PRIEST CRITICISES VATICAN INTERVENTION ON HEROIN

MELBOURNE - A prominent Jesuit priest today criticised the Vatican's
ban on an order of Catholic nuns supervising a heroin injecting room
in Sydney.

The decision would result in increased deaths among intravenous drug
users, Father Peter Norden, Director of Jesuit Social Services in
Melbourne, said in a statement.

"The Vatican should look more closely at what is happening in the
grounds of the Jesuit parish of Kings Cross in Sydney and in many
Catholic churches around Australia, where drug addicted individuals
are injecting themselves in church toilets and school grounds in
unhygienic conditions," Norden said.

"Our drug treatment programs in Melbourne are all directed towards
moving addicted persons towards rehabilitationa and a drug free lifestyle.

"Catholic Church agencies are clearly not intending to give the
message that drug addiction can be tolerated."

The Sisters of Charity of Australia were yesterday notified by Sydney
Catholic Archbishop Edward Clancy that the proposal to operate the
injecting room in Kings Cross was unacceptable to the Vatican.