Posted on 09/30/2020 6:08:12 PM PDT by ebb tide
MANCHESTER, England, September 25, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — The bishops of England and Wales have walked back their controversial July statement declaring Catholics “have a prima facie duty to be vaccinated.”
In a September 24 statement, the bishops now say it is a matter of individual conscience, while at the same time defending Catholics who choose to take a vaccine derived from an aborted baby as acting in “good conscience.”
However, this position appears at odds with recent statements by several high-ranking prelates and lay Catholics in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the global race by pharmaceutical giants to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.
In an open letter in May, former papal nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, Cardinals Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, Joseph Zen, and Janis Pujats stated that “for Catholics it is morally unacceptable to develop or use vaccines derived from material from aborted fetuses.”
In April, Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, urged Catholics to join him in opposing such research, and said he would refuse a vaccine developed using cell lines harvested from an aborted baby.
“Even if it originated decades ago it still means a child’s life was ended before it was born & then their body was used as spare parts,” he reiterated in an August tweet. “We will never end abortion if we do not END THIS EVIL!”
Adding to the confusion are shades of differences in Vatican documents on this issue.
The 2005 Pontifical Academy for Life (PAL) “Moral reflections on vaccines prepared from cells derived from aborted human foetuses” and the 2008 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) Instruction Dignitatis Personae on “Certain Bioethical Questions” state that such vaccines must be opposed vigorously, but can be used on a temporary basis in certain strictly defined circumstances.
However, the PAL document “Clarifications on the medical and scientific nature of vaccination” issued in 2017 in collaboration with the Italian Bishops' Conference and the Association of Italian Catholic Doctors, differs notably from its predecessors in placing the individual’s primary moral duty on taking vaccines to ensure public and personal health.
It also minimizes moral objections to accepting vaccines developed using aborted babies, stating: “the cell lines currently used are very distant from the original abortions and no longer imply that bond of moral cooperation indispensable for an ethically negative evaluation of their use.”
It was the 2017 PAL note the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales (CBCEW) relied on for its much denounced July document that suggested Catholics could not conscientiously object to taking a COVID-19 vaccine that was developed using aborted baby cell lines.
“We support the Pontifical Academy for Life’s belief that ‘all clinically recommended vaccinations can be used with a clear conscience and that the use of such vaccines does not signify some sort of cooperation with voluntary abortion’,” they wrote then.
“The Catholic Church strongly supports vaccination and regards Catholics as having a prima facie duty to be vaccinated, not only for the sake of their own health but also out of solidarity with others, especially the most vulnerable,” the bishops stated.
“We believe that there is a moral obligation to guarantee the vaccination coverage necessary for the safety of others. This is especially important for the discovery of a vaccine against COVID-19.”
The bishops’ September statement qualifies this position by asserting the decision is a matter of “prudent judgement of conscience.”
“Research towards and use of an ethically sourced vaccine is the goal which we desire,” they state.
“If this is not achievable and widely available for all people, the Church recognises that there may be ‘grave reasons’ for using a vaccine” developed from cell lines of “an aborted child in the past,” the bishops say, in reference to Dignitatis personae.
“Whilst many may in good conscience judge that they will accept such a vaccine, some may in good conscience judge that they will not,” stated the document, signed by Bishop Richard Moth, chair of the bishop’s social justice department.
“If the choice is made not to receive this vaccination, then the person must make other provisions to mitigate the risk of harm to the life or health of others and to his or her own life and health,” the bishops add.
Catholics must educate their consciences according to principles they lay out, the bishops state, and they list first the need for a coronavirus vaccine.
“Individuals should welcome the vaccine not only for the sake of their own health but also out of solidarity with others, especially the most vulnerable.”
Other principles they list are the Church’s opposition to abortion, to the use of tissue and cells from aborted babies for research, and its teaching “that there must be no complicity in direct abortion and the risk of scandal should be avoided.”
Arguably, neither CBCEW document gives sufficient emphasis to Catholics’ duty to oppose the use of aborted baby cells in vaccine development.
However, the 2005 PAL and 2008 CDF documents state this clearly, and are also “very, very clear that when there’s a moral alternative, you have to use it,” says Debi Vinnedge of Children of God For Life, a Florida-based pro-life group that “campaigns for ethical vaccines, medicines and consumer products.” Vinnedge said that there are vaccines that are not derived from aborted babies.
