Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP has welcomed a Vatican statement that says in the absence of alternatives, it is morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines developed using cell lines originating from aborted babies. Source: The Catholic Weekly.
“The CDF note confirms previous teaching on this matter and the position taken by Bishops Conferences around the world,” Archbishop Fisher said yesterday, following the release of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s statement on COVID-19 vaccines.
“In particular it exhorts researchers, pharmaceutical manufacturers and governments to pursue ethically uncompromised vaccines, and not to use cell-lines derived from aborted foetuses,” he said.
The Sydney Archbishop emphasised that the CDF document supports patients preferring ethically-uncompromised vaccines over ethically-compromised ones where they have a choice.
“For us in Australia that means preferring the Novavax or Pfizer vaccines (or the Moderna vaccine if it becomes available here) over the AstraZeneca vaccine,” he said.
However, he added, “were only the AstraZeneca vaccine available, people could choose to use it in good faith as their connection (today) to the abortion (in the 1970s) that led to the foetal cell-line used in the vaccine is so remote”.
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Archbishop welcomes CDF statement on COVID vaccines (The Catholic Weekly)
