VATICAN, STAY OUT OF OUR AFFAIRS!

I FIND it extremely hard to decide whether injecting rooms are a good idea.

On the one hand, in day-to-day terms they probably save lives: on the
other, there is speculation that they encourage potential drug users to
join that unhappy throng.

But surely it's up to the people, not The Church (which represents a
minority of them) to decide if this desperate reality needs desperate
experiments in the hope of an answer.

We complain, rightfully, of influence that the British monarchy pulls in
this far-flung and de-facto independent country. But the last time Britain
pulled symbolic or real influence in this country was in its 1975 coup-d'etat.

That the Vatican now dictates what Australians should do on the
injecting-rooms issue is nothing short of obscene. Plaudits to US President
Thomas Jefferson who preached separation of the affairs of State and Church.

And to John Paul II I say that, as far as I'm aware, the NSW and Victorian
premiers are not actually planning to initiate injecting rooms in his small
enclave of Rome. And I would be equally outraged if they did!

CHRIS LUMB
Mundingburra, Queensland