Vinnedge dismissed the 2017 PAL statement as “not an official document” but a note issued in response to a measles outbreak in Italy.
Oxford University is developing a Covid-19 vaccine in collaboration with the German corporation Merck and British company AstraZeneca, which uses a cell line harvested “from a healthy baby girl murdered through abortion in 1972 in the Netherlands,” U.K. Catholic Deacon Nick Donnelly told Church Militant in July.
“Her kidney cells were harvested for medical research and given the dehumanizing label HEK-293. She’d probably be a 40-year-old mother with her own family by now,” he said.
LifeSite’s Paul Smeaton contributed to this report.
Information on countries and corporations developing a COVID-19 vaccine using aborted baby cell lines is available on the Children of God for Life website here.
Related:
Which COVID-19 vaccines will be derived from aborted children’s cell lines?
Senior Australian health exec refers to ‘ethically aborted human fetus’ amid COVID vaccine debate
Pope Francis The Holy Spirit and Holy Dis Order
Pope Francis in his homily says’ The Holy Spirit is always confusion and disorder‘.
Ping
This is appalling.
The Catholic hierarchy doesn’t speak for me, and I have no responsibility to respect them - and don’t.
End times...
What unholy abhorrent thing will the Pope say next? He’s on a roll!
THE. VERY. PIT. OF. HELL.
Pure unadulterated evil
There is no reason for this. It must have been done in purpose for satanic political points
I briefly attended a Pentecostal church. They preached that Catholicism was of the devil....
First and only time I heard a person speaking in tongues was at that church. I’d always thought that voodoo bull. But when that person spoke, it was no joke, not fake.
Francis is the False Prophet, not the Pope.
No one is an expert on God, because we are incapable of it. That said, the Pope’s attempt to characterize the Holy Spirit is no more credible - and likely significantly less so, than that of a child doing catechism.
The current Church hierarchy is just another secular bureaucracy. As a kid, I saw Pope John Paul II, and he said to the crowd ‘some of you here may not agree with all of what we say, but that is OK, you are still part of us and you belong’. He didn’t chastise the crowd. He appealed to their spirits. This Pope is disappointing, and seems to be more aligned with secular themes than with the mystery and wonder of God.
’The Holy Spirit is always confusion and disorder‘.
That is disturbing. That sounds like the opposite of The Way, The Truth, and The Light. It sounds like chaos. Francis is not a force for good.
Tell me more.
Yes, confusion and disorder seem to be the work of the devil.
WHile I admit that I’m going partially on intuition/instinct here, I do believe that he’s the False Prophet. My understanding is that the False Prophet is to be the cohort of the Antichrist and will oversee the “religious arm” of the coming One World Govt./Revived Roman Empire that the Antichrist will rule. Sort of like the ancient kinds had “court prophets”, “court seers”, etc.
From what I’ve read/studied/been taught of End Times prophecy, the False Prophet is supposed to perform great signs and wonders on behalf of the Antichrist, up to and including calling down fire from the skies to amaze the masses. Some have also speculated that the Antichrist will suffer a seemingly fatal head wound, which will be [seeimly] healed by the False Prophet.
As for ol’ Frank, he’s the most un-Popelike occupant of that office. He appears to cater to/kowtow to every form of vice and perversion. His pronouncements go against every traditional Christian and/or Catholic teaching. When he holds up the Host, he glares at it with the most profound expression of hatred. He rudely slaps away the hands of people who are simply trying to touch his sleeve in order to speak to him.
Ann Barnhardt, whom I think is batsh*t crazy in some areas but extremely correct on most others, has a WHOLE LOT more to say about ol’ Frank. And she says it much better than my poor narration.
Sorry for length. Again, I don’t want to come across like I think I know it all. The above is just my instinctive takeaway from him, according to my understanding of what I was taught of Bible prophecy. Thanks for your patience with it all. :-)
Argh! Ancient “kings”, not ancient “kinds”. I need a Guiness. :-)
Thank you
no, it cannot
I wonder how long it will be before catholics will have branches of planned parenthood inside their churches as well as Sunday school taught by drag queens.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.