The Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane has finalised a COVID-19 vaccination policy for all employees, clergy and contractors outside of those working in schools.
From December 15, all employees across the Brisbane Archdiocese, including those employed by Brisbane Catholic Education, Centacare and parish employees, will be required to have two doses of a Covid vaccination or to provide evidence of a medical condition that prevents vaccination.
BCE employees based in schools must have had at least one dose of a vaccine by December 17 and must be fully vaccinated by January 23, in line with the mandate announced this week by the Queensland Government.
Churchgoers attending Christmas Masses will not be required to be vaccinated against Covid or to show their vaccination status. A full list of Christmas Mass times will be available through brisbanecatholic.org.au later this month.
Some parishes will open online and phone bookings for their Masses in the coming days.
Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge has sent a letter to all priests and deacons to have double-dose vaccination by December 15.
“The policy is based on the commitment of the Archdiocese to the health and safety of all its employees, contractors, students, volunteers and lay religious working within the Archdiocese,” Archbishop Coleridge wrote.
“It is designed to protect agency clients, parishioners and all the faithful.”
Parishioners and visitors at Masses and funerals are not required to be vaccinated.
All churches will continue to use the Queensland Government’s Check In Qld app.
The only church services impacted by Covid will be weddings.
From 17 December, weddings will have no attendance limit if all participants and guests are fully vaccinated.
After this date, if anyone attending a wedding is unvaccinated, the State Government will limit attendance to a maximum of 20 people.
Archbishop Coleridge said the continued developments of Covid around the world were being monitored by the Archdiocese.
“We know that there is a new variant of Covid that is causing concern so we will continue to act according to the advice of health authorities at any time,” Archbishop Coleridge said.