Catholic U.S. troops should be allowed to refuse the Covid-19 vaccine based solely on conscientious objection and regardless of whether abortion-related tissue was used in its creation or testing, the archbishop for the military declared in a new statement supporting service members who are seeking religious exemptions.
“No one should be forced to receive a Covid-19 vaccine if it would violate the sanctity of his or her conscience,” said Archbishop for the Military Services Timothy Broglio, in a statement released Tuesday.
Broglio previously has supported President Joe Biden’s mandatory vaccination order for U.S. troops, citing the church’s guidance that permits Catholics to receive even vaccines derived from fetal tissue, when no other vaccine option is available. In his new statement, the archbishop said that while he still encourages followers and troops to get vaccinated, some troops have questioned if the church’s permission to get vaccinated outweighed their own conscious objections to it.
“It does not,” Broglio wrote.
The Archdiocese for the Military Services, created by the church in 1985, claims responsibility for 1.8 million service members and their families at 220 installations. Broglio was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007.
In August, Broglio was quoted by Catholic News Agency, a publication of Eternal Word Television Network, supporting the Pentagon’s then-forthcoming vaccine mandates, saying the church, including Pope Francis, “had recognized the morality of the vaccine.” But, the article added, “The archbishop said that while a person could object from the mandatory vaccine due to their personal conscience, ‘even that should be formed by the teaching of the Church.’”
Broglio’s Tuesday letter appears to formalize that exemption. It begins with an explanation of how the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines that were tested using an “abortion-derived cell line” are still not considered sinful by the Catholic church because it is “remote material cooperation with evil.”
“The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith examined these moral concerns and judged that receiving these vaccines ‘does not constitute formal cooperation with the abortion,’ and is therefore not sinful,” Broglio’s letter reads.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, however, “was developed, tested, and is produced, with abortion-derived cell lines,” the archbishop said. Catholics still may accept that vaccine, but only if no others are available and they make known their moral objections.
While the Pope has deemed Covid-19 vaccines to be not sinful, Broglio emphasized the “sanctity of conscience.” If the vaccine violates the sanctity of an individual’s conscience, they should not be forced to receive the vaccine. This deviates from previous statements from the archdiocese, when Broglio encouraged troops to receive whatever vaccine became available.
“In the case of vaccines to protect against the Coronavirus pandemic, the highest doctrinal authority of the Church, speaking on behalf of the Bishop of Rome, has made its clear position on the vaccines available,” said Broglio in March.
In August, Broglio voiced support for the Pentagon’s vaccine mandate. “Certainly, no vaccine is an absolute, but the military is bound to live, work and recreate together,” he said. “It seems prudent to ensure they do not infect each other.”
Two months later, the archdiocese has amended its message.
“The denial of religious accommodations, or punitive or adverse personnel actions taken against those who raise earnest, conscience-based objections, would be contrary to federal law and morally reprehensible,” said Broglio, in his letter.
When Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced in August that the vaccine would soon become mandatory, the Defense Department stated that each military service branch would be responsible for determining religious exemptions.
“There is a religious exemption possibility for any mandatory vaccine, and there’s a process that we go through to counsel the individual both from a medical and from a command perspective about using a religious exemption,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said at the time.
“There is a process and every request will be handled individually and reviewed — even if they just became Catholic,” Lt. Gen. R. Scott Dingle, surgeon general of the U.S. Army told Defense One. “There’s counseling by the commanders, by the local chaplain, up through the chain of command all the way up to the Department of the Army. Those religious exemptions do come to the surgeon general’s office. I review those.”
At the Association of the U.S. Army’s huge annual conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, the second question posed in a town hall with Army Secretary Christine Wormuth was on whether troops could receive vaccine exemptions. Wormuth responded yes, but then emphasized the department’s reasons for requiring the vaccine in the first place.
“The reason that the department has mandated the vaccine for the entire military is because it’s a health safety and readiness issue,” Wormuth said. Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said 91 percent of the Army’s active-duty force is vaccinated.
Those who refuse the Covid-19 vaccine must “continue to act in charity for their neighbors and the common good” by wearing masks, social distancing, and testing routinely, Broglio’s letter closes. And once a treatment becomes available that is “not derived from, or tested with abortion-derived cell lines,” he said, troops should remain open to receiving it.
The above comes from an Oct. 12 story in Defense One.
And now it’s being reported that Pfizer deliberately lied about fetal cells and their vaccine. It’s all been a lie. They are still lying and trying to hide their lies.
It’s being reported. What a crock. That’s what people say when they don’t have sources.
Emails have circulated last week from Pfizer’s PR department that they wanted to downplay the use of fetal cells in testing….because they knew people would lie and say there are fetal cells in the vaccine itself.
That is. PR policy, not a medical or scientific decision. The reality is that the same cell line is used to test almost all prescription and over the counter formulas. But there aren’t tiny babies used to make any of them.
Conscientious Objection has a long history and we need to avail ourselves of it now more than ever.
I will never join the vaccine cult.
Hmmm.. what happened to following the legitimate order of the Commander In Chief? If President Trump had given this order when he was in office the CINO’s would have strongly opposed those who did not want to comply.
