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.
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