Bishops move to check takeovers

The Catholic Church have requested commonwealth interference as the ACT Government prepares its forced takeover of Calvary Hospital.

Calvary Hospital is at the center of a war between the Catholic Church and ACT Government.

Catholic bishops are ramping up a public and political campaign against the ACT Labor-Greens government’s compulsory takeover of the Calvary Public Hospital in Canberra after what they see as a “disappointing response” to an ­appeal for Anthony Albanese to urgently intervene.

In a letter last week to the Prime Minister, the Catholic Bishops Conference sought commonwealth intervention and said they feared the forced takeover would set a precedent for governments to compulsorily take over religious schools, aged care, welfare and medical services.

“Will other Catholic institutions or other religious providers find themselves in a similar ­situation having their assets ­compulsorily acquired and their ministries taken from them?” the bishops wrote in a letter, obtained by The Australian, to the Prime Minister.

“Never before has a federal, state or territory government sought to compulsorily acquire the assets, staff and clients of a Church institution, thus subsuming or ending its ministry. It is our belief that such an action sets a very dangerous precedent,” the letter, signed by archbishops Timothy Costelloe of Perth, Anthony Fisher of Sydney and Christopher Prowse of Canberra, reads.

They said it was difficult to believe that the reasons for compulsorily acquiring a Catholic hospital that had served the community for 47 years was not a ­result of anti-religious feeling.

“The ACT government has to this date failed to offer a plausible rationale for achieving its goals via compulsory acquisition rather than mutual agreement.

“Legislation was drafted without appropriate forewarning, and the government is seemingly dispensing itself from the requirements of the Land Acquisitions Act 1994 and parliamentary standing orders.

“This is not an acceptable way for a democratically elected government to proceed.

“The ACT government has denied this takeover is religiously motivated. However, it is difficult to ignore criticisms of Calvary’s “overriding religious ethos” in the recent Inquiry into Abortion and Reproductive Choice in the ACT and by some government members, and the imminent introduction of euthanasia and assisted suicide laws into the territory,” the archbishops’s letter reads.

“We appreciate that the commonwealth has limited responsibility with respect to the territories. However, the Prime Minister has considerable moral authority and considerable persuasive power especially in relation to the territories.

“The compulsory acquisition of Calvary Hospital is not just a ‘domestic’ matter for the ACT: it has implications for respect for ­religious belief and practice throughout Australia, and offers a blueprint for governments who may, for ideological reasons, seek to acquire church assets or diminish or remove religious ministries from our society.”

In a short public statement on the weekend, Mr Albanese said the ACT government was “expanding their public hospital service delivery, and restructuring healthcare provision as a result”.

Church leaders, after discussing the issue with Mr Albanese, took his response as backing ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr and immediately started to prepare an increased campaign against the decision because leaders of all faiths see the forced acquisition of a faith community’s property as a precedent that could lead to the takeover of a religious institution’s services in other states.

But Mr Albanese told The ­Australian on Monday that the provision of religious-based ­services was important to Australia and warned the ACT takeover of Catholic healthcare should not be seen as a precedent by “anyone else”.

“The provision of services by Catholic and other faith-based entities in health, aged care, education, childcare, welfare and other areas is an important part of Australia’s social infrastructure,” Mr Albanese told The Australian.

Catholic leaders are extending their efforts to build public support as other churches and politicians, including federal Labor MPs, have expressed concern about the way the ACT government has gone about the takeover of the hospital.