Pubdate: Fri, 12 May 2000 Source: Australian, The (Australia) Copyright: News Limited 2000 Contact: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/ Author: Kristine Gough CHURCH MAKES ADDICTS PATIENTS OF A SAINT THE Fitzroy birthplace of Mary MacKillop, Australia's likely first saint, will be converted into a drug counselling and support centre, the Catholic Church said yesterday. Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne George Pell said yesterday the centre would serve as a permanent memorial to Mary MacKillop's work among the distressed and dispossessed. The announcement came as Dr Pell released the report of the church's Archdiocesan Drugs Task Force, which has been investigating drug abuse in Melbourne. Dr Pell said the task force had identified a "dearth" of specialist family-directed drug and alcohol services in Victoria. Task force chairman Ivan Deveson said rapid escalation of the drug problem had prompted the fast-tracking of the new centre. The site of Mary MacKillop's 1842 birth in inner-city Fitzroy's Brunswick Street was recently purchased by the Church for $1.67million. Up to $500,000 will be spent refitting historic Dodgson House, built on the site in 1869, as a centre for drug counselling and referral services. The task force's recommendations include increasing detoxification services and the provision of ongoing drug and alcohol training for priests. Dr Pell yesterday reiterated the Church's opposition to supervised injecting rooms. "We don't feel that with the supervised injecting room, as such, that they are doing anything to cure these people," he said, adding that no injecting facilities would be set up in Melbourne by Catholic agencies. He said that supervised injecting rooms "provide only 1 per cent of the answer". "The big challenges are elsewhere," he added. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D