Australian archbishop orders priests to take abortion-tainted COVID shots or get suspended

[Stone]

Australian archbishop orders priests to take abortion-tainted COVID shots or get suspended
Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane made the announcement in a November 15 letter to clergy obtained by LifeSiteNews.
‘I will not consider conscientious objection,’ he wrote to priests.


Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane receives a coronavirus injection in a video posted on his Twitter account

Wed Nov 17, 2021 - 1:48 pm EST
BRISBANE, Australia (LifeSiteNews [adapted - not all hyperlinks included here) – Australia’s senior Catholic cleric Archbishop Mark Coleridge has warned that any clergy in the Archdiocese of Brisbane who do not take the abortion-tainted COVID-19 injections, will be removed from “pastoral duties,” and suffer “suspension of faculties” until vaccination is complete.

The dictates came in a November 15 letter from the archbishop’s desk, obtained by LifeSiteNews.

Referencing severe new COVID mandates which take effect from mid-December, cutting off the unvaccinated from many aspects of daily life, Coleridge said the archdiocese “needs to comply with the government health directions which have been issued in some sectors in which the Archdiocese operates.”

Writing of the commitment “to the health and safety” of the archdiocese’s “employees, contractors, students, volunteers and lay religious,” Coleridge – president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) – stated that his own injection mandates were “designed to protect agency clients, parishioners and all the faithful.”

Recognizing that “having a vaccination, including the COVID-19 vaccination, is a matter of personal choice,” Coleridge then defended the mandate by appealing to his status as “the sole member and officer of the Archdiocesan Corporation which in civil law is the employer of Archdiocesan staff, including those working in parishes.”


Unvaccinated clergy ‘failing in their duty to care for the faithful’

“In the circumstances of the pandemic, clergy engaged in pastoral ministry who are not doubly vaccinated put the faithful of the parish at risk,” he claimed. “They present a risk to the faithful to whom they minister, as well as to their families.”

“Clergy not doubly vaccinated are failing in their duty to care for the faithful,” he further claimed.

Coronavirus vaccine trials have also never produced evidence that the vaccines stop infection or transmission. They do not even claim to reduce hospitalization, but the measurement of success is in preventing severe symptoms of COVID-19 disease.

Coleridge drew on recent modifications made to the Code of Canon Law, affording the “head of a Church” the duty to “safeguard and promote the good of the community itself and of each of Christ’s faithful,” as well as from the Code of Conduct “Integrity in Ministry,” to further support his statements.


No jab, no faculties

With such texts used in defense of his argument, Coleridge stipulated that as of December 15, 2021 all clergy must have the abortion-tainted injections in order to be allowed to continue in their ordained ministry.

“[A]ll clergy incardinated in the Archdiocese and all religious clergy who are engaged in pastoral ministry in a parish are to: have received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccination (subject to the limited exceptions set out below); have recorded proof of these vaccinations with the Archdiocesan system mentioned below; and provide evidence of these vaccinations.”

Should any “priest or deacon” refuse to comply with the mandates by the date given, Coleridge warned he would ask that the cleric to “voluntarily stand aside from pastoral duties in his parish and from all pastoral ministry until he has been fully vaccinated.”

In case of a continued refusal at this stage also, he suggested the “temporary suspension of faculties until he fully complies.”

‘I will not consider conscientious objection’
The archbishop explicitly ruled out any conscience-based exemption from his mandate, saying “I will not consider conscientious objection to receiving the vaccination as a valid exception to the provisions set out here.”

While claiming that “I fully respect the rights of conscience, especially when properly formed in the Catholic understanding,” Coleridge added that “it is not just legal obligation but conscience which has led to my decision.”

The only leeway Coleridge permitted would be for certain, limited medical exemptions, which must be evidenced by a “satisfactory medical certificate from a registered medical practitioner.” Even in these circumstances though, Coleridge stipulated that the certificate must note whether the medical exemption might expire and thus allow the cleric to “receive the vaccination” at some point in the future.

Furthermore, “A medical contra-indication against one COVID-19 vaccination does not necessarily translate to a contra-indication against all vaccines,” Coleridge claimed.

Evidence of the cleric’s injection must be uploaded to an online portal, which is “the best and simplest way of ensuring that I comply with my lawful obligations and my duty of care to the faithful of the Archdiocese,” said the archbishop.

Should a cleric not upload his information to the portal by December 15, whether he has taken the injection or not, Archbishop Coleridge will “deem him to be unvaccinated,” and thus enact his measures of suspension of faculties.

LifeSiteNews contacted the archbishop for further comment, but did not hear back.

The list of COVID vaccine adverse events recognized by government agencies around the world has grown from severe anaphylactic reactions to include fatal thrombotic events, the inflammatory heart condition myocarditis, and neurologically disabling disease like Guillain Barré Syndrome, as well as thousands of recorded deaths and permanent disabilities.

As recently affirmed by eminent doctor Peter McCullough, M.D., “[For] people under 50 who fundamentally have no health risks, there’s no scientific rationale for them to ever become vaccinated” against COVID-19.

As of October 29, 2021, there have been over 850,000 injuries from coronavirus shots reported to the U.S. government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.


History of dissident episcopate

Archbishop Coleridge’s explicit ruling out of any conscience-based exemptions, and mandating of the injections for his clergy, would appear to be in violation of the Vatican’s December 2020 note on the COVID-19 injections. While accepting the limited use of abortion-tainted injections – a point hotly contested by prominent faithful cardinals and bishops – the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith stipulated that vaccination “must be voluntary.”

However, Coleridge has a history of dissident, anti-Catholic actions and statements.

In response to the CDF’s March ban on same-sex blessings, Archbishop Coleridge pushed for more inclusion of active homosexuals within the Catholic Church due to the Vatican’s ban on blessings for homosexual couples. “A Church which says we can’t ordain women is equally obliged to ask how we might include women in leadership … a Church which says we can’t bless same-sex unions is equally obliged to ask how we might include same-sex couples,” he tweeted March 16.

In 2016, Coleridge permitted a semi-nude fashion and ballet show in Brisbane cathedral, later defending it in a statement after media backlash by calling the event “a significant community event that takes place within the parish boundary.”

Some months later, Coleridge then attacked the four “dubia” cardinals, accusing them of seeking “false clarity.”

Two years later, Coleridge made headlines once more, as he tweeted out a message saying he did not want Christ as king, and last summer caused further outrage by sending out an image of Mary and the Christ-child wearing COVID face-masks.

Just weeks ago, orthodox Catholic clergy were prevented from issuing a public statement protesting the state’s COVID restrictions, in a move which was blamed on the ACBC. The “Catholic Priests of Australia” intended to release a statement September 22 in response to “Certain Aspects of the Covid-19 Crisis,” but a priest involved told LifeSiteNews that they were prevented from doing so by pressure from a member of the Australian hierarchy.

Further reports stated that “‘[t]here can be little doubt the bishop concerned was acting for the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference,” of which Coleridge is the president.


Contact information for respectful communication:

Archbishop Mark Coleridge
GPO Box 282, Brisbane, Queensland, 4001, Australia
Phone: 07 3324 3324
archbishop@bne.catholic.net.au