in New South Wales
, Norman Thomas Gilroy opposed him, favouring the traditional alliance between the Church and Labor. Gilroy's influence in Rome
ended official Church support for the Movement as well as, reportedly, Mannix's chances to be elevated to the Cardinalate.
Santamaria founded a new organisation no longer an organ of Catholic Action, the National Civic Council
(NCC), and edited its newspaper,
News Weekly
, for many years. His followers, known as Groupers, continued to control a number of important unions. Those expelled from the Labor Party formed a new party, the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), dedicated to opposing both Communism and the Labor Party, which they said was controlled by Communist sympathisers. Santamaria never joined the DLP but was one of its guiding influences.
, and supported South Vietnam
and the United States
in the Vietnam War
.
He founded the Australian Family Association
and the Thomas More Centre (for Traditional Catholicism) to extended the work of the NCC. However, his political role gradually declined. The death of the 99-year-old Archbishop Mannix (in 1963) ended the Roman Catholic Church's support for the NCC, even in Victoria. In 1974 the DLP lost all its seats in the Senate
, and was wound up a few years later. Santamaria ran the NCC in a highly personal and (according to his critics) autocratic way, and in 1982 there was a serious split in the organisation, with most of the trade unionists leaving it. The Grouper-controlled unions then returned to their ALP affiliation.
But Santamaria's personal stature continued to grow, through his regular column in The Australian
newspaper and his regular television spot, Point of View (he was given free air time by Sir Frank Packer
, owner of the Nine Network
). A skilled journalist and broadcaster, he was one of the most articulate voices of Australian conservatism for more than 20 years. He was greatly admired by conservative politicians such as Malcolm Fraser
and John Howard
. Santamaria claimed that Robert Menzies
told him that he twice voted DLP (this being confirmed by Menzies' family), and that the DLP was the party Menzies thought he had founded.http://www.australianbiography.gov.au/subjects/santamaria/interview8.html
Santamaria had the satisfaction of living to see the fall of the Soviet Union
and the collapse of the world Communist movement. But he was also hostile to free-market capitalism, and to abortion
, homosexuality
, euthanasia
and other liberal and secular trends of the modern Western world
. He was consistent in his support of spiritual, religious and family values and opposed those policies he believed threatened these pillars.
For these reasons he was a strong critic of secular humanism
in his later years. Politically he could best be described as a Christian Democrat
, a political tradition which has never taken root in secular Australia. In the eighties and nineties, he opposed the 'economic-rationalist'/market-based economic policies of the Australian Labor Party and Liberal/National Coalition alike. He came to despise politicians of all parties who failed to oppose these things, and towards the end of his life said several times that his political career had been a complete failure.
(which he had sought to attend as an independent observer), and founded a magazine through his Thomas More Centre, called A.D. 2000, to argue for traditionalist views. He welcomed Pope John Paul II
's return to conservatism in many areas.The conservative Archbishop of Melbourne, George Pell
, a staunch supporter and admirer of Santamaria delivered the panegyric at his funeral held at St.Patrick's Cathedral. He died of an inoperable brain tumour aged 82 at Caritas Christi Hospice, Kew
.
On his death Santamaria was praised by conservatives for his opposition to communism
, but also by some on the left (such as veteran left-wing Labor ex-Cabinet Minister Clyde Cameron
) and by social democrats (such as former Governor-General Bill Hayden
) for his consistent critique of unrestricted capitalism
.
newspaper and elsewhere, that the debt-based monetary system
, credit creation and the private ownership of major banking institutions were all fundamentally deleterious to good order and government, and that international investment banks based in New York, London and Frankfurt had taken effective control of the levers of Australian economic policy since the 1970s.
He was also concerned about the consistent contractionary economic policies pursued in the "pro-market" 1990s, which in his view had produced a long-term decline in real wages, which had in turn forced mothers into the workforce, and had then led to the breakdown of the family unit. Late in life, he continued to believe that the power of the "market" was the greatest threat to the survival of the family and, more broadly, of Western civilization in the late 20th century.
