The Council for Healthcare of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference has urged everyone to support the Covid-19 vaccination programmes [1] currently in place in Ireland, north and south of the border.
In a statement released yesterday, they said the development and provision of the vaccines “is already providing reassurance for those who are most vulnerable to the virus and will help us to return to normality in terms of work, education, religious practice, and sporting and leisure activities as soon as possible”.
They encourage all parishes and Church personnel to promote the vaccination programmes and to encourage elderly parishioners, relatives and neighbours to avail of the opportunity to protect their health and the health of the whole community.
In addition, they also called on the Department of Health and public health authorities “to make vaccines available to carers in the Republic of Ireland as a matter of priority and to priests who are chaplains to nursing care facilities and who preside at funerals”.