Will privacy laws hit hospital visits, prayer requests?

Sydney
19 January

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Will privacy laws hit hospital visits, prayer requests?

By Marilyn Rodrigues

New privacy laws that affect the tradition of publishing prayer intentions are most likely in line with standard practice in Catholic parishes already, says Bishop David Cremin.

The Federal Privacy Act was extended in December and can now applied to personal information published in church bulletins.

Bishop Cremin, an auxiliary bishop of Sydney, says this would apply to prayer requests, but these usually come from individuals or families for themselves anyway.

"I imagine it would already be normal pastoral practice in any case to (include a prayer petition) on the request of the person, or the family; that's the practice at Hurstville parish," he said.

"We also have an intercessory prayer group and they wouldn't publish the petitions they are given anyway.

"Otherwise, if it's a matter that could be very personal, it could very embarrassing for the person concerned to have it published or read out."

Timothy Pilgrim, deputy Federal Privacy Commissioner, says that many of the current practices in relation to public prayers or printing of personal information in church newsletters are within people's "reasonable expectations" with respect to privacy.

"It is not likely that there will be a breach of the Privacy Act in continuing these practices," he said.

But he added that it is "good privacy practice to check with them first, especially where sensitive matters such as health or personal troubles are involved. A proactive approach to this issue would be for Churches to make sure people are aware of Church practices and have a clear policy about when the Church will check with people before making information about them public".

Fr Bob Hayes, parish priest of All Hallows, Five Dock, has made his prayer request policy clear to parishioners, alerting them to the fact that he will assume that written intentions with their names included are to be published as such in the bulletin, unless they specify otherwise.

He has also reminded them of the privacy requirements that a person wishing to have a priest visit them in hospital must indicate this on their admission sheet.

This is pity, he says, for those people who would enjoy a visit from a priest but did not put it on their form at the time of admission.

"It used to be that I could walk into any hospital ward and stand in the middle and have a chat to everyone there," he says.

Priestly hospital visits are often just about giving comfort, he says, and this aspect of the privacy legislation is further eroding a sense of community.

"We're all becoming more estranged from one another," he says.

Marist Fr John McMillan, chaplain at St Joseph's Hospital, Auburn, says that generally speaking, he has had no problems ministering within the privacy guidelines so far, but as they continue to tighten he wonders how far they will go.