A presentation by the estimable Fr Tony Percy, until recently Vicar-General of the Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra-Goulburn, on the Australian Capital Territory government’s recent ‘takeover’ of Calvary Hospital, was just one among many outstanding speeches and papers delivered at the annual Samuel Griffith Society in Melbourne last week.

Fr Percy is a scholar-priest with old-school sensibilities and a robust right-of-centre disposition.