The Catholic Weekly 19 September 2021

catholicweekly.com.au 3 19, September, 2021 THE ABC has apologised to the head of the Greek Ortho- dox Archdiocese in Australia for a story it published earlier in the year making allegations against Archbishop Makarios and his lifestyle. The story, titled “Greek Orthodox Church took tens of millions in rent from aged care home at centre of deadli- est COVID outbreak,” claimed that an ABC investigation found a group of taxpay- ¾ Debbie Cramsie ABC apologises to Greek Archbishop er-funded aged care homes funnelled $31 million back into the coffers of one of Aus- tralia’s largest churches. It stated St Basil’s Homes for the Aged in Victoria paid more than $22 million in rent and fees to the Greek Ortho- dox Archdiocese while receiv- ing federal government fund- ing, claiming it was “double the rental market rate”. It also stated “the church was funding the lavish life- style of its newly appointed Archbishop, including the purchase of a $6.5 million Sydney apartment with har- bour views” and suggested that the Archbishop “neg- ligently caused the deaths of the 45 residents at the St Basils aged care home in Mel- bourne”. Last week, Austral- ia’s public broadcaster issued an apology saying it did not intend to suggest that Arch- bishop Makarios had person- ally funnelled money from St Basil’s to the Greek Orthodox Church. “On 16 April 2021, the ABC published an arti- cle about the conduct of the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia in connection with its aged care facilities,” the apology stated. “The ABC wishes to clarify that this story was not intend- ed to suggest that Archbish- op Makarios of Australia had personally funnelled money from St Basil’s to the Greek Orthodox Church, or that he had personally spent money intended for aged care on his own lifestyle ... Further, the story was not intended to sug- gest that Archbishop Makari- os had through any action on his part negligently caused the deaths of the 45 residents at the St Basils aged care home in Melbourne. “Any such interpretation of the article is incorrect. To the extent any readers under- stood the story in this way, the ABC apologises to Archbish- op Makarios for any hurt or offence experienced. This was never the ABC’s intention.” ... the story was not intended to suggest that ArchbishopMakarios had through any action on his part negligently caused the deaths of the 45 residents ...” ABC A GROWING number of Catholic professionals are de- fending the long-held prin- ciple of the primacy of con- science against increasing calls for mandatory COV- ID-19 vaccination in different settings. The Australian Catholic Medical Association (ACMA) this month wrote to Prime Minister Scott Morrison and other state and territory lead- ers to plead for protections for health and medical staff who have a conscientious objec- tion to COVID-19 vaccination. It came as Hobart’s Arch- bishop Julian Porteous sought an exemption for priests with a conscientious objection fromTasmania’s public health directive that anyone entering aged care homes from Sep- tember 17 to be vaccinated or have bookings for their vacci- nation. In addition, a number of senior academics working across a range of schools in- cluding medicine and phi- losophy at the University of Notre Dame Australia have signed a background paper outlining core principles, in- cluding respect for individual conscience, which they be- lieve should inform Catholic institutions’ responses to gov- ernment health policy direc- tives. Written by law professor Iain Benson, it offers to help the university formulate a statement against mandatory vaccinations for staff or stu- dents. Chaplain to the ACMA Fr Pascal Corby OFM Conv says that its call on the Govern- ment to respect conscientious objection to the COVID-19 vaccine is directly aligned with Catholic teaching. ¾ Marilyn Rodrigues Mandate calls rejected Conscience should not be used against employees, ethicists say The Australian Catholic Medical Association has defended the right of healthcare workers to refuse vaccination because of ethical concerns, clarifying that ACMA is not anti-vaccination per se. “Ours is not an anti-vac- cination claim or even a statement on the validity of encouraging vaccination in certain contexts, especially in health,” Fr Corby told The Catholic Weekly . “Rather, it’s an acknowl- edgement that people may have objections in conscience and that the conscience is a sacred thing and therefore needs to be taken into ac- count and respected, which any form of coercion or any form of mandatory vaccina- tion contradicts. “From a Catholic point of view we hold the dignity of conscience, both in terms that one should both