The Vatican said on Monday that it was “morally acceptable” for Roman Catholics to receive COVID-19 vaccines based on research using cells derived from aborted fetuses, a guidance that came after some churches in the United States claimed that such products they were immoral.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s oversight office for doctrinal orthodoxy, said it has received several requests for “guidance” in recent months. The doctrinal bureau pointed out that bishops, Catholic groups and experts gave “diverse and sometimes contradictory statements” in this regard.
Based on the Vatican’s statements in recent years about the development of vaccines prepared from cells derived from aborted fetuses, the guard’s statement was examined by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.
The teachings of the Catholic Church say that abortion is a grave sin.
The Vatican concluded that “it is morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines that used cell lines from aborted fetuses” in the research and production process, when “ethically flawless” vaccines are not available to the public. But he emphasized that the “lawful” use of these vaccines “does not and should not in any way imply that there is moral support for the use of cell lines from aborted fetuses”.
The Vatican has not named any of the COVID-19 vaccines that have already been administered to people in some countries or authorized for use soon.
In its statement, the Vatican explained that obtaining vaccines that do not present an ethical dilemma is not always possible. He cited circumstances in countries “where unethical vaccines are not made available to doctors and patients” or where special storage or transport conditions make their distribution difficult.
Much of the Vatican’s statement was echoed in a statement last week by US Catholic Bishops’ Conference officials. US conference officials said that “given the severity of the current pandemic and the lack of alternative vaccines”, receiving vaccines distributed in the United States is justified “despite their remote connection to morally compromised cell lines”.
Coronavirus vaccination “should be understood as an act of charity towards other members of our community,” officials at the American Bishops’ Conference said.
Weeks earlier, two American bishops, one in Texas and one in California, had denounced vaccines that used cell lines in aborted fetal tissue as immoral products. One of the bishops said he refused to receive such a vaccine and encouraged high-ranking Catholics to follow suit.
The Vatican, assuring faithful Catholics that obtaining a COVID-19 vaccine would not violate the church’s moral teaching, noted that “health authorities do not allow citizens to choose the vaccine to be inoculated with.” Given these circumstances, it is morally acceptable to receive vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses, the Vatican said.
The Vatican said COVID-19 vaccines, which are being launched or are expected to be used soon, are cell lines “extracted from tissues obtained from two abortions that took place in the last century.”
The Vatican has not said if and when Francis will be vaccinated against coronavirus. The 84-year-old pontiff has a pilgrimage to Iraq planned for early March and is expected to be vaccinated with him and his accompanying assistants before traveling abroad.
The doctrinal orthodoxy office of the Roman Catholic Church said that “vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation” and must be voluntary. However, he said, from an ethical point of view, “the morality of vaccination depends not only on the duty to protect one’s health, but also on the duty to pursue the common good.”
Those who, for reasons of conscience, choose not to receive vaccinations produced by cell lines from aborted fetuses, “must do everything possible to avoid,” through appropriate behavior and preventive means, becoming “vehicles” of transmission, he said. congregation.
In any case, there is also a “moral imperative” for the pharmaceutical industry, governments and international organizations to ensure that safe, effective and “ethically acceptable” vaccines are accessible to the poorest countries and not too expensive for them, the Vatican’s doctrinal office said.
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