EPIDEMIC: The Vatican has invited Catholics to be vaccinated against Coronavirus Covid-19
The Vatican on Monday urged Catholics to be vaccinated against coronavirus Covid-19, explaining that all vaccines developed are “morally acceptable”, including those produced from cells of fetuses aborted in the last century.
A note published this Monday “on the morality of the use of certain Covid-19 vaccines”, which recalls the positions of the Church for fifteen years, aims to respond to specific requests received in recent months.
Stem cells from aborted fetuses used
“It is morally acceptable to receive the coronavirus Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process,” explains the note approved by the Pope and released Monday by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (guardian of dogma). The Catholic Church specifies that the link between a person being vaccinated and abortions performed in the last century is “remote”.
Stem cells from aborted fetuses in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s – reproduced in the lab for decades as “cell lines” – have been used by many researchers to design Covid-19 vaccines, for example. within the Astra Zeneca, Moderna and Pfizer groups, documents the European Institute of Bioethics on its website.
“Not a moral endorsement of abortion”
In several countries of the world, particularly in Latin America, but also in Australia and the United Kingdom, bishops have had debates on the dilemma of “morally ethical” vaccines.
The Vatican also states that “the use of these vaccines does not imply moral endorsement of abortion” and calls on pharmaceutical companies and government health agencies to “produce, approve, distribute and offer ethically acceptable vaccines that do not create of conscience problems ”.
The “moral imperative” of the pharmaceutical industry
Even if vaccination as a general rule must remain “voluntary”, the Church stresses that it is an act for “the common good” and “the protection of the weakest and most exposed”, a standpoint who clearly oppose anti-vaccine movements.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith finally evokes the “moral imperative” of the pharmaceutical industry, governments and international organizations to make vaccines against Covid-19 “accessible even to the poorest countries”, thus repeating a call pressing of Pope Francis.
