ARECIBO, Puerto Rico (LifeSiteNews) – Bishop Daniel Fernández Torres of Puerto Rico is the latest prelate supporting conscientious objections to COVID-19 vaccines and speaking out against vaccine mandates.
In a letter published Tuesday, Bishop Fernández clarified that “it is possible for a faithful Catholic to have conscientious objection” to compulsory vaccination and authorized priests and deacons to sign exemption requests.
The bishop, who leads the diocese of Arecibo in the northwest of Puerto Rico, highlighted “two important statements to clarify the issue of conscientious objection.”
“The first is that as a general rule vaccination should be voluntary,” he said. “And the second is that there may be those who, for reasons of conscience, reject the use of certain vaccines, either because they are still in an experimental phase or because they have been produced from cell lines of aborted fetuses.”
“We remember that the value and defense of life, as well as the seriousness of the sin of abortion, are part of our religious beliefs as Catholics,” the Arecibo bishop said. “We are also obliged to remember that, following the moral doctrine of the Church, in the face of difficult, sudden and morally disputed cases, shepherds of souls should not impose univocal solutions, but rather, following Saint Alphonsus, we should leave each to act according to his right conscience.”
“Therefore, it is possible for a faithful Catholic to have conscientious objection to the alleged mandatory nature of the Covid-19 vaccine,” he continued. “Respect for the conscience of the person is also Catholic doctrine.”
“Conscience, and its freedom, cannot be considered only as a civil right but is something intrinsic to our Catholic faith.”
Bishop Fernández further stressed that his diocese would support religious exemption requests of Catholics who come to the conviction that they cannot accept abortion-tainted, experimental coronavirus vaccines:
In accordance with what is expressed here, in our diocese of Arecibo, if the signature of an ordained minister is legitimately required to enforce conscientious objection, the priests and permanent deacons who are freely willing to sign it for the Catholic parishioner, who with a well-formed conscience has requested it, can do so or refer it to the Diocese of Arecibo.
Puerto Rico’s left-wing governor, Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia, has enacted a series of radical COVID vaccine mandates targeting hundreds of thousands of workers and students in the past month.
Last week, Pierluisi issued an executive order mandating that public and private healthcare employees and government workers show proof of vaccination or undergo weekly testing as a condition of employment. The dictate also applies to hotel and restaurant workers.
Pierluisi previously ordered that all students over the age of 12 and school employees returning to in-person classes this fall must be “fully vaccinated” against the virus. At the same time, Puerto Rico has led the U.S. in employer-based coronavirus vaccine mandates, with one-fifth of businesses requiring proof of vaccination as of July, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Religious exemptions accepted by the government of Puerto Rico are notably strict, requiring religious ministers to sign requests and declare, under penalty of perjury, that COVID-19 vaccination would violate tenets of an applicant’s religion.
All coronavirus vaccines currently authorized for use in the U.S. have been tested on or produced with cell lines of aborted babies. The vaccines have been linked to serious side effects, and none has yet been fully approved by the FDA or subjected to long-term testing.
“[I]t is legitimate for a faithful Catholic to have doubts about the safety and efficacy of a vaccine given that what the pharmaceutical companies or drug regulatory agencies say is in no way a dogma of faith,” Bishop Fernández wrote in his letter Tuesday. “And that safety and efficacy are relevant data and necessary for moral judgment.”
Along with Bishop Fernández, several Catholic leaders have recently released statements in support of the conscience rights of those who decide against taking COVID-19 shots.
The bishops of South Dakota published a letter last Tuesday backing religious exemptions for vaccine requirements, writing that “a Catholic may, after consideration of relevant information and moral principles, discern it to be right or wrong to receive one of the available Covid-19 vaccines.” “If he or she thus comes to the sure conviction in conscience that they should not receive it, we believe this is a sincere religious belief, as they are bound before God to follow their conscience,” Bishops Donald E. DeGrood and Peter M. Muhich wrote.
