The Catholic Archbishop of the Australian city of Melbourne has said a controversial proposed new law aimed at protecting vulnerable people from gay conversion practices looks like a “dramatic over-reach” by the State Government into people’s personal lives.
Archbishop Peter Comensoli said in a statement on Wednesday that while a bill which protected people from harm would have his “full support”, the Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill “doesn’t merely do what it claims”.
“It targets prayer, and appears to impose silence on people of faith from sharing their beliefs in an open, honest and faithful way,” he said. “The bill imposes on the right of parents and children to speak plainly and honestly with one another. It robs adults from seeking whatever guidance and pastoral support they seek concerning deeply personal matters.”
Archbishop Comensoli said no government has “an interest in what a person prays for, who they pray to, who they pray with, or what conversations happen between members of a family” and added that the bill looks like “a dramatic over-reach of the state into family life, private matters, pastoral contexts of conversion, prayer and spiritual accompaniment”.
The Archbishop, who said faith groups were “afforded little consultation” and not shown a draft of the bill, is one of a numerous church leaders who have expressed alarm, specifically over the bill’s banning of prayer-based practices. But a number of others, including Pastor Teash Taylor, of St Kilda Baptist Church, have thrown their support behind the bill, with Taylor quoted as saying this week it had “the potential to be life-saving”.
The State Government has said that while sermons and prayer which doesn’t target an individual will not be prohibited under the law, prayer sessions in which a faith leader attempts to change a person’s sexuality would be.
The government is looking to bring the bill before the state’s lower house of parliament for a second reading this week.
Under the new law, those seeking to change someone’s sexuality or gender identity could face fines of almost $10,000 or up to 10 years in jail with the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission given powers to investigate reports of such practices.
Queensland is the only other Australian state to have passed such a law.
