Pope Francis got the shot. So did Pope Emeritus Benedict.
If you’re a Catholic, why wouldn’t you get one, too?
I sure did, months ago, as soon as I was eligible. And Pope Francis recommends others get the shot, too. That pretty much settles it for me, as I’d think it would pretty much settle it for other Catholics.
But the vaccination issue is alive and, well, thriving in ways I think it shouldn't be among some Catholics and, unfortunately among some Catholic bishops across the United States.
They include our Bishop Peter Muhich of the Catholic Diocese of Rapid City and Bishop Donald DeGrood of the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls. Apparently, at the urging of Catholics who balk at getting the shots and could be seeking religious exemptions from vaccine mandates, DeGrood and Muhich issued a joint statement recently on the issue. The statement seems to imply that such exemptions could be granted by priests in South Dakota.
And Muhich and DeGrood seem to say that they have Vatican support in that position, arguing that getting vaccinated is “not a universal moral duty.”
Which is interesting language since Pope Francis said in January that “morally everyone must take the vaccine. It is the moral choice because it is about your life but also the lives of others.”
It’s about your life, but also the lives of others. That gets at the heart of the issue and at the heart of personal discernment, which Francis argues should always consider the common good and the need to care for your neighbor.
Francis has pointed out that vaccines are well tested and monitored to ensure they are safe and that they “can be used with a clear conscience and that the use of such vaccines does not signify some sort of cooperation with voluntary abortion.”
That’s the crux of the issue for some Catholics. Where do the materials for this highly effective vaccine originate? Cell lines from past abortions — many years past — were used in the development of some COVID-19 vaccines, but not in the actual vaccine that is administered.
To be clear, none of the vaccines contain aborted fetal cells. Pfizer and Moderna used fetal cell lines in tests to assure their vaccines worked. Johnson & Johnson used them in vaccine development and confirmation testing.
Fetal cell lines are laboratory products that began with cells from elective abortions 40 to 50 years ago. As Dr. James Lawler pointed out earlier this year in an article in Nebraska Medicine, the cell lines are thousands of generations removed from the original fetal tissue.
None of the COVID vaccines used tissue from recent abortions.
Still, it’s an issue that gives many Catholics, and other Christians, pause. And Vatican officials certainly paused and gave serious consideration to the issue before issuing a statement on it last December. The statement said that when other types of vaccines are not available, it is morally acceptable for Catholics to take the vaccines that used fetal cell lines in development and/or testing.
In their recent letter, Degrood and Muhich seem to acknowledge that Vatican position but then go in another direction on the cell lines and abortion issue.
The bishops write that we are “bound to follow our consciences if we are certain of them. We have a duty to form our consciences in accord with right reason and the good willed by the wisdom of God.”
Does that mean we might discern that Got has told us to refuse the vaccine? Even if it means putting our own lives, the lives of our loved ones, and the lives and many others we know or don’t know at risk?
That’s how God operates?
DeGrood and Muhich note that there is a “general moral duty to refuse medical interventions that are in some way dependent on cell lines derived from abortion,” but that taking the vaccination is nonetheless permissible if there is a “proportionally grave need, no alternatives are available and one makes one’s objection known. “
But, they also say, a “well-formed conscience might decline such interventions in order to affirm with clarity the value of human life.”
Which is OK if you’re only worried about yourself and your beliefs on abortion and the fetal cell lines, and are willing to set the common good aside. In making a personal statement on the sanctity of life and not getting the vaccine, might you be part of the insidious spread of the virus that ends up taking many human lives?
And could that really be what God wants?
I sympathize with the pro-life values at play here and share many of them. The vast majority of abortions performed today are tragedies that could and should be avoided.
But that’s not what we’re talking about with the vaccines. We’re talking about stem-cell lines from abortions performed half a century ago. And in this situation, what is the true pro-life position? Is it following what you have decided is God’s will and making a statement on abortion? Or is it considering the common good and taking a vaccination that can save the lives of children and moms and dads and grandpas and grandmas in your town and all over the world?
