With COVID-19 cases again spiking due to the Delta variant, vaccine mandates are becoming more common in schools and workplaces. This has led to debate over the ethics of such mandates and whether Catholics should be afforded a religious exemption. Confusion has arisen due to conflicting messages being put out by different U.S. bishops.
Some in the Church appear to encourage Catholics to seek religious exemptions to such mandates. Bishops in Colorado on Aug. 6 provided their priests with a template religious exemption letter. This is in sharp contrast to the Archdiocese of New York, which on July 30 issued a directive stating “there is no basis for a priest to issue a religious exemption to the (COVID-19) vaccine,” and further saying that priests “should not be active participants” in assisting Catholics to obtain such an exemption. The bishops of Los Angeles and San Diego have issued similar statements.
Why the mixed message?
I believe it stems from a failure to distinguish between religious exemption and conscientious objection. To understand the difference between these categories, let’s look at another example. Let’s say our nation is at war and the draft has been reinstated. Imagine I am a Quaker. One of the tenets of the Quaker religion is pacifism. Quakers oppose any and all use of violence as evil and contrary to God’s will. To be drafted into military service would put me in a position where I would be required to do something directly contrary to the teachings of my faith. I could therefore claim a religious exemption to the draft, saying, “I cannot serve in the military because I am a Quaker.”
Let’s look at the same example but this time I am a Catholic. The Catholic Church does not teach universal pacifism. In fact, the Church teaches that “the defense of the common good requires that an unjust aggressor be rendered unable to cause harm. For this reason, those who legitimately hold authority also have the right to use arms to repel aggressors against the civil community entrusted to their responsibility” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2265). The Catholic Church in fact has a long and noble history of sending soldiers into harm’s way to defend those in need. I could not therefore say, “I cannot serve in the military because I am a Catholic.” There is no teaching of the Catholic Church that would preclude military service.
But what if I thought the war in question was unjust? What if the judgment of my conscience – formed in line with the Catholic Church’s teaching on just war theory and respect for human life – was that it would be immoral for me to serve in this particular war? I may not be able to claim religious exemption, but I could claim to be a conscientious objector.
According to the US Department of Defense, conscientious objection refers to a sincere and firmly held objection due to “religious training and/or belief,” which includes “deeply held moral or ethical belief” even when not characterized as being religious (Department of Defense, Instruction 1300.06).
The difference is between saying, “I cannot do this because I am Catholic” and “I cannot do this because it violates my conscience.” This is an important distinction because conscience is a matter of individual judgment and Catholics may in good faith arrive at different conclusions in matters of conscience.
Let’s look at how this applies to vaccine mandates. To qualify for a religious exemption from a vaccine mandate, it would need to be against the teaching of one’s faith to receive the vaccine. For example, practitioners of Christian Science eschew most medical interventions because of their belief that sickness is an illusion that can be remedied by prayer. For Christian Scientists, receiving medical treatment is tantamount to lack of faith. This is manifestly not the position of the Catholic Church.
While one could say, “I cannot receive this vaccine because I am a Christian Scientist,” one would not be justified in saying, “I cannot receive this vaccine because I am a Catholic,” especially given the fact that Pope Francis himself has been vaccinated, as have many other prominent leaders in the Church. The Holy Father even recorded a public service announcement for Italian television urging people to get vaccinated! This is why some bishops, like the archbishop of New York, are saying there is no basis for Catholics to receive a religious exemption from vaccine mandates.
This does not mean that individual Catholics should not be granted an exemption on the basis of conscience, however. But let’s be clear what we are talking about. There may be many reasons for not wanting to be vaccinated, from legitimate medical concerns to erroneous belief in wild conspiracy theories involving government microchips; but conscience involves the judgment of reason regarding the moral quality of an action (CCC 1778). To claim an exemption based on conscience means one judges reception of the vaccine to be immoral, that is, sinful. Whether that judgment is right or wrong, the Church teaches that no one should be forced to act against the judgment of one’s conscience (“Dignitatis Humanae,” 3; also see CCC 1782 and 1790). For this reason, one also has a grave duty to ensure one’s conscience is properly formed.
The moral objection being raised to the COVID-19 vaccines stems from their connection with the sin of abortion. All of the COVID-19 vaccines currently available or in development have at some point in their testing or production utilized human cell lines originating from fetal tissue obtained from abortions that took place in the early 1970s.
The Catholic Church clearly teaches that abortion is a grave moral evil. The question of conscience is whether receiving these vaccines constitutes cooperation with the sin of abortion to a degree that would make the recipient of the vaccine morally culpable. This question is relevant not only to vaccines but in all manner of societal life that involves us to some degree or another in the morally questionable actions of other individuals. To help us navigate these often muddy waters, the Church has a well developed tradition of distinguishing between formal and material, and proximate and remote degrees of cooperation. (In short, while formal cooperation with evil is never permitted, material cooperation can be tolerated, especially when it is remote).
We lack the space to go into detail on how these principles apply specifically in the case of COVID-19 vaccines, but the judgment of the Church’s authorities in this regard is that the connection with abortion is sufficiently remote that reception of the COVID-19 vaccines is morally acceptable. This judgment has been articulated by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (December, 2020), the USCCB Committee on Doctrine and the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities (December, 2020), as well as our own Bishop Peter Jugis (March, 2021). Pope Francis has even called receiving the vaccine “an act of love” that protects not only one’s own health, but the health of other vulnerable members of society (Aug. 18, 2021).
Further, this judgment is consistent with the Church’s teaching regarding other vaccines developed from these cell lines, including vaccines against Rubella (measles), Varicella (chickenpox), Hepatitis A, and certain polio and rabies vaccines, all of which the Church has judged to be morally permissible, especially when alternatives are lacking.
While these judgments of the Church’s competent authorities are not infallible, and Catholics in good faith may disagree, we nevertheless have a filial obligation to give them due consideration when forming our own conscience on this matter. At the end of the day, if the judgment of your conscience is that it would be a sin for you to receive the vaccine, even though the connection with abortion is material and remote, the teaching of the Church is that you should not be forced to violate your conscience.
This would constitute a conscientious objection to the vaccine, and not a religious exemption, because there is not a specifically Catholic reason that would preclude a person from being vaccinated. In a letter published in the Catholic Times (Aug. 30, 2021), Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., wrote, “Moral objections of conscience should be respected, but should not require a letter from a priest or other clergyman, since the objection is based on the person’s individual personal conscience, not some specific tenet of the Catholic faith.”
The right to conscientious objection applies to everyone, not just Catholics, regarding any matter of moral judgment, not just vaccine mandates. Finally, I would note that Catholics compelled to receive a vaccine that in their judgment is morally problematic are not guilty of sin. The sin lies with those forcing others to violate their conscience, not those whose conscience is violated.
Deacon Matthew Newsome is the Catholic campus minister at Western Carolina University and the regional faith formation coordinator for the Smoky Mountain Vicariate.