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Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski receives COVID-19 vaccination at St. John's Nursing Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Dec. 16, 2020. miamiarch.org

LifeSiteNews has produced an extensive COVID-19 vaccines resources page. View it here. 

May 5, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, created by Pope Francis in 2016 from the union of four Pontifical Councils, has published a “Resource Kit for Church Leaders” penned by the special Vatican COVID-19 Commission set up on March 20, 2020.

The document devotes a large portion of its 15 pages to promoting COVID-19 vaccines and offers material that could even be used in homilies.

Prefaced by Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery, the Resource Kit focuses almost exclusively on “vaccines” and the hope they are purported to bring, without mention of the supernatural meaning of illness, death, the sacraments and being prepared for the hereafter.

Instead, the text focuses on the “rebirth” of society as announced by Pope Francis in Fratelli Tutti, not through redemption from the effects of original sin and our personal sins but by discovering “once for all that we need one another, and that in this way our human family can experience a rebirth, with all its faces, all its hands and all its voices.”

Turkson immediately outlines the path to that rebirth: “A first step in our journey toward a more just, inclusive and equitable world is making COVID-19 vaccines available and accessible to all, as outlined in the December 2019 paper, ‘Vaccine for all: 20 points for a fairer and healthier world,’ published by the Vatican COVID-19 Commission and the Pontifical Academy for Life.”

The words “inclusive and equitable” are directly lifted from many international organizations and major corporations and their pseudo-religious insistence on well-being for all through “diversity” and special attention to “minorities,” from women, non-whites, people with disabilities to “LGBTQI communities.” While the Vatican document does not list these priorities, its adoption of a shared code of expression and its numerous links to the pro-abortion World Health Organization are cause enough for concern.

Sadly if not surprisingly, the “Resource Kit” touted by a Vatican Dicastery contains no recommendation to promote actual early treatment of COVID-19 or to work toward lifting absurd, often contradictory and generally useless sanitary regulations. Nor do its documents promote freeing the elderly, who in many countries are truly “COVID prisoners” in their nursing homes, letting go of life because they are being “protected” from their family and loved ones.

Even on the earthly plane, the Church has something to say about this dehumanization of society – but the words “freedom” and “liberty” do not appear once, not even in connection with the experimental “vaccines” and their links with the crime of abortion.

On the supernatural plane, one could have expected recommendations to priests and Church leaders to act in favor of freedom of worship, but the only “mass” the document mentions is “mass vaccination campaigns” that “it is urgent to implement” quickly.
The COVID-19 Resource Kit is tailored from end to end to present getting the vaccine as an “obligation.”

Skipping straight to the “Sample Social Media Content” toward the end of the kit, priests, families, and Church leaders are encouraged to “help share and amplify the messages about the importance of vaccination, about the responsibility to take the COVID-19 vaccines when clinically possible, and about the need to ensure equitable and fair access to these vaccines for everyone.”

Sample tweets and messages are offered to cut and paste on Twitter and other social media. Like this one: “As individuals we/I have a moral duty to protect others from #COVID19 and a vaccine is the most effective way to achieve this, which we can undergo with a clear conscience to protect not only our own health, but also out of solidarity with the most vulnerable #COVID19vaccine #VaticanCovidCommission @VaticanNews @VaticanIHD @PontAcadLife.”

Or this one: “In the spirit of #Fraternity, we cannot forget the most vulnerable and needy throughout the world. Receiving the vaccine is an act of love @VaticanNews @VaticanIHD #VaticanCovidCommission #COVID19vaccine.”

And here is the one with pro-life overtones: “Since every life is inviolable, nobody must be left out. Vaccines are a means to respect and save the gift of life @VaticanNews @iamCARITAS @VaticanIHD #VaticanCovidCommission #COVID19vaccine.”

The whole thing is in fact a propaganda handbook, at a time when attempts actively to convert non-Catholics to the faith are condemned for proselytism. It even adopts the classical “questions and answers” approach of the Catechisms of yore.