He was consistent throughout his life in being a supporter of what he called the "Christian Democratic thesis". Based on his strong anti-socialist sentiments, his opposition to completely unrestrained capitalism as well as his support of traditional morals and ethics, many commentators have described Santamaraia as a national conservative.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n political activist and journalist and one of the most influential political figures in 20th century Australian history. A highly divisive figure, with strongly held anti-communist
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
views, Santamaria inspired great devotion from his followers and intense hatred from his enemies. While he regarded his own career as a failure, and never held public office or joined a political party, Santamaria was the guiding influence of the Democratic Labor Party
Democratic Labor Party (historical)
The Democratic Labor Party was an Australian political party that existed from 1955 until 1978.-History:The DLP was formed as a result of a split in the Australian Labor Party that began in 1954. The split was between the party's national leadership, under the then party leader Dr H.V...
.
Early and family life
Santamaria was born in MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
. The son of a greengrocer who was an immigrant from the Aeolian Islands
Aeolian Islands
The Aeolian Islands or Lipari Islands are a volcanic archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Sicily, named after the demigod of the winds Aeolus. The locals residing on the islands are known as Eolians . The Aeolian Islands are a popular tourist destination in the summer, and attract up to...
in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Santamaria was educated at the Catholic primary school of St. Ambrose behind his father's shop, and then at St Joseph's in North Melbourne by the Christian Brothers
Congregation of Christian Brothers
The Congregation of Christian Brothers is a worldwide religious community within the Catholic Church, founded by Blessed Edmund Rice. The Christian Brothers, as they are commonly known, chiefly work for the evangelisation and education of youth, but are involved in many ministries, especially with...
. He finished his secondary education at St Kevin's College as dux of the school, which was then in East Melbourne. A teacher who greatly influenced the young Santamaria was Francis Maher, who belonged to a newly founded Catholic organisation, the Campion Society. Santamaria then went to the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
where he graduated in arts and law. He completed his Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
with a thesis titled Italy Changes Shirts: The Origins of Italian Fascism.
Santamaria was a political activist from an early age, becoming a leading Catholic student activist and speaking in support of Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
's forces in the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
. He also was a strong supporter and wrote about Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
's regime in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, but denied that he had ever been a supporter of fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
. He always disliked and opposed Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
and Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
. While favouring, on the whole, Mussolini's policies up until 1936, he attributed Mussolini's late alliance with Hitler to the failed policies of Anthony Eden
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...
and expressed regret that Mussolini went with Hitler.
Santamaria was married in 1939 and had eight children, several of whom became prominent in various professions, but none of whom followed him into political activism. In 1980 his wife, Helen Santamaria, died. He later married Dorothy Jensen, his long-time secretary. His brother, Joseph Santamaria, was a Melbourne surgeon and was prominent in the Catholic bioethics
Bioethics
Bioethics is the study of controversial ethics brought about by advances in biology and medicine. Bioethicists are concerned with the ethical questions that arise in the relationships among life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics, law, and philosophy....
movement.
Catholic Worker movements
In 1936 Santamaria was one of the founders of the Catholic Worker, a newspaper influenced by the social teaching of the Roman Catholic ChurchRoman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
, particularly the encyclical
Encyclical
An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Catholic Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop...
Rerum Novarum
Rerum Novarum
Rerum Novarum is an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on May 15, 1891. It was an open letter, passed to all Catholic bishops, that addressed the condition of the working classes. The encyclical is entitled: “Rights and Duties of Capital and Labour”...
of Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...
. He was the first editor of the paper which declared itself opposed to both Communism and Capitalism which it saw as the greater threat.
Although the Catholic Worker group campaigned for the rights of workers and against what it saw as the excesses of capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
, Santamaria came to see the Communist Party of Australia
Communist Party of Australia
The Communist Party of Australia was founded in 1920 and dissolved in 1991; it was succeeded by the Socialist Party of Australia, which then renamed itself, becoming the current Communist Party of Australia. The CPA achieved its greatest political strength in the 1940s and faced an attempted...
