From:
To ______,
In that I am a member of the Catholic
Church ------------, I am exercising my right to receive a
religious exemption for vaccination.
First and foremost, the vaccines I oppose include the current COVID-19
mRNA vaccines and the Jansen vaccine which are produced with aborted fetal cell
lines.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the
Jansen vaccine, uses retinal cells from a fetus that was aborted in 1985 and
treated in a lab since; the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines test the mRNAs on an
aborted fetus from 1973.
In regard to using such vaccines, the
Vatican has instructed the faithful that:
“As regards the diseases
against which there are no alternative vaccines which are available and
ethically acceptable, it is right to abstain from using these
vaccines if it can be done without causing children, and indirectly the
population as a whole, to undergo significant risks to their
health.” (Moral Reflections on Vaccines Prepared From Cells
Derived From Aborted Human Fetuses, Pontifical Academy for Life, June 2005).
Therefore as a faithful Catholic, I
cannot according to the Church tenets on conscience which are outlined below,
use any product that takes its origin in abortion. The Vatican
document I outline below:
“They should take recourse, if
necessary, to the use of conscientious objection with regard to the use
of vaccines produced by means of cell lines of aborted human fetal
origin.” “Such a duty may lead, as a
consequence, to taking recourse to “objection of conscience” when the action
recognized as illicit is an act permitted or even encouraged by the laws of the
country and poses a threat to human life. The Encyclical Letter Evangelium
Vitae underlined this “obligation to oppose” the laws which permit abortion or
euthanasia ‘by conscientious objection.’
“It is up to the faithful and
citizens of upright conscience (fathers of families, doctors, etc.) to oppose,
even by making an objection of conscience, the ever more widespread attacks
against life and the “culture of death” which underlies them.” “[T]here is a grave responsibility to use
alternative vaccines and to make a conscientious objection with regard to those
which have moral problems.” “As
regards those who need to use such vaccines for reasons of health, it must be emphasized that,
apart from every form of formal cooperation, in general, doctors or parents who resort
to the use of these vaccines for their children, in spite of
knowing their origin (voluntary abortion), carry out a form of very
remote mediate material cooperation, and thus very mild, in the performance of the original act of
abortion, and a mediate material cooperation, with regard to the marketing
of cells coming from abortions, and immediate, with regard to the marketing of
vaccines produced with such cells.
However, in this situation, the aspect of passive cooperation is that
which stands out most. It is up to the faithful and citizens of upright
conscience (fathers of families, doctors, etc.) to oppose, even by making an
objection of conscience, the ever more widespread attacks against life and the
“culture of death” which underlies them. From this point of view, the
use of vaccines whose production is connected with procured abortion
constitutes at least a mediate
remote passive material cooperation to the abortion, and an immediate passive material
cooperation with
regard to their marketing.”
Further, the Catechism of the Catholic
Church which Pope John Paul II declared to be the “sure teaching norm of the
Catholic Church” contains the tenets of our faith and our duty to adhere to
these teachings regarding the right of conscience objections states:
1776 Deep within his conscience man discovers a law
which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling
him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at
the right moment…. For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God…. His
conscience is man’s most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with
God whose voice echoes in his depths.
1777 Moral conscience, present at the heart of
the person, enjoins him at the appropriate moment to do good and to avoid evil.
It also judges particular choices, approving those that are good and denouncing
those that are evil. It bears witness to the authority of truth in reference to
the supreme Good to which the human person is drawn, and it welcomes the
commandments. When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God
speaking.
1778 Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby
the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is
going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed. In
all he says and does, man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be
just and right. It is by the judgment of his conscience that man perceives and
recognizes the prescriptions of the divine law:
Conscience is a law of the mind; yet [Christians] would not grant
that it is nothing more; I mean that it was not a dictate, nor conveyed the
notion of responsibility, of duty, of a threat and a promise….
[Conscience] is a messenger of him, who, both in nature and in grace, speaks to
us behind a veil, and teaches and rules us by his representatives. Conscience
is the aboriginal Vicar of Christ.
1779 It is important for every person to be
sufficiently present to himself in order to hear and follow the voice of his
conscience. This requirement of interiority is all the more necessary as life
often distracts us from any reflection, self-examination or introspection.
