“Because that, I think, is a very appropriate way to achieve the same end without having anyone’s conscience being coerced or violated.”
Catholics are more vaccinated against COVID-19 than any other religious group, according to a new Pew Research Center report. However, some Catholics have expressed reservations or opposition to receiving COVID-19 vaccines because of their connection to abortion.
The three COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in the United States all have a connection to aborted fetal tissue. They use cell lines derived from fetal tissue that was obtained from babies believed to have been aborted in the 1970s, although only one of the vaccines – produced by Johnson & Johnson – used the controversial cell lines both in testing and production. The other two vaccines, produced by Pfizer and Moderna, used the cell lines in some tests.
The Vatican’s Congrgation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) issued a note in December 2020 stating that use of COVID-19 vaccines with connections to the cell lines is morally permissible, if no ethical option is available.
“The moral duty to avoid such passive material cooperation” with the abortions “is not obligatory,” the Vatican said, “if there is a grave danger, such as the otherwise uncontainable spread of a serious pathological agent–in this case, the pandemic spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19.”
The congregation went on to state that “vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and that, therefore, it must be voluntary.” For those refusing the vaccines out of conscience, however, they must take other steps to prevent transmitting the virus, the Vatican said.
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