Anger at Catholic ban on VAD rites

Right-to-die groups denounce a senior Catholic Church leader for flagging that the last rites could be withheld from users of voluntary assisted dying.

Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane Mark Coleridge. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Right-to-die groups have denounced a senior Catholic Church leader for flagging that the last rites could be withheld from users of voluntary assisted dying programs.

TV identity Andrew Denton, whose powerful advocacy was important to the state by state rollout of VAD, rejected the comments by Archbishop of Brisbane Mark Coleridge as “a shameful act, devoid of love or Christian mercy towards the dying”.

David Muir, chair of the Clem Jones Trust that pushed to make Queensland the fourth jurisdiction to embrace the reform, said it was a case of “dogma triumphing over compassion”.

This followed Archbishop Coleridge’s warning in The Australian that terminally ill people who chose to end their lives would generally not be offered Holy Communion and in some cases could be denied prayers for the dying and for the dead.

Andrew Denton

In a withering response, Denton said: “It is difficult to conceive of a less-loving or, indeed, Christian act. And it is little wonder that the latest census revealed that the Catholic Church in Australia is losing members at a historic rate.

“If the leaders of this institution – which receives enormous subsidies from Australian taxpayers – wish to continue their acts of ferocity and contempt towards the wishes and laws of the broader community, then they can expect to see more of the same.”

Mr Muir told The Australian that Archbishop Coleridge’s position was “unfortunate” when the terminally ill were among the most vulnerable members of society. “I would have thought that every compassion should be shown towards them,” he said.

Linda Swan of Go Gentle Australia, the interest group founded by Mr Denton, said the “directive to priests to abandon their terminally ill parishioners” would cause unnecessary distress to dying people and their families.

“This is not compassionate or person-centred care and it is not the care that dying Australians and their families have a right to expect,” Dr Swan said.

“Voluntary assisted dying allows eligible Australians with a terminal illness who are experiencing unbearable suffering to have a choice about their end-of-life care. For Church leaders to try and coerce people away from this lawful medical treatment is at odds with the law and public opinion.”

Archbishop Coleridge told this newspaper that while the church would provide pastoral care and “surround the person and his or her family with prayer” it would be difficult to absolve them “from any sin that would be caught up” in VAD.

It was unlikely that Viaticum – Holy Communion for the dying – could be administered by a Catholic priest to someone who used VAD, he said.

Archbishop Coleridge also hit out at the Queensland government for being “impervious to genuine discussion” with the churches over its regimen, operative from January 1.

But the Catholic Church in Victoria, the first state to bring in the right to die in 2019, distanced itself from his complaint that faith-based hospitals and residential aged care centres in Queensland would be compelled to allow VAD on their premises.

“While we are grateful that Victorian legislation does not force Catholic hospitals to perform tasks in contradiction of our public ethical position on VAD, the particular needs of individuals can be complex in end of life care,” a spokesperson for the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne said.

“We urge all Governments to avoid heavy handed approaches to the end of life, and not let VAD become a way to hurt the consciences of faith-based practitioners and organisations of care.”