, which in the 1940s made great advances in the Australian trade union movement, as the main enemy. In 1937, at the invitation of Archbishop Daniel Mannix
Daniel Mannix
Daniel Mannix was an Irish-born Australian Catholic bishop. Mannix was the Archbishop of Melbourne for 46 years and one of the most influential public figures in 20th century Australia....
, he joined the National Secretariat of Catholic Action
Catholic Action
Catholic Action was the name of many groups of lay Catholics who were attempting to encourage a Catholic influence on society.They were especially active in the nineteenth century in historically Catholic countries that fell under anti-clerical regimes such as Spain, Italy, Bavaria, France, and...
, a lay Catholic organisation concerned to permeate and improve society.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Santamaria gained an exemption from military service (it was later alleged that this was obtained through the political influence of Arthur Calwell
Arthur Calwell
Arthur Augustus Calwell Australian politician, was a member of the Australian House of Representatives for 32 years from 1940 to 1972, Immigration Minister in the government of Ben Chifley from 1945 to 1949 and Leader of the Australian Labor Party from 1960 to 1967.-Early life:Calwell was born in...
, a leading Catholic Labor
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
politician, but both men later denied this; it has also been attributed to the influence of former Prime Minister James Scullin
James Scullin
James Henry Scullin , Australian Labor politician and the ninth Prime Minister of Australia. Two days after he was sworn in as Prime Minister, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 occurred, marking the beginning of the Great Depression and subsequent Great Depression in Australia.-Early life:Scullin was...
and Archbishop Mannix). In 1941 he founded the Catholic Social Studies Movement, generally known simply as "the Movement" or Groupers, which recruited Catholic activists to oppose the spread of Communism, particularly in the trade unions. The movement gained control of the Industrial Groups
Industrial Groups
The Industrial Groups were groups formed by the Australian Labor Party in the late 1940s, to combat Communist Party influence in the trade unions....
in the unions, fighting the Communists and gaining control of many unions.
This activity brought him into conflict not only with the Communist Party but with many left-wing Labor Party members, who favoured a united front
United front
The united front is a form of struggle that may be pursued by revolutionaries. The basic theory of the united front tactic was first developed by the Comintern, an international communist organisation created by revolutionaries in the wake of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.According to the theses of...
with the Communists during the war. During the 1930s and 1940s Santamaria generally supported the conservative Catholic wing of the Labor Party, but as the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
developed after 1945 his anti-Communism drove him further away from Labor, particularly when H.V. Evatt became Leader of the Labor Party in 1951. Seven Labor MPs, elected from Victoria and associates of Santamaria, criticised Evatt's leadership over the next four years.
Labor split and the National Civic Council
In 1954 Evatt publicly blamed "the Groupers" for Labor's defeat in that year's federal election, and after a tumultuous National Conference in HobartHobart
Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...
in 1955, Santamaria's parliamentary followers were expelled from the Labor Party. The resulting split
Australian Labor Party split of 1955
The Australian Labor Party split of 1955 was a splintering of the Australian Labor Party along sectarian and ideological lines in the mid 1950s...
(now usually called "The Split", although there have been several other "splits" in Labor history) brought down the Labor governments in Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
and Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
.
In Victoria, Mannix strongly supported Santamaria, but in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, Norman Thomas Gilroy opposed him, favouring the traditional alliance between the Church and Labor. Gilroy's influence in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
ended official Church support for the Movement as well as, reportedly, Mannix's chances to be elevated to the Cardinalate.
Santamaria founded a new organisation no longer an organ of Catholic Action, the National Civic Council
National Civic Council (NCC)
The National Civic Council is a grassroots Australian political movement, although sometimes referred to as a think tank.The NCC develops and promotes policy based on its ‘five primacies’ of the integrity of human life, support for the family unit, decentralism, patriotism , and Judeo-Christian...