The table of Contents gives the idea:

1. Recent Notes on COVID-19 Vaccines (1 page)
2. Clinical Questions About COVID-19 Vaccines (3 pages)
3. Special Questions for Church Leaders About COVID-19 Vaccines (2 pages)
4. COVID-19 Vaccines: Resources for Homilies and Conversations (3 pages)
5. A Family Guide to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) (2 pages)
6. COVID-19 Vaccines: Social Media Content (1 page)
7. Links to Resources on COVID-19 and Vaccines (1 page)

Interestingly, insofar as the first reflections are about the “morality of some anti-COVID-19 vaccines;” the document proves that the question of abortion-tainted vaccines is in fact high on the list of concerns, even though such a small number of Catholic leaders (as far as can be seen) are calling on the need for moral assessment of the experimental bio-agents that are currently being massively injected into people of all ages, and asking for clear and vocal opposition to the use of aborted fetal cells in the development, testing and production of the shots.

These are the opponents the Dicastery appears to be most worried about. Its first major quote is from the December 21, 2020 note from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith about abortion-tainted vaccines, ending with the statement that “these vaccines are not a legitimation of abortion.”

But those words are not mentioned in the Resource Kit. Instead, “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. In any case, from the 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. In the absence of other means to stop or even prevent the epidemic, the common good may recommend vaccination, especially to protect the weakest and most exposed. 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. In particular, they must avoid any risk to the health of those who cannot be vaccinated for medical or other reasons, and who are the most vulnerable.”

The “Clinical Questions” chapter widely overreaches a Vatican Dicastery’s competencies regarding the assessment of the safety of particular medical devices. It boldly states, without reservation, that “vaccination is a simple, safe and effective way of protecting people against harmful diseases,” and that vaccines “do not cause the disease or put you at risk of its complications” – while acknowledging that “some people cannot get vaccinated due to health conditions or other reasons and are advised not to get certain vaccines” as a reason for “the rest of us” to get vaccinated.

But the biggest lie is perhaps this one: “Every vaccine must go through extensive and rigorous testing to ensure it is safe before it can be introduced in a country. An experimental vaccine is first tested in animals to assess its safety and potential to prevent disease. It is then tested in a number of human clinical trials, which are rigorously reviewed before a vaccine may be introduced into a national immunization programme.”

COVID-19 experimental “vaccines” are anything but tried and tested over a long period of time, so much so that the official trials will not end before 2022 or 2023 in most cases.

The “clinical” chapter then goes on to justify use of the vaccine for non-clinical reasons, such as “part of loving your neighbor” or an “act of charity” of an “act of love” for the vulnerable who cannot receive the vaccine.

When will sexual abstinence outside of marriage and chastity receive the same kind of publicity on the part of Vatican authorities as a means of protecting others from serious sexually transmitted diseases and serving the “common good?”

The document goes on to brush aside questions about the speed at which COVID-19 “vaccines” were developed, and downplaying their side effects. No mention is made of the genetic engineering used to make a totally new kind of “vaccine” and the legitimate doubts that arise about mRNA shots that lead human cells to produce part of the SARS-CoV-2 virus themselves.

The “Clinical” section of the Resource Kit does recognize that it is not known whether the novel “vaccines” protect anyone from transmitting the virus, which makes the preceding statements about “protecting the vulnerable” obsolete, nor whether the protection they afford is “long term.”

But the document adds, “Currently, there is no evidence that existing vaccines or treatments for other diseases (e.g., malaria pills) will protect against COVID-19. To be protected, you need to get one of the authorised COVID-19 vaccines and continue practicing physical distancing and hygiene measures.”

The following section addresses “Special Questions for Church Leaders,” starting with the issue of “fetal cell lines.” This is but a replay of the much-repeated sequences about “duty to protect others from infection” (which the COVID-19 experimental shots certainly do not do), to “protect life and reduce suffering.” But in justifying the use of the shots, the Resource Kit here remains absolutely silent about the duty to make one’s opposition to the use of abortion-tainted vaccine production techniques known and to encourage the development of “ethical” vaccines.