Return to your conscience, question it…. Turn inward, brethren,
and in everything you do, see God as your witness.
1806 Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical
reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right
means of achieving it. Prudence is ‘right reason in action,’ writes St.
Thomas Aquinas. It is called auriga virtutum (the charioteer of the virtues);
it guides the other virtues by setting rule and measure. It is prudence that
immediately guides the judgment of conscience. The prudent man determines and
directs his conduct in accordance with this judgment.
We
are also taught through the teachings of Papal Encyclicals that conscience is
the Divine Law which is inscribed into the heart and soul of man by God.
For example: “The natural law is written and
engraved in the soul of each and every man, because it is human reason,
ordaining him to do good and forbidding him to sin…But this command of human
reason would not have the force of law if it were not the voice and interpreter
of a higher reason to which our spirit and freedom must be submitted.” (Leo
XIII Libertas Praestantissimum, 597)
“On his part, man perceives and acknowledges the imperatives of
the divine law through the mediation of conscience. It is through his
conscience that man sees and recognizes the demands of divine law. He is bound
to follow this conscience faithfully in all his activity so that he may come to
God, who is his last end. Therefore he must not be forced to act contrary to
his conscience. Nor must he be prevented from acting according to his
conscience, especially in religious matters. The reason is that the
exercise of religion, of its very nature, consists before all else in those
internal, voluntary and free acts whereby man sets the course of his life
directly toward God. Acts of this kind cannot be commanded or forbidden by any
merely human authority.” (Dignitatis Humanae, Pope Paul VI, 1965).
Synod of Bishops’ address to the United Nations October 2, 1979:
“In accordance with their
dignity, all human beings, because they are persons, that is, beings endowed
with reason and free will and, therefore, bearing a personal responsibility,
are both impelled by their nature and bound by a moral obligation to seek the
truth, especially religious truth. They are also bound to adhere to the truth
once they come to know it and to direct their whole lives in accordance with
its demands” (Dignitatis humanae,
2). “The practice of religion by its very nature consists primarily of those
voluntary and free internal acts of conscience by which a human being directly sets
his course towards God. No merely human power can either command or prohibit
acts of this kind”
Pope Paul VI, 1965 Gaudium et Spes: “For its part, authentic freedom
is an exceptional sign of the Divine image within man. For God has willed that
man remain “under the control of his own decisions, so that he can seek his
Creator spontaneously, and come freely to utter and blissful perfection through
loyalty to Him. Hence man’s dignity demands that he act according to a
knowing and free choice that is personally motivated and prompted from
within, not under blind internal impulse nor by mere external pressure.” Fourth Lateran Council:
“The Divine Law,” says Cardinal Gousset, “is the supreme rule of
actions; our thoughts, desires, words, acts, all that man is, is subject to the
domain of the law of God; and this law is the rule of our conduct by means of
our conscience. Hence it is never lawful to go against our conscience; as the
Fourth Lateran council says, ‘Quidquid fit contra conscientiam, aedificat ad
gehennam.'” [“Whatever is done in opposition to conscience is conducive to
damnation.”]
The Centers for Disease Control, which
is responsible for declaring public health emergencies, has
not attested to any sort of significant risk to the health
of the community at this time that would preclude our right to abstain in
accord with this teaching. According to the Section 564 of the Federal
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, a lawful application of the terms of a lawful
emergency use authorization ("EUA") pursuant includes the right of informed
consent and the option to refuse. The FDA’s guidance on the right to informed
consent and the option to refuse is highlights the right of informed consent
and the option to refuse governing the administration of Emergency authorized “unapproved
products.” https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/vaccines/emergency-use-authorization-vaccines-explained
Therefore as a faithful Catholic, opposed
to abortion and raised in the old school catholic ways, I cannot according to
the Church tenets on conscience which I outlined use any product
that takes its origin in abortion.
In that the use of these vaccines
would be both a violation of Catholic doctrine on the duty to adhere
to moral conscience and also in contradiction with the
instruction of the Vatican, therefore, under the teachings of the Catholic
Church to which I follow, am religiously and morally bound, I submit this
exemption for vaccination.
Sincerely,
