(LifeSiteNews) – The Confraternity of Our Lady of Fatima – an apostolate endorsed by Bishop Athanasius Schneider – has launched a charity to support financially Catholics who have been fired for refusing COVID-19 jabs.
According to its website, the Holy Faith Foundation “is an apostolate of the Confraternity of Our Lady of Fatima. The Foundation’s purpose is to provide financial assistance to Catholics who have lost their jobs due to their refusal to receive the abortion-tainted COVID vaccine.”
Employers in the United States, with the encouragement of the Biden Administration and some state governments, are mandating that workers receive one of the COVID inoculations in order to keep their jobs. Because the development and/or testing of these vaccines is linked to the sin of abortion, many Catholics object in conscience to any participation with what Bishop Schneider called the “fetal industry.”
In addition to these ethical objections, many Americans remain concerned that the vaccines have not been sufficiently studied for negative effects given their accelerated clinical trials and reports of death or serious injury following their use.
In the eyes of the Catholic Church, abortion is a grave moral crime, and therefore the Holy Faith Foundation believes that requirements that coerce employees to take an available jab a “violation of conscience.”
Some employers have allowed religious exemptions, and the Confraternity of Our Lady of Fatima has provided a “Religious Exemption to Abortion-Tainted Vaccines” template created by Bishop Schneider. Individuals can join the Confraternity and receive a personalized certification of enrolment in the organization.
The template that employees can use at their place of work confirms membership in the organization “under the guidance of Bishop Athanasius Schneider,” and that the employee holds religious beliefs that “prevent him being able to take any of the available COVID-19 vaccines because, in one way or another, they all employ cell lines derived from aborted children.”
The document also cites the document from the Holy See’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Note on the morality of using some anti-Covid-19 vaccines, which states that “vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and that, therefore, it must be voluntary.”
Even though some employees are being granted religious exemptions, others are being fired or suspended without pay. This was expected by many, and thus when Bishop Schneider toured the US, he spoke about the issue with Crisis Magazine editor Eric Sammons in October. On the topic of loss of employment due to a conscientious objection to abortion-tainted vaccines, Bishop Schneider encouraged faithful Catholics to “make a kind of foundation” to support “families who are in urgent [financial] need.”
Schneider said that such a foundation could act with the “specific aim” of helping providers who, “for the sake of fidelity to God and the Moral Law, refused any collaboration with the fetal industry.”
Eric Sammons told LifeSiteNews that “employers around the nation are instituting unjust vaccine mandates for continued employment,” and this “puts Catholics who object to the abortion-based origins of the current vaccines in a crisis of conscience.”
“For those who choose to stand with the unborn, they can lose their jobs, and many of these newly unemployed Catholics are the sole breadwinner for their families,” he added.
Sammons explained that the “Holy Faith Foundation will allow them to receive some financial relief as they pursue new employment. It is a way for us to support our brothers and sisters who stand for life.”
The Holy Faith Foundation webpage states that the apostolate “will raise money and distribute grants to needy families like these. These grants will provide a short-term financial bridge as they seek new employment.”
The foundation also stresses that they have a “careful application process, and grants will be allocated by a committee of faithful Catholics.” Preference will be given to “Catholic families that have lost their only source of income, as well as larger families with more financial demands.” Currently it is a program only available in the United States.
The organization is a subsidiary of My Catholic Cause, a 501(c)3 registered in the state of Ohio with the tax id of 81-4264993. All donations are tax-deductible.
Their goal is to raise $250,000, and their donation page states as of writing this that they have raised almost $28,000 since the fundraising began last Friday. Donations can be made in any amount and can be a one-time or recurring donation.