SYDNEY, Australia (LifeSiteNews) – A leading member of Australia’s Catholic Social Services has gone on-air to criticize a priest who made public his decision not to take the jab.
Last month Francis Sullivan, the lay Chair of Catholic Social Services Australia Ltd.’s board, told radio host Ben Fordham that he found Father Andrew Grace’s Facebook video, in which the priests discussed the COVID jab, “incredible” and “bizarre.”
“At a time like this, every Catholic spokesperson should be making it plain as plain that the price of participation is vaccination,” Sullivan said.
Saying that priests “particularly” argue that “they are providing an essential service,” the Catholic Social Services chief stated that they are even more obliged than others to get jabbed.
“… [T]he obligations and the responsibilities on them to get vaccinated are even higher than they are for ordinary people,” Sullivan said.
Despite universal acknowledgement that people who have received COVID-19 jabs can still catch and spread the virus, Sullivan suggested that priests put their parishioners at risk if they don’t get vaccinated.
“It’s not up to the parishioners to accommodate the convenience of the priest,” he added.
“It’s up to the priest to step up and demonstrate even what the Pope is saying: that to be vaccinated is an act of love. In other words, to get vaccinated is about everybody’s good, not your own, personal preference.”
Many people refuse to take the experimental COVID-19 inoculations because of the thousands of deaths and millions of other injuries reported in connection with their use. In addition, many Christians, including Catholics, object to the jabs because cell lines derived from aborted babies were used in their development or testing. In his video, live-streamed to the Sacred Heart parish’s social media account, Grace urged the government of New South Wales, led by pro-life Catholic Dominic Perrottet to “provide vaccines that have no association with abortion.”
Grace also promoted the use of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as alternative treatments to COVID-19, something that infuriated journalist Fordham and apparently led the priest’s local ordinary, Bishop Mark Edwards of Wagga Wagga, to ask him to remove the content.
“I have instructed Father Grace to remove references to medical treatments that are not approved by the Australian authorities,” Edwards told Fordham in an official statement the radio host read online.
Both Fordham and Sullivan applauded the bishop for having asked the priest to take down his video.
“Mark Edwards is a sensible bloke,” said the Catholic Social Services Australia Chair, and added that Catholics should not be expected to go to Mass when their priest is “not vaccinated.”
Sullivan also condemned “sending mixed messages” and voiced concern both that not all regions of NSW have “access to the vaccine” and that there is a lot of so-called “vaccine hesitancy,” i.e. many people in Australia who, like Grace, do not want to take the experimental COVID jabs.
Although ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine have not yet been approved by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration, medical experts Dr. Peter McCullough, Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, Dr. Robert Malone, and the 12,700 doctors and scientists who signed the Rome Declaration have recommended both drugs as safe and effective treatments for COVID-19.
Wagga Wagga’s Bishop Edwards is a strong proponent of the vaccine and told Australians, “I am certainly encouraging vaccination and for those who are hesitant I would encourage you to take your hesitations to your doctor because that is where you are going to get the right advice.”
“I prayed for this vaccination to come. … I see these vaccinations as a gift from God and I would love people to accept this gift that he has given us,” he added.
Edwards reminded Catholics that “Pope Francis encourages us to receive vaccines as it is an act of love which protects others and ourselves.”
Nevertheless, magisterial teaching allows for conscientious objection and the right to advocate for ethical medical treatments.
According to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s 2020 statement on the morality of COVID-19 vaccinations, “both pharmaceutical companies and governmental health agencies are … encouraged to produce, approve, distribute and offer ethically acceptable vaccines that do not create problems of conscience for either health care providers or the people to be vaccinated.”
LifeSiteNews reached out to the Diocese of Wagga Wagga for a statement from Bishop Edwards regarding his decision to censor Father Grace but was informed by staff that he would be unwilling to revisit the issue.
LifeSiteNews has produced an extensive COVID-19 vaccines resources page. View it here.