I note that now that according to peer reviewed medical sources, the vaccine was researched via fetal cell protocols, not as fetal tissue literally cut from an aborted fetus. Additionally, the cells used were from a 1973 enculturated set derived from a miscarriage d&c,not an abortion procedure. But the propaganda has now shifted from using abortive fetal tissues to fetus-related, again cementing the notion of a nefarious scheme to use fresh abortions to create the vaccine directly. I note that “They’re still lying” does not cite references, nor offers them, and by their title indicate a confirmation bias that ANY source that gives credibility to their view is considered legitimate. The church says its okay and even recommended to vaccinate, and if one has an objection I support their refusal,but calling it a cult to my mind means they disagree with church leadership. As a veteran, I can say that one must be physically prepared for deployment and war conflict, to include anthrax and nerve agents. We got those by order. One can reasonably expect thst a service member, whose job is unique in its requirements, who refuses a vaccine will be separated from service- refusal of orders and unpreparedness for deployment.
CAL CATH Dremel response
Michael Dremel, first thank you and your family for your service. We are also a service member family and “get” it.
Regarding your pose and tour statement that
“the vaccine was researched via fetal cell protocols, not as fetal tissue literally cut from an aborted fetus. Additionally, the cells used were from a 1973 enculturated set derived from a miscarriage d&c,not an abortion procedure,”
I would like to make some clarifications and corrections.
1. Your information is incorrect in that the two abortions which created the cell lines used for research, testing and/or producing the vaccines were not miscarriages. They were healthy fetuses aborted about 3 months along – a little girl (HEK 293) specifically for her kidneys, and a little boy, specifically for his retinas (PER.6).
2. In fact they were more than fetuses in utero. Fetal cell lines can only be derived from LIVING tissue, which comes from LIVING subjects. See the 3 part series: https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2021/05/26/exploring-the-dark-world-of-vaccines-and-fetal-tissue-research-part-2/ . There is no statute of militarism either legally or ethically on homicide. A person does not have to be Catholic or other Christian to have a conscience that objects to this “remote” killings.
3. While the abortions were done in 1972, and their bodies dismembered while alive, disregard and disrespect for human life to the worst degree, being bad enough, but
4. The commercialization of the cell lines derived from the one girl’s little kidney and one boy’s retina continue to be used TODAY.
5. It is possible to not use fetal cell lines for products and treatments. However, new research starts all the time using these same fetal cell lines. Pharma and other big business have no interest in spending any money on using ethical means to produce products or treatments.
Not related to religious exemptions, Covid survivors already have immunity much higher than any vaccine at this time. That is being deployment ready.
Military should allow all Service members who are Covid survivors to automatically be exempt.
Pregnant service members should also be exempt, through birth and nursing, as no one knows the long term effects of these vaccines on mothers and babies. This is nothing new in the military.
Young, fit service members have a 99.97% non serious reactions rate (non hospitalization/death). However between 11-30 a larger % are susceptible to heart attacks, myocarditis and pericarditis. They have no business taking these Covid vaccines. Dropping dead on deployment 1-4 months after vaccination is not deployment ready.
Vaccinate 55+ in the military, and/or those who don’t meet the weight limits. Obese people have 33% higher hospitalization/ death rate.
Ensure everyone takes the vitamins and nutritional supplements which boost their immunity as part of their MREs and in DFACs.
The military leadership has to stand up and to protect their troops. However, military has Fauci’s vax-only blinders on by requiring 100% vaccinations.
The reason why the military are mandated to get vaccines is not because of their low mortality rate, but because they usually live in close quarters, often away from full medical facilities, such that entire groups of them might be too sick to do battle. Sure, few may die, but it 10% of them are laid up in bed, is that preparedness? What if you are on a submarine, and your engineers are all too sick to get out of bed?
The risks of myocarditis are real, but rare and usually mild, and nearly always cure themselves. And they don’t happen months after the vaccination, they happen within a few days. Myocarditis is much more serious and more frequent in those who get infected.
It might interest you to know that the HEK cell line is not used in the ongoing testing of the Moderna vaccine. It probably isn’t used in the Pfizer vaccine either, but the company hasn’t confirmed that. And this is according to pro-life website that tracks fetal cell research in research. And even they agree that a vaccine that isn’t using fetal cells in testing production-line vaccines is morally OK.
It’s just stupid to force healthy fit soldiers with an experimental jab. When they become incapacitated as some will, the military will boot them out ending their careers, and all over a vax that’s unwanted and unnecessary.
How would they “boot out” a critical submarine engineer operating a nuclear reactor at the bottom of the ocean??? How, even, would they quarantine them?? The answer is that it is impossible, and the virus would spread throughout the sub, and it would be incapacitated. Likely that none of them would die, but they would be a crippled ship in while carrying out a critical mission.
My earlier comment to Dremel was missing parts, I would like to repost my complete response. (Not Cal Catholic/editor fault)
Touche! you hit your mark by exposing the lie that it was from a miscarriage as a child is already dead in a miscarriage and cannot be used for any medical purpose other than an autopsy.