Interestingly, there is another paragraph justifying the qualifications of the Pontifical Academy for Life, a clear indication that Church leaders are facing questions on the issue. So here is was the propaganda is supposed to be answering: “The Academy is a valuable source of objective scientific information made available to the Holy See and a wider public in cooperation with the international scientific and medical community.” From objective scientific information to a form of secular infallibility there is but a step …

In the same chapter, “conspiracy theories” are addressed and ridiculed: “The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a parallel pandemic of misleading and fabricated information. Rumors, in the form of conspiracy theories, including about how the virus can be cured and who is to blame for its spread, are rampant. Like the virus, misinformation can spread quickly. It is also harmful and complicates COVID-19 pandemic response efforts.” So please turn to the World Health Organization and stop “sharing unverified information that comes from dubious sources,” says the Vatican COVID-19 Commission.

If Sunday Mass has any role to play at all – and the Resource Kit clearly does not address freedom of worship – it is to allow homilies to spread the (new improved) Good Word. A special section offers quotations that priests could work into their Sunday sermon.
Pope Francis and bishops from all parts of the world who promote the vaccines are cited in this section, which includes “just” distribution in rich and poor countries alike. The Archbishop of Dublin’s Christmas Day Sermon 2020 receives special mention in its defense of the new vaccinal duty that actually sums them up: “We have a moral responsibility, as scripture reinforces, to seize this new sense of neighborliness and understanding of the realities and suffering others are experiencing as a result of this crisis, and grasp the opportunity to each play our part in building a new and fairer society as one global family.”

Finally, two pages are devoted to ordinary people, “A Family Guide to the Coronavirus.” It is a simplified version of the preceding chapters and aims to explain “why” people should get the vaccine, but also plays on people’s suffering because of the first public response to the pandemic: “A pandemic disrupts social and family life. In order to protect people, countries have taken extreme measures like nationwide lockdowns that have had serious socioeconomic, political, ecological and psychological implications. Vaccines can do a great deal of good to stop the spread of the virus and prepare the ground for physical and socio-political healing. Therefore, receiving the vaccine, once it is available, can be considered an act of social love.”

This deserves to be translated into plain language: “Lockdowns have depressed, impoverished and hurt you. Now it’s up to you to stop this response that was decided upon by the powers that be by accepting the solution they are so altruistically offering to you, and if you don’t, you’ll be responsible for all further depression, pain, deaths and other catastrophes linked to the public health response.”
Or even into a single word: “Blackmail.”

Then comes the refrain about “safety,” “effectiveness,” “continued monitoring,” “rigorous testing” and control by the WHO, which are words to create compliance.

“All of the ingredients in vaccines — as well as the vaccines themselves — are thoroughly tested and monitored to ensure they, and the quantities in which they are used, are safe. Vaccine ingredients listed on labels can look unfamiliar, but we naturally have many of them in the body and in the environment.” 

As to the side effects, they are merely mentioned as “mild,” “mild,” and “mild” again. “There have been some reports of mild allergic reactions to specific COVID-19 vaccines.” This is even more ideological than the mainstream press itself dares to be. Or, “Currently, there is no evidence that existing vaccines or treatments for other diseases will protect against COVID-19. To be protected, you need to get one of the authorize COVID-19 vaccines and continue practicing physical distancing and hygiene measures.”

This is the point: Even families who received the vaccine should know that “Continued physical distancing and hygiene measures give you and others the best protection from catching and spreading the virus,” according to the Resource Kit. 

So why bother?

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Jeanne Smits has worked as a journalist in France since 1987 after obtaining a Master of Arts in Law. She formerly directed the French daily Présent and was editor-in-chief of an all-internet French-speaking news site called reinformation.tv. She writes regularly for a number of Catholic journals (Monde & vie, L’Homme nouveau, Reconquête…) and runs a personal pro-life blog. In addition, she is often invited to radio and TV shows on alternative media. She is vice-president of the Christian and French defense association “AGRIF.” She is the French translator of The Dictator Pope by Henry Sire and Christus Vincit by Bishop Schneider, and recently contributed to the Bref examen critique de la communion dans la main about Communion in the hand. She is married and has three children, and lives near Paris.