DUBUQUE, Iowa (KCRG) – Archbishop Michael Jackels of Dubuque has issued a statement to help answer questions that Eastern Iowa Catholics may have about whether they can, in good conscience, receive the developed COVID-19 vaccine by Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen pharmaceutical companies.
The statement reads as follows:
“Originally, it did not seem necessary to make a statement about the Johnson and Johnson (Janssen) vaccine; any message would be essentially the same as what was said in December 2020 about the other vaccines.
However, some Catholics are a little confused about whether they can get the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify:
Yes Catholics can choose which vaccine against COVID they should receive; they should choose the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines over the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. Because?
Because Johnson and Johnson used cell lines from the fetal tissue of an aborted baby in the production of their vaccine, while Pfizer and Moderna used them only for laboratory testing.
It is a subtle distinction. All three companies used these ethically compromised cell lines; is that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, because they made only limited use of them, move further away from the evil of abortion than the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
However, if Catholics are not given the opportunity to choose which vaccine to receive, it is morally acceptable for them to use the Johnson and Johnson vaccine against the serious health risk of coronavirus.
In this sense, it seems that, at present, and in the foreseeable future, no one is offering the option of vaccines.
In addition, as stated above, there is currently no vaccine available against COVID that does not use these abortion-derived cell lines in design, development, production, and / or laboratory testing.
Therefore, if Catholics have the opportunity to be vaccinated and are not allowed to choose vaccines, they should gratefully receive all that is available; the sooner the better.
The common good of protecting public health against a contagious and life-threatening virus prevails over the reservations Catholics might have about treatment with any of the available vaccines.
Michael Jackels
Archbishop of Dubuque ”
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