The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher (Image: AAP/Bianca De Marchi)

The Vatican has spoken. Well, maybe. Or maybe not.

Australia’s most senior clerics have — to be charitable — muddied the waters when it comes to COVID vaccination. The question appeared to be settled last year by the Vatican which ruled that Catholics should be vaccinated. The reasoning was that the common good should override individual ethical concerns. Done and dusted. Or so it seemed.

Yet In Tasmania, Hobart’s Archbishop Julian Porteous has begun a push for priests who have a “conscientious objection” to COVID-19 vaccines to be allowed to work in aged care homes after a vaccine mandate comes into effect at the end of this week. His case is based on the fact that some vaccines have been developed using cell lines from aborted foetuses from 50 years ago.

The Australian Medical Association’s Tasmanian branch supports the Tasmanian government’s vaccine mandate as “necessary to sustain the vulnerable Tasmanian health system”.

“This is about healthcare worker safety and the safety of patients, and not about vaccines by force,” it said.  

In NSW, Sydney’s Archbishop Anthony Fisher insists that church services must be open for all and not just the vaccinated once the 70% fully vaccinated target is met.  

Fisher is lobbying the NSW government hard: “Race, gender, ethnicity, age, education, wealth or health status (including vaccination) must not be points of division within the Christian community or barriers to communion with Jesus.”

And as Crikey reported last week, the Australian Catholic Medical Association has also begun lobbying governments for special exemptions for health workers in hospitals and aged care who have a conscientious objection to vaccination.

Yet it was only in April that the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference publicly endorsed the Vatican’s “guidance” in urging people to be vaccinated for ‘the common good and the health of others”.

“There is a particular imperative to protect the health of those who are vulnerable,” the statement said, in the name of Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli.

Christians launch the Moses Statement

The Catholic Church’s mixed messages and activism on vaccination coincides with yet more pressure from conservative Christian churches. 

Last week Crikey reported on the Ezekiel Declaration, a petition started by three Baptist ministers objecting to government plans for a vaccine passport. The declaration was addressed directly to Prime Minister Scott Morrison and has been signed by more than 26,000 church leaders, members and attendees.

Baptist minister and human rights activist Reverend Tim Costello has warned that the declaration might lead to vaccine hesitancy and threaten Australia reaching the target of 80% fully vaccinated.

At the same time evangelical and conservative Christians have launched another petition called the Moses Statement, calling on the prime minister and premiers to permit congregations which include the unvaccinated. It notes: “God alone controls everything in the universe, including disease and death. In times of crisis, public worship is vitally important, as God either blesses or frustrates our efforts to combat sickness and disease.”

Like the Ezekiel Declaration, the Moses Statement is signed by members of the Baptist, Presbyterian and Pentecostal churches, including members of megachurches Hillsong and C3.

It says: “God alone controls everything in the universe, including disease and death. In times of crisis, public worship is vitally important, as God either blesses or frustrates our efforts to combat sickness and disease.”

The restrictions attached to reopening church services in NSW for fully vaccinated adults include the one person per four square metre rule, with no singing and masks compulsory for indoor services.

Houston’s shot at health officials

The conditions directly undermine churches such as Hillsong with its high-intensity, all-rockin’, all-singin’ style which are key to its attraction and its business model.

Crikey understands that Hillsong pastor Brian Houston is likely to make a statement shortly on the restrictions. However, one Hillsong insider has provided Crikey with a video which gives an insight into Houston’s thinking on Australia’s health officials.

“Don’t even get me started on the subject of the government,” Houston told his online audience in a recording broadcast the weekend before last. “All I know — and I shouldn’t be saying this and it’s tongue in cheek — is that health officials should be elected officials. Why? Well, because we are a democracy and they’re running the country. OK? Laugh. Cos that was a joke. 

“Kind of.”

The person who provided Crikey with Houston’s commentary took it not as a joke but rather as a shot at “hard-working” chief health officers such as NSW’s Kerry Chant. 

Morrison is yet to make a firm response to the growing religious challenge.