Good Evening All,
Thank you for all the kind replies and advice to my previous post about my situation, I haven’t been able to answer them all. I know that many are in the same boat, and I wanted to share my situation to let you all know what is happening.
Earlier this week I submitted my religious exemption request. The request was acknowledged by the EEO deputy director who said that as soon as official guidance on approvals were received, they would reach out to all parties for the next steps. Don’t quite know the ramifications of this, but others I’ve spoken with have heard not to expect much, and that most requests would be denied.
The form I filled out asked some questions:
1) In your own words, please explain below why you are requesting a religious
exception/religious accommodation.
2) Name the religion and/or describe the religious principles that guide your objection to
immunization.
3) Indicate whether you are opposed to all immunizations, and if not, the religious basis that
prohibits particular immunizations.
I answered the questions in a separate document, that I attached to the form, along with a letter from my diocese, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith note on Vaccines, and a letter from the Military Archbishop on Covid Vaccines.
As some the answers to the questions are interior and personal, I would normally hesitate to share them. I am Catholic and we Catholics are often hesitant to verbally share our faith, preferring (hopefully) that our lives show that faith (at least that’s what we would like to think :) ). Our Evangelical brothers and sisters set a much better example. Nevertheless, it is time to take a stand and I want to I share my request with those here who are in similar situations. For those principled unbelievers and for those of different faiths who do not share some of the particulars, just know that what I have written is sincere. I also hesitate lest anyone think I’m something I’m not. I was a sailor and a WESTPAC sailor at that. Let’s just say that the Lord is forgiving and merciful. If there is anything that anyone thinks beneficial and wants to use, please go for it.
And a special thanks to Ransomnote for moderating this thread and for the extensive research material on the virus she has provided. You’ll see the fruit of her research in my answers, and should I have to further explain what I have written, I’ll use the references she has so generously shared with the rest of us.
Here tis.
18 October
Anno Domini 2021
I, ____________, am a follower of Jesus, the Messiah/Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity, God, Creator of the universe, who, in taking on human nature came into human history to redeem mankind and bring us to everlasting life. I am a baptized member of the Universal Church that He founded, which has proclaimed Him for two millennia, which has taught, preserved, and guarded the faith He gave to us.
I have always been sensitive to His presence in my life, as an altar server beginning in third grade, as the prefect of my high school Sodality (later called Christian Life Community). As a young man I sought to follow Him more closely and entered the Society of Jesus as a novice at the College of St. Charles Borremeo in Grand Coteau, LA, the novitiate of the then Southern Province of the Jesuits. Ultimately, that was not to be my vocation. I married, and am a father of three and a grandfather to six.
As a Catholic father and grandfather, I am sensitive to, and am especially called to follow, the mandate to defend life, especially the lives of the most vulnerable among us. This call to defend life was at the heart of my military career. I was the prolife knight of the first Knights of Columbus council I joined. I was the treasurer of a local prolife group, Choose Life Now. I have participated in prayer outside the Women’s Wellness Clinic and Planned Parenthood Facility, both abortion providers in ___________.
All of the vaccines presently available to treat COVID 19 use embryonic stem cells in either production or testing. The most widely available product from Pfizer uses the HEK-293 line of embryonic stem cells in testing. The HEK-293 stem cell line was developed in France in the early 1970s from embryonic kidney cells taken from a female fetus after a voluntary abortion. To get viable cells, the kidney was taken from a baby that was alive and had no drugs in her system that would affect the viability of her cells, drugs either to cause her demise or to alleviate her pain from removal of her kidney. Understand this: a live baby girl, taken from the safety of her mother’s womb, had her kidney/s removed without anesthetic and was left to die.
The Church has made a judgement that no sin attaches to taking these vaccines that were developed and/or tested using the products from an aborted stem cell line. In this case passive material cooperation is remote and there is no formal cooperation with the evil of the initial abortion. However, even though no sin is involved, I cannot in good conscience, my conscience having been formed by the precepts in Holy Scripture as passed on and expounded by the Church, take the vaccines that are presently mandated for use in countering the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This and the four supporting reasons below are why I decline to take the vaccine:
First: There are other prophylactic and therapeutic treatments for COVID 19 that are not morally objectionable.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has changed the definition vaccine over the years. Previously the definition of vaccine was “A product that stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease.” The latest iteration, from 1 September 2021, of the CDC definition of vaccine was changed to accommodate mRNA vaccines. It now states “A preparation that is used to stimulate the body’s immune response against diseases.” Vaccination is now defined as “The act of introducing a vaccine into the body to produce protection from a specific disease.”
