The Vatican said Monday it is “morally acceptable” for Roman Catholics to receive research-based COVID-19 vaccines that use cells derived from aborted fetuses, a guide that came after some U.S. clergymen argued that these products were immoral.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s doctrinal orthodoxy oversight office, said it had received several requests for “guidance” in recent months. The doctrinal office noted that bishops, Catholic groups and experts have offered “diverse and sometimes conflicting pronouncements” on the matter.
Based on recent Vatican statements on the development of vaccines prepared from cells derived from aborted fetuses, the surveillance office’s statement was examined by Pope Francis, who ordered that it be made public. .
The teaching of the Catholic Church says that abortion is a grave sin.
The Vatican concluded that “it is morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines that have used aborted fetal cell lines” in the research and production process when “ethically irreproachable” vaccines are not available to the public. But he stressed that the “lawful” use of these vaccines “does not imply or should in any way imply that there is moral support for the use of cell lines from aborted fetuses.”
The Vatican did not name any of the COVID-19 vaccines that were already being administered to people in some countries or that were not authorized to be used soon.
In its statement, the Vatican explained that it is not always possible to obtain vaccines that do not pose an ethical dilemma. He cited the circumstances of countries “where vaccines without ethical problems are not made available to doctors and patients” or where special storage or transport conditions make their distribution difficult.
Much of the Vatican’s pronouncement was echoed in a statement last week by officials of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Officials at the US conference said that “given the severity of the current pandemic and the lack of availability of alternative vaccines,” the reception of vaccines distributed in the United States is justified “despite their connection remote with morally compromised cell lines “.
Coronavirus vaccination “should be understood as an act of charity toward other members of our community,” U.S. bishops ’conference officials said.
Weeks earlier, two U.S. bishops, one in Texas and one in California, had reported vaccines that used cell lines from the tissue of aborted fetuses to be produced immorally. One of the bishops said he refused to receive this vaccine and encouraged grassroots Catholics to follow suit.
The Vatican, reassuring Catholic faithful that obtaining a COVID-19 vaccine would not violate the church’s moral teaching, noted that “health authorities do not allow citizens to choose the vaccine to be inoculated with.” Given these circumstances, it is morally acceptable to receive vaccines that have used aborted fetal cell lines, the Vatican said.
The Vatican said COVID-19 vaccines are being rolled out or that cell lines are expected to be used soon “extracted from tissues obtained from two abortions that occurred in the last century.”
The Vatican has not said if and when Francis would be vaccinated against the coronavirus. The 84-year-old pontiff plans to make a pilgrimage to Iraq in early March and is expected to be vaccinated with him and his aides to accompany him before traveling abroad.
The doctrinal orthodoxy office of the Roman Catholic Church said that “vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation” and that it must be voluntary. Still, it was said, from an ethical point of view, “the morality of vaccination depends not only on the duty to protect one’s own health, but also on the duty to pursue the common good.”
Those for reasons of conscience who choose not to receive vaccines produced by cell lines of aborted fetuses, “should do everything possible to prevent”, through appropriate behavior and preventive means, becoming “vehicles” of transmission, said the congregation.
In any case, there is also a “moral imperative” for the pharmaceutical industry, governments and international organizations to ensure that safe, effective and “ethically acceptable” vaccines are accessible to the poorest countries and not too expensive for them, the doctrinal office of the Vatican. dit.
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