The Colorado Catholic bishops have released a similar letter, as have both the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) and the Catholic Medical Association (CMA), the former of which has produced a template for Catholics seeking exemptions.
“The novelty of the SARS-CoV-2 and of the technologies for eliciting an immune response to prevent or mitigate COVID-19 leave several medical questions unanswered,” the NCBC said in July. “Only time and careful study of the virus and benefits and adverse effects of the vaccines will provide the answers many persons need to give free and informed consent.”
People of goodwill can disagree about the safety, efficacy and religious implications of a new vaccine for the coronavirus.
But, everyone should agree on this point:
No government can force anyone who has reached legal adulthood to be vaccinated for the coronavirus. Equally, no government can vaccinate minors for the coronavirus against the will of their parents or guardians.
Please SIGN this urgent petition which urges policymakers at every level of government to reject calls for mandatory coronavirus vaccination.
Fear of a disease - which we know very little about, relative to other similar diseases - must not lead to knee-jerk reactions regarding public health, nor can it justify supporting the hidden agenda of governmental as well as non-governmental bodies that have apparent conflicts of interest in plans to restrict personal freedoms.
The so-called "public health experts" have gotten it wrong many times during the current crisis. We should not, therefore, allow their opinions to rush decision-makers into policies regarding vaccination.
And, while some people, like Bill Gates, may have a lot of money, his opinion and that of his NGO (the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) - namely, that life will not return to normal till people are widely vaccinated - should not be permitted to influence policy decisions on a coronavirus vaccination program.
Finally, we must also not allow the rush by pharmaceutical companies to produce a new coronavirus vaccine to, itself, become an imperative for vaccination.
Unwitting citizens must not be used as guinea pigs for New World Order ideologues, or Big Pharma, in pursuit of a vaccine (and, profits) which may not even protect against future mutated strains of the coronavirus.
And it goes without saying that the production of vaccines using aborted babies for cell replication is a total non-starter, as the technique is gravely immoral.
However, if after sufficient study of the issue, a person who has reached the age of majority wishes to be vaccinated with a morally produced vaccine, along with his children, that is his business.
But we cannot and will not permit the government to make that decision for us.
Thank you for SIGNING and SHARING this petition, urging policymakers at all levels of government to reject mandatory coronavirus vaccination.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Bill Gates: Life won’t go back to ‘normal’ until population 'widely vaccinated' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/bill-gates-life-wont-go-back-to-normal-until-population-widely-vaccinated
COVID-19 scare leads to more digital surveillance, talk of mandatory vaccine 'tattoos' for kids' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/covid-19-scare-leads-to-more-digital-surveillance-talk-of-mandatory-vaccine-tattoos-for-kids
Trudeau says no return to ‘normal’ without vaccine: 'Could take 12 to 18 months' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/trudeau-says-no-return-to-normal-without-vaccine-could-take-12-to-18-months
Trudeau mulls making coronavirus vaccine mandatory for Canadians - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/trudeau-mulls-making-coronavirus-vaccine-mandatory-for-canadians
US bishop vows to ‘refuse’ COVID-19 vaccine if made from ‘aborted fetal tissue' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/us-bishop-vows-to-refuse-covid-19-vaccine-if-made-from-aborted-fetal-tissue
** While LifeSite opposes immorally-produced vaccines using aborted fetal cell lines, we do not have a position on any particular coronavirus vaccines produced without such moral problems. We realize many have general concerns about vaccines, but also recognize that millions of lives have been saved due to vaccines.
*** Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com
Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, has also pushed back against COVID vaccine mandates and noted his personal objections to the shots. “As your shepherd, I cannot in good conscience receive a vaccine that has been produced by an aborted child,” he wrote to parishioners last year.
“I urge you to reject any vaccine that uses the remains of aborted children in research, testing, development, or production. Testify to the truth that abortion must be rejected and make a choice that is consistent with the dignity of every human life from conception to natural death and is rooted in a mature faith and trust in eternal life, not fear of suffering in this life.”
LifeSiteNews has produced an extensive COVID-19 vaccines resources page. View it here.