January 4, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — As moral debates over the use of abortion-tainted COVID-19 vaccines swirl in social media, two activist members of the Catholic clergy, Fr. Dave Nix and Deacon Nick Donnelly, have independently joined their voices to those who oppose the use of such vaccines.
Last month, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, along with co-signers Cardinal Janis Pujats, Bishop Joseph Strickland, and Archbishops Tomash Peta and Jan Pawel Lenga, released a paper expressing the strong conviction that any use of a vaccine tainted with the “unspeakable crime” of abortion, under any circumstances, “cannot be acceptable for Catholics.”
These prelates cited the teaching of St. John Paul II affirming the duty of every Catholic and person of goodwill to defend “the most basic and fundamental right” to life “with maximum determination.” To make use of vaccines “made from the cells of murdered unborn children contradicts [this] ‘maximum determination’ to defend unborn life.”
“The crime of abortion is so monstrous that any kind of concatenation with this crime, even a very remote one, is immoral and cannot be accepted under any circumstances by a Catholic once he has become fully aware of it,” they wrote. “One who uses these vaccines must realize that his body is benefitting from the ‘fruits’ … of one of mankind’s greatest crimes.”
Partially in response to “diverse and sometimes conflicting pronouncements in the mass media by bishops, Catholic associations, and experts,” the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) issued a statement on December 21 affirming the judgement the Church has espoused for many years.
The CDF argued 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” (emphasis in original).
“The fundamental reason for considering the use of these vaccines morally licit,” the statement continued, “is that the kind of cooperation in evil (passive material cooperation) in the procured abortion from which these cell lines originate is, on the part of those making use of the resulting vaccines, remote.”
In response to this statement from the CDF, author and former news editor for EWTN Great Britain, Deacon Nick Donnelly, tweeted, “On the eve of the Church celebrating the birth of the Son of God, and Catholics around the world venerate and love the baby in the crib, the Vatican approves the use of cells from babies murdered through abortion. I can’t express how upset this makes me.”
On the eve of the Church celebrating the birth of the Son of God, and Catholics around the world venerate and love the baby in the crib, the Vatican approves the use of cells from babies murdered through abortion. I can't express how upset this makes me
— Nick Donnelly (@ProtecttheFaith) December 22, 2020
Considering a spiritual side of this question, Catholic priest-hermit, Red Rose Rescuer and host of the “Padre Peregrino” YouTube channel, Fr. Dave Nix, proposed in a tweet, “God would not allow your health to be aided in any way by any vaccine connected to abortion.”
God would not allow your health to be aided in any way by any vaccine connected to abortion.
— FrDave Nix �� (@FrDaveNix) December 22, 2020
The CDF doctrinal note goes on to articulate another important criterion for the use of such tainted vaccines affirming that while there is normally a “moral duty to avoid such passive material cooperation” with abortion in this way, this “is not obligatory if there is a grave danger.”
PETITION UPDATE (12/16/2020) -
Operation Warp Speed—the HHS’s program to accelerate the development, manufacture, and distribution of COVID-19 therapeutics—has spent billions of our tax dollars to bring a COVID vaccine to market.
Now, the FDA has granted emergency approval to roll out the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, and people in the UK and the US are already receiving it.
Though the Pfizer vaccine was not designed or produced using aborted fetal cells, it was tested using the HEK293 fetal cell line to create humanized mice.
And, more unethical vaccines are reaching the finish line and are being funded and promoted by the HHS with our tax dollars.
We must continue to demand that this stop and that a fully ethical vaccine be brought to market instead!
SIGN and SHARE our petition with the Personhood Alliance to demand that the HHS stop using our money to support the grisly connection between abortion and biomedical science.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Operation Warp Speed—the HHS’s program to accelerate the development, manufacture, and distribution of COVID-19 therapeutics—is spending billions of our tax dollars to bring a COVID vaccine to market as quickly as possible.
Now, two of the Operation Warp Speed vaccines (one created by Pfizer/BioNTech and one created by Moderna/NIH) are nearing the finish line, soon to be applying for emergency FDA approval for mass distribution.
And, while LifeSite neither advocates for or against voluntary vaccination, there are several apparent problems with the vaccines being fast-tracked by HHS’ Operation Warp Speed.
First among the vaccines’ major problems: they were tested using aborted fetal cells.
Please SIGN and SHARE LifeSite’s urgent petition with the Personhood Alliance to demand that the HHS stop funding and promoting this unethical practice, and bring a fully ethical vaccine to market instead.
The production and testing of vaccines that use the remains of aborted children, regardless of when they were killed and at what point they were used in the process, is morally unacceptable and must be consistently opposed by the whole pro-life movement.
And, although the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were not designed or produced using aborted fetal cells, the Personhood Alliance recently reported that the vaccines’ testing phases used the HEK293 aborted fetal cell line to create humanized mice.
This stomach-churning practice transferred immortalized cells from a child killed in 1973 into mouse embryos, so that when the mice were born, they had tiny human lungs that researchers infected with COVID to test the vaccines.
This type of Frankenscience has no place in a civilized society, certainly not one whose citizens are forced to fund it!
Sign our petition with the Personhood Alliance to demand that the HHS stop supporting the grisly connection between abortion and biomedical science.
We can make a difference if we raise our voices together, but we’re running out of time!
Thank you for SIGNING and SHARING this urgent petition today!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
See LifeSite articles on the Coronavirus vaccine
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The document continues stating that such a grave danger presently exists in “the pandemic spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19,” though the CDF was not explicit on where the Church has competence to make that determination.
Others with due competence have come to the opposing conclusion that vaccines are not needed at all for this pandemic, which they state is effectively “over.” Several thousand doctors in Belgium also affirmed that “[i]f 95% of people experience Covid-19 virtually symptom-free, the risk of exposure to an untested vaccine is irresponsible.” And over 51,000 affirm that due to the relatively mild danger of COVID-19 to the vast majority of the population, “those who are at minimal risk” should be permitted “to live their lives normally [and] build up (herd) immunity to the virus.”
Author and editor of Catholic World News, Phil Lawler, observed, “The Vatican’s doctrinal congregation says that it will not judge the safety or efficacy of vaccines, because those are medical rather than moral judgments. However, the statement says that the Covid epidemic constitutes a ‘grave danger,’ and thus justifies the use of vaccines developed by immoral methods. Wait a minute. Isn’t that a medical rather than a moral judgment?”
In response, theologian, author and composer Dr. Peter Kwasniewski commented to LifeSiteNews: “The Vatican’s reasoning about the permissibility of a morally tainted vaccine rests entirely on a prudential judgment that we are in a major pandemic that requires the suspension of economy, mental health, optimal education, and a host of other social goods. That judgment is no more than a popular political stance that conflicts with the actual data. The catastrophic effects we see around us are enough to show that too high a price has been paid for ‘security’ or ‘safety.’ We are straining the gnats and swallowing the camels.”
LifeSiteNews has produced an extensive COVID-19 vaccines resources page. View it here.
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