(NCC), and edited its newspaper,
News Weekly
News Weekly
News Weekly is an Australian current affairs magazine, published by the National Civic Council. It was founded by B. A. Santamaria in 1941 under the name Freedom. News Weekly provides analysis of current cultural, social, political and economic trends in the Australia. It has a focus on ethics.The...
, for many years. His followers, known as Groupers, continued to control a number of important unions. Those expelled from the Labor Party formed a new party, the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), dedicated to opposing both Communism and the Labor Party, which they said was controlled by Communist sympathisers. Santamaria never joined the DLP but was one of its guiding influences.
Anti-communist and social conservative
During the 1960s and 1970s Santamaria regularly warned of the dangers of communism in Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
, and supported South Vietnam
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
He founded the Australian Family Association
Australian Family Association
The Australian Family Association is a conservative political organisation with the aim of supporting and strengthening traditional family values. It was founded in 1980 by the National Civic Council's then president, B. A...
and the Thomas More Centre (for Traditional Catholicism) to extended the work of the NCC. However, his political role gradually declined. The death of the 99-year-old Archbishop Mannix (in 1963) ended the Roman Catholic Church's support for the NCC, even in Victoria. In 1974 the DLP lost all its seats in the Senate
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
, and was wound up a few years later. Santamaria ran the NCC in a highly personal and (according to his critics) autocratic way, and in 1982 there was a serious split in the organisation, with most of the trade unionists leaving it. The Grouper-controlled unions then returned to their ALP affiliation.
But Santamaria's personal stature continued to grow, through his regular column in The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
newspaper and his regular television spot, Point of View (he was given free air time by Sir Frank Packer
Frank Packer
Sir Douglas Frank Hewson Packer, KBE , was an Australian media proprietor who controlled Australian Consolidated Press and the Nine Network.-Biography:...
, owner of the Nine Network
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
). A skilled journalist and broadcaster, he was one of the most articulate voices of Australian conservatism for more than 20 years. He was greatly admired by conservative politicians such as Malcolm Fraser
Malcolm Fraser
John Malcolm Fraser AC, CH, GCL, PC is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia. He came to power in the 1975 election following the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government, in which he played a key role...
and John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
. Santamaria claimed that Robert Menzies
Robert Menzies
Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....
told him that he twice voted DLP (this being confirmed by Menzies' family), and that the DLP was the party Menzies thought he had founded.http://www.australianbiography.gov.au/subjects/santamaria/interview8.html
Santamaria had the satisfaction of living to see the fall of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and the collapse of the world Communist movement. But he was also hostile to free-market capitalism, and to abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
, homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
, euthanasia
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
and other liberal and secular trends of the modern Western world
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
. He was consistent in his support of spiritual, religious and family values and opposed those policies he believed threatened these pillars.
For these reasons he was a strong critic of secular humanism
Secular humanism
Secular Humanism, alternatively known as Humanism , is a secular philosophy that embraces human reason, ethics, justice, and the search for human fulfillment...
in his later years. Politically he could best be described as a Christian Democrat
Christian Democracy
Christian democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to public policy. It emerged in nineteenth-century Europe under the influence of conservatism and Catholic social teaching...
, a political tradition which has never taken root in secular Australia. In the eighties and nineties, he opposed the 'economic-rationalist'/market-based economic policies of the Australian Labor Party and Liberal/National Coalition alike. He came to despise politicians of all parties who failed to oppose these things, and towards the end of his life said several times that his political career had been a complete failure.
Traditionalism in the Catholic Church
Santamaria also bitterly opposed what he saw as liberal and non-traditional trends in the Catholic Church following the Second Vatican CouncilSecond Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
(which he had sought to attend as an independent observer), and founded a magazine through his Thomas More Centre, called A.D. 2000, to argue for traditionalist views. He welcomed Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
's return to conservatism in many areas.The conservative Archbishop of Melbourne, George Pell
George Pell
George Pell AC is an Australian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the eighth and current Archbishop of Sydney, serving since 2001. He previously served as auxiliary bishop and archbishop of the Archdiocese of Melbourne...
