Coronavirus: We must be there for them, say priests defying ban on last rites

Melbourne’s Catholic priests are giving parishioners the last rites in ­defiance of the Andrews government’s stage-four restrictions.

Monsignor Charles Portelli in Keilor Downs, Melbourne, on Thursday. The dying have ‘a most profound need for human contact’, he says. Picture: Aaron Francis

Melbourne’s Catholic priests are taking a quiet stand, giving dying parishioners the last rites in ­defiance of the Andrews government’s stage-four restrictions.

The government has banned faith leaders from visiting patients at home, in a hospital or a care ­facility “for last rites or to perform other religious ceremonies in person’’. The rules also state “last rites … can be provided using video or livestreaming’’.

That is impossible, said Monsignor Charles Portelli, parish priest of St Mary of the Assumption Parish, Keilor Downs — a COVID-19 hotspot.

Providing the sacraments to the dying was one of a priest’s most serious obligations, he said. “It is given one of the highest priorities in church law and can only be done in person, not virtually.’’

The terminally ill and the dying also had “a most profound need for human contact’’, Monsignor Portelli said. “They can feel very ­lonely. This is the least we can do. The people support their priests in so many ways. We must be there when they need us most.’’

Priests have found medical staff understanding about the situation and had helped priests “gown up’’ to tend sick and dying members of their flocks, he said.

Jesuit priest Frank Brennan — rector of Newman College at the University of Melbourne and a part-time chaplain to St Vincent’s Hospital — was unaware of the restriction. Father Brennan has been giving the last rites in full PPE gear.

Monsignor Portelli said the Andrews government’s restriction on administering the last rites, ­especially during a pandemic in which almost 700 Victorians had died, was an attack on “the free practice of religion’’.

More person-to-person contact was happening in shops than happened in administering the last rites, he said. The restriction was also something of a contradiction as the stage-four rules permitted people to leave home for ­caregiving.

Archbishop of Melbourne Peter Comensoli knew nothing about the ban on the last rites when contacted by The Australian. After checking the DHSS rules he has sought “urgent clarification’’ from the government.

Monsignor Portelli is responsible for 15,000 Catholics in 4000 households. Keilor Downs and surrounding suburbs in Melbourne’s outer north were ­declared COVID hotspots in June.

Since then, he has opened his church only for funerals, when 10 people are swamped in its vast, decorative surrounds. He has ­established an altar for offering daily Mass at home, where he has no contact with anybody.

Members of his flock, and staff from the parish school who are helping children learn electronically keep in touch by phone. He hears of the human fallout of the pandemic daily. One family he tended suffered the loss of both parents to COVID.