His Grace Archbishop Fisher Takes Blasphemy Fight to Arts Minister
In an open letter to Arts Minister John Graham, His Grace Archbishop Anthony Fisher has called for the club’s public funding to be withdrawn and for a commitment that taxpayers will never again pay for the mockery of what is sacred. So far, the Government has failed to do so.
Family in Danger has opposed this club since the day it opened in the old St John the Evangelist Church on Kent Street. We petitioned the landlord to cancel the lease, reported the notice that followed and covered the Archbishop’s first statement in August.
The blasphemy has moved to the MCA
Evicted from the church, the club has found a new home at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) on Circular Quay, which is staging three nights of so-called “art” under the title UNHOLY / DIVINE. The City of Sydney had already voted unanimously on 24 August to look at giving the club a space of its own.
The MCA promotes the series as a celebration of “difference, dissent and divine mischief”. After an “Unholy Funeral” for the club on 8 October, the next night is titled “Bliss! Devotion! Adoration!” and the last promises “Forbidden Fruits, Confessions and Naughty Arts”. According to the Archdiocese of Sydney, the promotional material uses inverted crosses.
The Archbishop takes the fight to the Minister
On 22 September, the Archdiocese published the Archbishop’s open letter to the Arts Minister and opened it for signatures. The letter upholds the freedom of artistic expression, but it puts the issue plainly: “public money is being used to support programming that deliberately mocks and degrades Christians”.
In a video message, the Archbishop told those who protest to do so peacefully: “Please do it in a way that is loving but also expresses your perfectly proper anger that your God and your faith, your church, are being mocked.” The Catholic Weekly, the Archdiocese’s own newspaper, put the story on its front page.
The letter ends with a line every Christian in this country should read:
“Our faith is not a prop, a punchline or a source of sexual entertainment.”
A $100,000 grant and no answers
In August, Family in Danger reported that Premier Chris Minns had promised to examine the $100,000 Create NSW grant given to the club. Two months later, the Archdiocese says that examination has produced no satisfactory public explanation.
The Government’s response to the letter has been a statement to news.com.au claiming the grant has been “fully expended”, that none of its money is going to the MCA nights, and that the MCA makes its own programming decisions.
The statement does not explain how a grant for four months of programming was spent on a club whose program was cancelled within a fortnight. It gives no commitment that taxpayers will not be made to fund the next production like it. Nor does it mention that the NSW Government pays the MCA more than $4 million a year in core funding.
The Archbishop is leading from the front
Archbishops of Sydney have criticised blasphemous work before. In 2006, Cardinal George Pell called The Da Vinci Code “a load of nonsense”, and in July, Archbishop Fisher wrote that the holy Eucharist is “not a cultural motif available for parody”.
In September he went further. He named the Minister, put the Archdiocese behind a petition and called on Catholics to make their voices heard.
Protest has already worked once in this fight: the landlord’s notice to the club cited the protests and public criticism it had drawn. Family in Danger commends the Archbishop for leading this fight from the front.
LGBT activists turn on Catholic schools
The club’s defenders have answered with ridicule. In a statement to QNews, the Order of Perpetual Indulgence, an LGBT activist group whose members dress as nuns, said the Church’s “persecution complex is becoming quite the production”. The statement was issued under the name “Sr Rosacea of the Immaculate Complexion”, a mockery of the Immaculate Conception.
The Order then turned the Archbishop’s argument against Catholic schools. It argued that, on his logic, the $749 million Catholic schools receive from the NSW Government should be withdrawn as well, because of what those schools teach about sexuality.
An objection to a $100,000 grant for a club that mocked the holy Eucharist has been answered with an attack on the funding of the schools Catholic parents choose for their children.
Now they want to change the law
The City of Sydney now wants to remove the clause Revelop relied on. On 24 August, councillors voted unanimously to ask the Premier to strip the “offensive trade” wording out of the Conveyancing Act 1919, the clause the landlord used to end the club’s lease.
If they succeed, the next landlord who refuses to host the mockery of the faith will lose the protection this one relied on. Family in Danger will be watching.
What you can do
The club’s supporters gathered more than 20,000 signatures for their side. Christians can do better. Sign the Archbishop’s letter today, and share this article with your family, your friends and your parish.
Sign the Archbishop’s letter here: https://www.sydneycatholic.org/dpp
Last updated: 23 October 2026 04:10