NUNS' DRUG CENTRE IS BANNED BY VATICAN

THE Vatican was criticised yesterday for demanding that an order of Sydney
nuns abandon plans to supervise the first legal heroin injecting room in
Australia.

The Sisters of Charity, which owns and operates health facilities, was to
have overseen the official trial of a medically supervised injecting room
for addicts. Rome's intervention, unprecedented in Australia, came from the
Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which said that the
proposal was "not acceptable".

The banning order provoked widespread criticism, and jeopardises the New
South Wales government's "shooting gallery" trial. The Sisters of Charity
Health Service had offered to run the pilot facility in Kings Cross,
Sydney, and its involvement had secured considerable moral legitimacy for
the scheme.

The nuns were clearly angered by the directive, which comes after months of
preparation work, but said they would not disobey it. Sr Annette Cunliffe,
the nuns' congregational leader, said she was "very disappointed" that the
Vatican had not asked for information on the trial.

Bob Carr, the New South Wales Premier, insisted that the trial would go
ahead when another suitable supervisor was found. The establishment of safe
injecting rooms was a key recommendation of a New South Wales drug summit
in May, but opinion is divided on the issue.