, a staunch supporter and admirer of Santamaria delivered the panegyric at his funeral held at St.Patrick's Cathedral. He died of an inoperable brain tumour aged 82 at Caritas Christi Hospice, Kew
Kew, Victoria
Kew is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 6 km east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Boroondara. At the 2006 Census, Kew had a population of 22,516....
.
On his death Santamaria was praised by conservatives for his opposition to communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, but also by some on the left (such as veteran left-wing Labor ex-Cabinet Minister Clyde Cameron
Clyde Cameron
Clyde Robert Cameron, AO , Australian politician, was a member of the Australian House of Representatives for 31 years from 1949 to 1980, a Cabinet minister in the Whitlam government and a leading figure in the Australian labour movement for forty years.-Biography:Cameron was born in Murray Bridge,...
) and by social democrats (such as former Governor-General Bill Hayden
Bill Hayden
William George "Bill" Hayden AC was the 21st Governor-General of Australia. Prior to this, he represented the Australian Labor Party in parliament; he was a minister in the government of Gough Whitlam, and later became Leader of the Opposition, narrowly losing the 1980 federal election to the...
) for his consistent critique of unrestricted capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
.
Late writings
Late in his life he began to write passionately against the dangers of "monopoly capitalism" and was consistent in his view that this represented as great a threat to civil society as communism. He wrote throughout the 1990s, in The AustralianThe Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
newspaper and elsewhere, that the debt-based monetary system
Debt-based monetary system
Criticisms of fractional-reserve banking have been put forward from a variety of perspectives. Critics have included mainstream economists such as Irving Fisher, Frank Knight and Milton Friedman. Within the economics profession today, most criticisms are from non-mainstream economic theories such...
, credit creation and the private ownership of major banking institutions were all fundamentally deleterious to good order and government, and that international investment banks based in New York, London and Frankfurt had taken effective control of the levers of Australian economic policy since the 1970s.
He was also concerned about the consistent contractionary economic policies pursued in the "pro-market" 1990s, which in his view had produced a long-term decline in real wages, which had in turn forced mothers into the workforce, and had then led to the breakdown of the family unit. Late in life, he continued to believe that the power of the "market" was the greatest threat to the survival of the family and, more broadly, of Western civilization in the late 20th century.
He was consistent throughout his life in being a supporter of what he called the "Christian Democratic thesis". Based on his strong anti-socialist sentiments, his opposition to completely unrestrained capitalism as well as his support of traditional morals and ethics, many commentators have described Santamaraia as a national conservative.
Critical bibliography
- Fifty Years of the Santamaria Movement: Richmond: Jesuit Publications: 1992.
- Ross Fitzgerald: The Pope's Battalions: Santamaria, Catholicism and the Labor Split: St.Lucia, University of Queensland Press: 2003: ISBN 0-7022-3389-7
- Gerard Henderson: Mr Santamaria and the Bishops: Sydney: Hale and Iremonger: 1983: ISBN 0-86806-059-3
- B. A. Santamaria: Against the Tide: Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1981. ISBN 0-19-554346-7
- B. A. Santamaria: Santamaria: A Memoir: Melbourne: Oxford University Press: 1997: ISBN 0-19-554052-2 (Originally published 1981: Updated)
- Xavier Connor, et al.: Santamaria: The Politics of Fear: Richmond: Spectrum: 2000: ISBN 0-86786-294-7
- Joseph N. Santamaria: The Education of Dr Joe: Ballan: Connor Court Publishing: 2006: ISBN 0975801538
- P. Morgan, ed: B.A. Santamaria: Your Most Obedient Servant: Selected Letters 1938-1996: Melbourne: Miegunyah Press: 2006: ISBN 0-522-85274-2
- Obituary: http://www.aijac.org.au/review/1998/233/santamaria.html