The Catholic Herald reports that Laura Keynes, a great-great-great-granddaughter of the English naturalist, returned to her childhood Catholic faith after a period of agnosticism.

The daughter of an atheist father and a mother who had converted to Catholicism but later became a Buddhist, she was baptised Catholic.

But she says she drifted into agnosticism in her teens and "away from any contact with the Church".

When she began studying for a doctorate in philosophy at Oxford she started to "reassess those values. Relationships, feminism, moral relativism, the sanctity and dignity of human life".

The Catholic Herald says the debate sparked by Richard Dawkins's book The God Delusion inspired her to read more about the subject, and she concluded that "New Atheism seemed to harbour a germ of intolerance and contempt for people that could only undermine secular humanist claims to liberalism".

She writes: "If atheism's claim to the intellectual high ground is bolstered by my ancestor's characteristic ability to explore and analyse inconsistencies in the evidence, that same family characteristic led me towards a sceptical assessment of what can and can't be known absolutely."

Describing how her decision was received by loved ones, Keynes says: "That I freely chose to be a Catholic after much thought and analysis, and wasn't brainwashed into it, baffles my friends and family alike.

"I overheard one comment: ‘But she seemed like such an intelligent girl.' So when people ask ‘A Darwin and a Catholic?' what they're saying is that I confound expectations."

Although Keynes hails from Britain's sceptical "intellectual aristocracy" — a web of families including the Galtons, Benns, Keynes and Darwins — among her family members was a 17th-century Jesuit, Father John Keynes, who wrote A Rational Compendious Way to convince without any Despite, all Persons Whatsoever dissenting from the True Religion.

The title finds an echo in a more recent book published by Catholic Voices co-founder Austen Ivereigh: How to Defend the Faith without Raising your Voice.

Sources:

Catholic Herald

Laura Keynes (Standpoint)

Catholic Voices

Image: Catholic Herald

Catholic Voices, whose aim is to improve the Catholic Church's representation in the media, began in Britain in 2010 with the training of 24 lay people and a priest in preparation for the visit of Pope Benedict XVI.

Its success there has led to groups of trained Catholic spokespeople being established in 10 other countries, providing the media with access to "well informed, practising Catholics who will represent the Church truthfully and passionately".

The latest group has been established in Melbourne, where a training weekend for nine speakers, led by the founders of Catholic Voices, was attended by two New Zealand observers.

"Catholic Voices Australia were thrilled to have the founders of this initiative, Mr Jack Valero and Dr Austen Ivereigh, come to Melbourne to launch the first speakers training weekend," said the group's co-ordinator, Kathleen O'Shea.

"Their visit to Australia, which also involved speaking about Catholic Voices at the Great Grace Conference in Sydney last week, has sparked huge support and excitement for the project across the country.

"CV Australia is hopeful that this momentum will carry across the Tasman, and would be very keen to see it take shape in New Zealand," she said.

Though Catholic Voices speakers do not represent the official Church, the project in Australia has been supported by the president of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, and by Cardinal George Pell of Sydney.

The founders of Catholic Voices are both prominent Catholics in the UK.

Ivereigh, who has been deputy editor of The Tablet and public affairs director for Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, has written several books, the most recent being How to Defend the Faith without Raising your Voice.

Valero is press officer for Opus Dei in the UK and in 2010 was press officer for the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman during the papal visit.

Sources:

Catholic Voices

Catholic Voices Australia

Image: The Record