be able to act on one’s conscience as well as one should not be forced to act against their conscience by external pressure.” The letter on behalf of ACMA signed by Fr Corby, who acts as the organiser’s bioethical advisor, says that as medical professionals, “we understand and support the need to safeguard people from the terrible COVID-19 virus”. “However, we are growing increasingly concerned by the push to make COVID-19 vac- cination mandatory, includ- ing in health care settings. “Recently, the Australian Catholics Bishops Conference held that ‘no one should be coerced to receive any vac- cine’ and that ‘vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obliga- tion,’ andwewish to assert that principle should be applied to medical practitioners,” the let- ter read. “While we disagree in principle with vaccine man- dates, any attempt to establish such mandates should have a clear and straight forward ex- emption policy for conscien- tious objection which does not place undue burdens, or involve discrimination.” Legitimate concerns may include a moral objection to the production of the vaccines in question and a reasoned objection to the risk of side ef- fects of vaccination, both im- mediate and long-term. Rapid antigen testing is one way risk could be minimised to staff and patients without requiring vaccination of staff with conscientious objec- tions, the ACMA says. In Hobart, Archbishop Porteous said he had not yet received a reply from the Tas- manian Government in re- sponse to his proposal. “I asked the government for advice to see if a very small number of priests in Tasma- nia who have a conscientious objection to receiving a COV- ID vaccine, could be tested using a rapid antigen testing kit prior to entering an aged care facility to continue their ministry,” the archbishop said in a statement. “I proposed that the testing be carried out by a medical practitioner to ensure the priest is free of the virus; ensuring the safety of staff and clients at the aged care facility.” Meanwhile Catholic Health Australia, the peak advisory body for not-for-profit hospi- tals and aged care, including St Vincent’s Health Australia, St John of God Healthcare, CatholicCare and St Vincent de Paul NSW, has been pro- moting mandatory vaccina- tion to protect the most vul- nerable groups. It has called on the Federal Government to mandate the vaccination of disability sup- port workers, as well as aged care providers in community settings. Across the country it is already compulsory for resi- dential aged care workers and health workers to get vacci- nated against COVID-19. “We have a duty to protect the most vulnerable in our community and we can start by requiring our staff to be vaccinated,” said CHA Direc- tor of Mission and Strategy Rebecca Burdick Davies. “These workers are going into people’s homes andmov- ing around the community - it is part of their job descrip- tion. Their place of work is the community and we have learned that the Delta variant spreads rapidly via mobile workforces.” SUPPORT HEALTH WORKERS RIGHT TO OBJECT P15 ... we are grow- ing increasingly concerned by the push to make COV- ID-19 vaccination mandatory, including in health care settings.” Letter on behalf of ACMA In brief Sixth Century edict Carmelite audience THE OLDEST record of 1,700 years of Jewish life in Germany has arrived in Cologne, on loan from the Vatican Library. The German Catholic news agency KNA reported two sheets from the sixth century are a copy of an edict sent to Cologne by the Roman Emperor Con- stantine in 321; the edict allowed Jews to become members of city councils. The document is consid- ered the oldest written re- cord of Jewish life north of the Alps, and the date it refers to is the basis for the celebrations this year to mark 1,700 years of Jewish life in Germany. CONSECRATED LIFE is not doomed to die out, Pope Francis told a group of Discalced Carmel- ites. “These pessimistic views are destined to be disproved, as are those about the church herself, because the consecrated life is an integral part of the church,” he said. “Consecrated life is part of the church just as Jesus wanted it to be, and as the Spirit continually generates it. Therefore, the temptation to worry about surviving, rather than living to the full by welcoming the grace of the present, even with the risks it entails, must be removed,” he said in an address to the group on 11 September. The Carmelite life “is a contemplative life” that responds to “the thirst of contemporary human- ity, which deep down is thirsting for God, thirsting for the eternal - contem- porary humanity often does not understand this, and looks for it every- where,” he told the group of friars. - CNS NEWS