The Catholic Weekly 16 August 2020

catholicweekly.com.au 6 NEWS 16, August, 2020 In brief Bishop removes priest AN AMERICAN bishop has taken the step of for- mally and publicly ex- communicating a priest of his own diocese. Bishop Jaime Soto of the Diocese of Sacramen- to announced the move in a pastoral letter to his diocese on 7 August. The excommunica- tion was for denying the papacy of Pope Francis, among other issues. Bishop Soto informed Catholics that Fr Jeremy Leatherby had also “sub- stituted the Holy Father’s name with the name of his predecessor, and omitted my name dur- ing the recitation of the Eucharistic Prayer while offering Mass.” The ac- tions had left him with no choice but to announce the excommunication publicly, he said. Serving the Sydney community since 1892 Our experienced Funeral Directors are committed to providing a personalised and meaningful service for your loved one. Prepaid funerals available. Newtown | Chatswood | Parramatta | Miranda 9519 5344 | wnbull.com.au forcing that with clinicians ... I started using the kits at home onmy boys as guinea pigs, try- ing to get them to see how easy germs can spread. “They loved it, and I thought it’s a really important lesson Kids learn a vital lesson Bishop defends Seal STUDENTS AT Panania’s St Christopher’s Catholic Prima- ry School brushed up on the best way to get perfectly clean, germ free hands recently and are now considered experts in hand hygiene. Dr Matthew Malone, Head of Department for the High Risk Foot Service at Liverpool Hospital - and dad to kindy student Hugh - visited the school to teach the kids about the importance of hand wash- ing particularly at a time when COVID-19 numbers are again on the rise. Using GlitterBug hand-hy- giene training kits, which fea- tures a powder formula that shows up under UV light, Dr Malone showed the students just how important it is to wash their hands properly. “We have a big clinical ser- vice, so we’re very strict on hand hygiene,” he said. “We had the kits because we were doing a study on doc- tors to look at how we can re- duce contamination and rein- for all children,” the doctor said. “These kids may never get symptoms but theymight pass germs on so it’s a good idea to get them into good habits of washing their hands whenev- er they can.” Dr Malone taught both students and teachers alike the best techniques to wash hands as well as how long to wash them to ensure they didn’t potentially spread germs around the community. ¾ ¾ Benjamin Conolly Wash, wash, wash! Students learn how to keep safe in a pandemic. PHOTO: GIOVANNI PORTELLI ArchbishopTimothy Costelloe SDB Once their hands were washed, the lights went out and Dr Malone’s UV light was used to show just how easy it is to miss spots. He then took the light around the room, shock- ing the class with how easily germs can spread from one student to another. St. Christopher’s Principal Jamie Wahab said it was great Dr Malone was able to visit the school and educate them in hand hygiene. “We’re very lucky to have such an expert teaching our kindergartners how to prop- erly wash their hands,” he said. “Now we look forward to all of our students going home and showing their parents how it’s done.” FROM P1 Sacramental confession is an “intimate encounter between an individual person who recognises that he or she is a sinner, and God from whom forgiveness of sin comes”, the archbishop explained. “Sins are not confessed to the priest, but to God. “The priest therefore has no right or authority to disclose anything that takes place in this intimate encounter with God. “To make the free practice of an essential aspect of the Catholic faith illegal seems to me to be something that mod- ern secular societies have al- ways understood to be beyond the limits of their authority.” Both clerics said that they had to previously be consulted on the Children and Commu- nity Services Amendment Bill 2019 as it affected churches in their practice of the sacrament. Archbishop Costelloe said that advice from the Holy See to the Federal Government in response to a recommenda- tion of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, includ- ing in relation to confession, would be formally commu- nicated at a meeting between representatives of the Austral- ian Catholic’s Bishop’s Confer- ence and the Attorney General in early September. In May the archbishop wrote a sharp rebuke to West- ern Australia’s Child Protec- tion Minister Simone McGurk after she called on him to sup- port forcing priests to disclose information about child abuse discussed in confession. Introducing the new legisla- tion for debate on 13 May, Ms McGurk said that the Catholic Church had “resisted change in this area, and publicly op- posed breaking the Seal of Confession” and that it was time for “the Church’s leader- ship to put child safety first”. In February a similar law came into effect in Victoria where priests now face a pen- alty of up to three years in prison if they do not disclose information about child abuse gained during the Sacrament of Confession. SEE OUR LATEST JOBS Call Katie (02) 9390 5402 catholicjobsonline.com. au Find the career you deserve It’s a good idea to get them into good habits of washing their hands whenever they can.”