I think if you do make the personal choice, or in your mind, the God-infused choice, to refuse a vaccination that might be mandated in certain situations, you should be willing to face consequences at work or elsewhere.
But those who spoke with our bishops clearly want more than that personal choice and personal accountability. They want an exemption, based on their faith.
And our two bishops seem to be offering it.
So, if you’re a Catholic and you’re troubled by the way the vaccines were developed, the bishops say “we must not be forced to act contrary to your conscience” or “be compelled to do something we believe is wrong.”
That seems to say that Catholics can refuse vaccine mandates imposed by employers and others and implies they could get a religious exemption from priests in the diocese to help do it.
“We support any Catholic who has come to this conviction in seeking a religious exemption from any COVID-19 requirement,” the bishops say.
Which is not what the Vatican says, nor is it the position of former Rapid City bishop and current Archbishop of the Diocese of Chicago, Cardinal Blase Cupich or Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York.
“Pope Francis has made it very clear that it is morally acceptable to take any of the vaccines and that we have the moral responsibility to get vaccinated,” wrote John P Cahill, chancellor of the Archdiocese of New York. “Cardinal Dolan said the same.”
As for religious exemptions, Cahill — on behalf of Dolan, who is hardly a progressive Catholic — wrote that individuals are free to decide the issue based on personal beliefs, but they should not seek “inaccurate portrayal of church instructions.
“There is no basis for a priest to issue a religious exemption for the vaccine,” Cahill says. “By doing so, he is acting in contradiction to the directives of the pope and is participating in an act that could have serious consequences to others.”
The common good. Taking care of our neighbor.
On that point, Francis has written that the “moral responsibility is to vaccinate to avoid serious health risks for children and the general population.”
The common good. Taking care of your neighbors across the street and across the world.
Considering the common good and taking care of your neighbor, known and unknown, is exactly what you do when you get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. That’s especially true now that the virus is becoming a much-nastier, more contagious version of itself. That dangerous metamorphosis is occurring in large part because of human failures to get vaccinated or mask up or take other precautions to slow and stop the spread of the virus.
When it’s allowed to spread freely and infect more and more new hosts; the virus has more opportunities to evolve into a more dangerous virus. Then it becomes more difficult to stop and to treat, and to vaccinate against.
Care for the common good, looking out for your neighbor.
With infections rising fast, hospitals in many states are filling up and people -- almost all of them not vaccinated, and younger in general than in previous COVID surges -- are again being rushed to ICU units that are stressed and stretched.
In times like these, a nuanced, thoughtful, considerate approach to complicated issues is essential. Science and the common good need to be considered along with deep, legitimate, and profoundly meaningful personal beliefs. And bishops need to lead, as Pope Francis is doing and Cardinal Cupich is doing and Cardinal Dolan is doing, Catholics who are struggling with a point of faith need to remember the point of universal good.
If those Catholics then decide not to take the vaccine as a matter of conscience, I can respect that decision even as I strongly disagree with it. But there should be no religious exemption provided by priests or bishops.
If it’s about conscience, it must also be about personal accountability.
The common good and the well-being of our neighbors, next door and around the world, is at stake.
“This virus has left the human family vulnerable and wounded,” Cardinal Cupich says. “This shared suffering teaches us that we must work together to bring this pandemic to an end. That means getting vaccinated as soon as possible — not only to protect ourselves but also so that we do not pass on this virus to those who are more likely to die from it.”
Pope Francis says much the same.
“It’s an ethical choice,” Francis has written. “Because you are playing with health, life, but you are also playing with the lives of others. I’ve signed up. One must do it.”
And when one after the other after the other refuses to do it, each decision helps the cunning and conniving coronavirus as it searches for ways to get around the vaccines we have through newer, meaner variants that could make the highly contagious Delta variant seem mild by comparison.
God matters. Your relationship with God, if you have one, matters. And in this instance, science and medicine matter, too.
And so does your neighbor.
