U.S. Bishop Chairmen for Doctrine and for Pro-Life Address the Use of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 Vaccine
March 2, 2021
WASHINGTON– On March 2, Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Doctrine, and Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, issued a statement on the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine recently approved for use in the United States.
“The approval of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine for use in the United States again raises questions about the moral permissibility of using vaccines developed, tested, and/or produced with the help of abortion-derived cell lines.
“Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines raised concerns because an abortion-derived cell line was used for testing them, but not in their production. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, however, was developed, tested and is produced with abortion-derived cell lines raising additional moral concerns. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has judged that ‘when ethically irreproachable Covid-19 vaccines are not available … it is morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process.’[1] However, if one can choose among equally safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, the vaccine with the least connection to abortion-derived cell lines should be chosen. Therefore, if one has the ability to choose a vaccine, Pfizer or Moderna’s vaccines should be chosen over Johnson & Johnson’s.
“While we should continue to insist that pharmaceutical companies stop using abortion-derived cell lines, given the world-wide suffering that this pandemic is causing, we affirm again that being vaccinated can be an act of charity that serves the common good.”
For further details, we refer people to our earlier December 2020 statement, to our Answers to Key Ethical Questions About COVID-19 Vaccines, to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith’s Note, and to the statement of the Vatican Covid-19 Commission in collaboration with the Pontifical Academy for Life.
From the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith Note: Section 5. "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."
(People should never be pressured to comply with taking an experimental vaccine).
1. Churches are allowed to hold regular meetings outside. There is no restriction on the length, size or frequency of these meetings, however, they have social distancing and masking of everyone who doesn't have a talking role. Therefore, the priest and a lector can be without a mask. The State appears to want to keep these restrictions the same as what they have done for protests.
2. There is no limit on the numbers of attendees of outdoor gatherings.
3. The parishes of the Diocese abide by the guidelines of the State's four tier system. At present all counties of the Diocese are in tier 1, the purple tier. However, in the past we had counties in all four of the tiers, thus the rules could have been different in different counties. For instance, if someone had attended a daily Mass in Santa Rosa, it would have been outside since that county was in the purple the entire time. That person could then have gone to Eureka for a weekend get-away and then been allowed to enter the church and sit down in a pew during an indoor Mass. The Church would have been at a reduced capacity depending on what tier they were in at that time.
4. Four of our counties are in the Northern California region and two are in the Bay Area region. So the new order based on ICU bed percentages could end up meaning that part of the Diocese falls under the new order while the other part does not. Or the whole Diocese could wind up under the order. The new order does not change anything for religious organizations. It permits religious outdoor gatherings with masking and social distancing.
5. The plan for what we do is dictated to the Diocese by the Health Officer of the State of California. We have agreed to abide by their decisions to help end this pandemic.
CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE DIOCESE OF SANTA ROSA COVID-19 RESOURCES
https://www.srcharities.org/covid-19/
SONOMA COUNTY COVID-19 DASHBOARD
https://sonomacounty.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=21a1653b79ba42039ff22bcb85fa5b19&fbclid=IwAR36epN-BBGrrZuOLXp1fygZLQeam-rjGXmgOR2C7EzjHOsiLHwvoZAkdIk
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