Vaccines and vaccination are now defined as protection. While protection can include immunity, not all protection is immunity. Indeed, the COVID 19 vaccines do not provide immunity. The vaccines do not prevent those receiving them from either contracting the disease or spreading the disease.”
But protection can also come through the use of prophylactics and therapeutics. There are prophylactic and therapeutic protocols which have proven successful in the prevention and treatment of the COVID virus. The Zelenko protocol and the I-Mask+ protocol of the Front Line COVID Critical Care Alliance are two examples. These protocols are not dependent on morally objectionable stem cell lines.
The Vatican Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, in the Note on the Morality of Using Some Anti-Covid-19 Vaccines states that:
“Those who, however, for reasons of conscience, refuse vaccines produced with cell lines from aborted fetuses, must do their utmost to avoid, by other prophylactic means and appropriate behavior, becoming vehicles for the transmission of the infectious agent.”
I, myself, follow the Zelenko protocol.
Second: The mandate to take this vaccine by 22 November 2021, under the threat of disciplinary action and loss of employment, IS coercive. This is contrary to the Congregation of the Faith Note that states:
“At the same time, practical reason makes evident that vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and that, therefore, it must be voluntary.”
The Most Reverend Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA in his statement on Corona Vaccines and the Sanctity of Conscience says:
“The denial of religious accommodations, or punitive or adverse personnel actions taken against those who raise earnest, conscience-based objections, would be contrary to federal law and morally reprehensible.”
Additionally, this coercion violates both the FDA guidelines for products approved under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) and the Nuremburg Code to which the United States is a signatory.
Such coercion is a violation of human dignity.
Third: There are reasonable questions about the safety of these mRNA vaccines. Though the Pfizer vaccine named Comirnity has been approved it will not be available until the middle of next year. All the vaccines currently available are operating under the CDC EUA. The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) data through mid-October show 16,000 deaths, 23,000 disabilities, 10,000 MI/myocarditis, 87,000 urgent care visits, 75,000 hospital stays, and 775,000 total adverse events in the United States. As the VAERS reporting system is voluntary and takes time to complete, estimates are that it captures only between 1 and 10 percent of adverse reactions.
EudraVigilance, the European database for reporting adverse reactions to vaccines, had collected, as of the end of September, 26,041 reports of deaths and 2,448,036 reports of injuries from people who received some of the four experimental injections currently licensed within the member countries of the European Union.
There have been no long term safety studies done on these vaccines.
In addition to the possible danger posed to individuals by taking the vaccine, prominent virologists have noted that vaccinating a population using a non-sterilizing, leaky vaccine increases the evolutionary pressure on the virus which lead to mutations. The term for this in virology is antibody dependent enhancement (ADE). ADE is a likely cause of the COVID 19 virus variants.
No one is morally obligated to take an experimental vaccine which may do damage to themselves and which may endanger others.
Fourth: Since the beginning of the church, and for the past two thousand years, the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Churches, the Ancient Churches of the East, and the Anglican Church have held that what the faithful receive in communion is the real presence of Christ. That is, what is received in communion is nothing short of the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus.
When I receive that real presence into my own body, I do not want there to be anything in my body even remotely associated with the violation of the commandment “You shall not murder.”
Please note that the last paragraph in the REQUEST FOR COVID-19 VACCINE EXCEPTION FOR RELIGIOUS REASONS/RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION form, that I had to sign, states:
“Lastly, I understand that philosophical, political, scientific, or sociological objections to immunization do not justify granting an exception or religious accommodation. An objection due to a personal preference is not a “religious belief” protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”
Though I had to sign this as if I agreed to it, I do not agree with that statement. The form provided no other option. Political, scientific, or sociological objections can and do underlie and support religious beliefs and need to be taken into consideration in matters involving religious belief and conscience.
In conclusion, based on the above, I submit this request for a religious exemption to the mandate to receive a COVID 19 vaccine.
Vivat Jesu,
I’ll keep you appraised of how things turn out.
VR/Pat
Pat, that’s a wonderful letter. I will use part of it in my own letter, if that’s okay?
“Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you.”
You have been blessed to be confronted and had to take a stand. You chose to stand for Christ. Saint Thomas More salutes you!
Great post, Pat. I might use it as inspiration for part of my request.