Archbishop Mark Coleridge sent a letter this week to all priests and deacons to comply with double-dose vaccination by December 15 or stand aside.

In the strongly worded letter on Monday, he warned that unvaccinated clergy "present a risk" to parishioners. He said that priests and deacons who failed to comply would have to show cause as to why they should not be immediately suspended.

Conscientious objection would not be accepted as grounds for exemption, he said.

"I will not consider conscientious objection to receiving the vaccination as a valid exception to the provisions set out here," wrote Coleridge. "I fully respect the right of conscience, especially when properly formed in the Catholic understanding. But I too have a conscience; and it is not just legal obligation but consciences which has led to my decision."

Leaders of other church communities have taken different approaches to vaccine mandates.

The Archbishop of Melbourne Peter Comensoli, heading Australia's largest Catholic community, said about 5 percent of clergy there were not fully vaccinated. While "strongly encouraging" priests to get the Covid shots, he had stopped short of mandating it.

"I have strongly encouraged vaccination for our clergy so that they can fully minister to our people in all circumstances. Most particularly for the care of the most vulnerable in hospitals and aged care," Archbishop Comensoli told The Australian. "To date, around 95 percent have achieved their double vaccination."

A spokesman for Anglican Primate, Geoffrey Smith, said the archbishop had "made his position very clear" that everyone should be vaccinated. But it is understood no Anglican diocese in Australia had made this compulsory.

Dr Coleridge recognised that vaccination was a "matter of personal choice," but, this was outweighed by legal obligations to civil law, state health directives, occupational health and safety requirements and the duty of care owed to parishioners.

"A pastor or assistant pastor in parish ministry is to know the faithful, visit families, care for the faithful, strengthening them in the Lord and refresh the faithful with the sacraments," he wrote.

"Diligently, he is to seek out the poor, the afflicted, the lonely and the exiled. He is to support spouses and parents in fulfilling their proper duties and to foster growth of Christian life in the family.

"That means that clergy engaged in parish ministry must be close to people. In the circumstances of the pandemic, clergy engaged in pastoral ministry who are not doubly vaccinated put the faithful of the parish at risk. They present a risk to the faithful to whom they minister, as well as to their families.

"Clergy not doubly vaccinated are failing in their duty of care for the faithful."

Sources

The Catholic Leader

The Australian

Comensoli, the Archbishop of Melbourne, initially sought to say the rescinding of an invitation to Sister Joan Chittister, a US author, feminist and advocate of church reform, was a misunderstanding.

He suggested Joan had been sounded out for her availability for the 2020 National Catholic Education Conference in Melbourne, but that no formal invitation had been made.

In fact, correspondence between the Ballarat Catholic Education Office deputy director John Meneely and Joan's office shows on 29 April they agreed to Joan presenting a 60-minute speech at the conference, covering the topic 'Listen to what the spirit is saying'.

A fee of $11,700 had also been negotiated, along with business-class airfares and hotel accommodation.

"I am very saddened to say that while our organising committee strongly supported the inclusion of Sr Joan as a speaker at the conference, the Archbishop of Melbourne has failed to endorse her inclusion," Meneely says.

He is now seeking explanation for Comensoli's reasons for excluding Joan.

The Archdiocese issued a statement last Friday evening.

Acknowledging Comensoli was advised in May of "a proposal for Sister Joan Chittister to speak at the National Catholic Education Commission Conference", the statement continued:

"When the conference was raised with him, Archbishop Comensoli requested that more names aligned to the themes of a national Catholic education conference be considered.

"The conference is a national conference with an organising committee drawn from leaders in Catholic education that is engaged in dialogue as part of the planning with a range of stakeholders including Catholic education leaders, church representatives and bishops.

"Archbishop Comensoli has neither invited Sister Joan or revoked any invitation that may have been issued to her."

However, suspicions the archdiocese was seeking to suppress the views of a nun who had repeatedly called for the empowerment of women and laypeople in the church is fuelling anger among those already upset by Joan's exclusion.

Others are contrasting Joan's treatment to the support Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher recently gave to former rugby star Israel Folau's right to free speech.

"One hopes that the freedoms advocated for Folau be also extended to Joan Chittister," Sister Patty Fawkner, the Congregational Leader of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan wrote in an online article last week.

"This would certainly help us move towards an adult Church."

Source

• The Sydney Morning herald
• The Age
• Image: MSN.com