Pastor's Letter -- May 9, 2021

Hooray for construction progress! I hope you love the new lights in the church as much as I do! Some of the tile has begun in the sanctuary. You are free to come and look up close. Pray that things continue to go smoothly!

Bishop Rhoades is the Chairman of the Committee on Doctrine of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Several months back, he, along with the Chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities, wrote about the “Moral Considerations Regarding the New COVID-19 Vaccines” (https://www.usccb.org/ resources/moral-considerationscovid-vaccines_0.pdf).

In their statement, they reminded us that while it is permissible and an act of love to receive the vaccine, we cannot become complacent. They cautioned against becoming desensitized to the evil of abortion saying “all Catholics and men and women of good will must continue to do what we can to ensure the development, production, and distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine without any connection to abortion.” They explained, “As for the moral responsibility of those who are merely the recipients of the vaccines, the Congregation affirms that a serious health danger could justify use of “a vaccine which was developed using cell lines of illicit origin, while keeping in mind that everyone has the duty to make known their disagreement and to ask that their healthcare system make other types of vaccines available.”

The Vatican urges everyone to protest this complacency of convenience in the medical world, but until recently, there has not been a clear and easy method to carry this out. But now there is a simple way to make known one’s objection to unethically-sourced cell lines being used in the production and/or testing of COVID-19 vaccines (and future projects).

The USCCB (our bishops and their staff) have conveniently drafted sample letters to send to the pharmaceutical companies that are using abortion-derived cell lines. Please use this link to access: https://www.usccb.org/ resources/letters-pharmaceuticalcompanies. You do not have to send to every company, though you certainly can and that would be good, but the bishops have said that those who received the vaccine have the responsibility to protest at least to the company from which they received their vaccine. If you cannot recall, in our area it was most likely Moderna, Pfizer, or Johnson & Johnson.

Printing a letter, inserting a date and signature, and attaching a stamp is not burdensome, so we cannot excuse ourselves from this duty. God bless our bishops for providing this easy way to give voice to our Faith. Letters such as this to your local officials are one way for us as Catholics to apply our faith to the common good and build up society according to the kingdom of Christ. This is only one of many such causes present in our world today that would merit similar actions.