The Catholic Weekly 2 August 2020

catholicweekly.com.au 4 NEWS 2, August, 2020 Helping build a brighter future for children and families in crisis. Dunlea Centre 35A Waratah Road Engadine NSW 2233 Phone 02 8508 3900 AUSTRALIA'S ORIGINAL BOYS' TOWN A place for change... www.dunleacentre.org.au THE CLOSURES of a num- ber of Catholic churches and schools this week are a re- minder of the need for vig- ilance in following public health rules, Archbishop An- thony Fisher OP said. The uptick in confirmed cases of COVID-19 across NSW included 17, as of 28 July, linked to a woman who attended a number of Catho- lic services in Sydney’s south- west area last week. It led to the closure of Our Lady of Mt Carmel church in Mount Pritchard and St Brendan’s church in Banks- town on 24 July and follows the closure of Our Lady of Lebanon co-cathedral for two weeks after a parishion- er attended Masses there in mid-July while infectious. Linked to those cases were the closures also on 24 July of Cerdon College in Mer- rylands, Mary Immaculate Catholic Primary School in Bossley Park and Freeman Catholic College at Bonnyrigg Heights. “The recent cases in three Catholic churches and three Catholic schools here in Syd- ney serve as a reminder to us that we need to remain vigilant, maintaining social Two closedchurches and three closed schools remind all of need for Covidprudence ¾ ¾ Marilyn Rodrigues Closures remind all of need to keep distance Parishioners maintain social distancing during Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral. PHOTO:ALPHONSUS FOK distancing and hygiene rules, taking care of one other, and following all the directives of NSW Health,” said Archbish- op Fisher before celebrating a Mass livestreamed from St Mary’s Cathedral last Sunday. “We continue in particular to pray for those who have died, are sick or caring for them, for those who are anx- ious or at risk, and for those who are suffering econom- ically or leading us through this crisis.” NSW Health urged attend- ees of the five services at four locations the woman attend- ed from 16-19 July to monitor themselves for symptoms. The services were at the two churches plus Ausia Funer- al Services in Fairfield and St John of God Lawn at Rook- wood. Health officials said people should continue to self-isolate for 14 days even if they test negative, and get tested again if they later develop symp- toms. The latest warnings and in- creased contact tracing efforts came after the woman in her 40s from the Fairfield area tested positive on 23 July after attending the services. Parishpriest of St Brendan’s Fr ToanNguyen said in a state- ment posted on the church’s website that once the parish was advised of the situation a deep clean was carried out on July 24. “We will update you when our church is able to re-open again and thank you for your patience as the health of our parishioners is of utmost con- cern,” he wrote. A notice on the Mt Prich- ard church website said that NSW Health advised that the person who tested positive to COVID-19 had left the Mass as soon as it finished and did not interact with any parish- ioners. In brief New Provost for UNDA PROFESSOR PAULINE Nugent AMhas joined the University of Notre Dame Australia as Provost, tak- ing up her appointment in early August. She was welcomed in a statement from UNDA Vice Chancellor Prof Francis Campbell this week. The role of Provost en- compasses academic, re- search and international areas across the entire University. Prof Nugent will also work with the Vice Chan- cellor and Executive to develop the University’s learning experience for students and lead on Ab- original and Torres Strait Islander student and staff engagement strategies. Prof Nugwent previ- ously served as the inau- gural Provost at Australi- an Catholic University in 2012 and led the univer- sity’s academic portfolio. During her tenure she oversaw ACU’s enrolment process, including offers and admissions and the university’s diversifica- tion strategy. She has been credit- ed with helping drive a substantial increase in student numbers and innovation in structure, course development, in- ternational partnerships and models of stakehold- er engagement. She was also respon- sible for a number of key initiatives including es- tablishing and leading a campus in Rome; imple- menting the university’s core curriculum; estab- lishing the Faculty of Law; and facilitating greater involvement with the In- ternational Federation of Catholic Universities. LEADING AUSTRALIAN Catholic bioethicist Margaret Somerville has won first prize in the recent Catholic Press Association United States and Canada Awards for her schol- arly treatment of the issue of ¾ ¾ Marilyn Rodrigues Bioethicist’s take ‘fascinating’, say judges euthanasia by organ dona- tion. Professor of Bioethics at the University of Notre Dame Australia, Margaret Somer- ville’s essay concluded that harvesting a living person for their organs as a method of euthanasia would involve “se- rious breaches of ethics”. Prof Somerville said that people are usually shocked and disbelieving when first confronted by the idea, and even people who support both euthanasia and organ donation may not wish to see them connected in such a way. “I had a similar reaction about 10 years ago, when I first heard that organs from euthanised people were being used for transplant, so I un- derstood their reaction.” Her article, Does It Matter How We Die? Ethical and Le- gal Issues Raised by Combin- ing Euthanasia and Organ Transplantation was pub- lished in The Linacre Quarter- ly last September. Judges praised the “out- standing essay” for raising “fascinating and critical ques- tions” and taking readers through the arguments with clear and compelling writing. Prof Somerville was prompted by an article pub- lished in the New England Journal of Medicine . It put forward the idea that if a person had given informed consent to both euthanasia and their organs being taken after death for transplantation, then the eu- thanasia could be performed by giving the person a gener- al anaesthetic and removing their vital organs. Prof Somer- ville decided to consider why people who philosophically agree with euthanasia would disagree with this way of im- plementing it. “Even people who approve of euthanasia are shocked to hear an idea like that, but they have to ask themselves why euthanasia is ethically acceptable, but performing ¾ ¾ David Ryan it in this way is not,” she said. “Ultimately, I’m trying to get people who agree with eutha- nasia and consider it ethical to, at the least, question their judgement in that regard.” She told The Catholic Week- ly she deeply regretted WA and Victoria passing eutha- nasia and assisted suicide leg- islation and hoped Queens- land, which is seeing a push for legalised killing, would not go down the same path. “I think future generations will look back on it as the sin- gle most important and seri- ous ethical decision we made as a society and as individuals in the 21st century,” she said. “Over time I have been told that many of the outcomes I was worriedwould result from legalising euthanasia simply would not happen – that eu- thanasia would be very rarely used, it would not be normal- ised, it would be very closely safeguarded so it wouldn’t be abused – but none of those re- assurances have proven to be true.” Prof Somerville said her award came as a “complete surprise” and that she had been pleased simply to have an article accepted in the prestigious medical ethics magazine. “Outstanding” and “fascinating” are some of the terms used by the judges who awarded Prof Margaret Somerville, above.