Parents of children enrolled in San Diego Catholic schools are asking to meet with Bishop Robert McElroy about the possibility of government-mandated Covid-19 vaccinations for schoolchildren. On October 1, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that when a Covid-19 vaccination is granted full FDA approval for school-age children, he will add it to the list of vaccinations required for children to attend school in California.
Throughout last week, over 450 people have signed an online petition asking for a meeting with Bishop McElroy. The petition points out that public school parents are able to speak to their school boards and asks that Catholic school parents be given the same chance to speak with those running diocesan schools. The petition suggests a meeting date of October 13.
Douglas Farry, the father of two students at Cathedral Catholic High School in San Diego, posted the petition. He said that parents are especially eager to be involved in diocesan decision-making concerning the vaccine since they had no input in the diocese’s decision to mandate masking at diocesan schools this fall. “With a week to go before school started, parents got notice that the kids were going to be wearing masks indoors to comply with the California Department of Public Health mandate that was issued both to public and to private schools,” Farry said. Cathedral, at least, Farry said, did not give a virtual or at-home option for the fall.
Farry said that he and other parents had questions about how the diocese came to the decision to comply with the mask mandate when the Ninth Circuit had recently ruled in Brach v. Newsom that private schools did not have to comply with state-mandated school closures. Now the parents’ questions have expanded to include a possible vaccine mandate. “There hadn’t been any communication prior to the decision to comply with the mask mandate,” Farry said. “Was there going to be any opportunity for parental input or discussion on the vaccine mandate?” Farry and other parents said that they have made multiple requests to meet with Bishop McElroy, to no avail.
Alexandra Gabbard, the mother of two Catholic school students in the San Diego diocese, says that she has repeatedly contacted the diocese about the mask mandate and possible vaccine mandate and was told that the diocese will follow all California Department of Public Health guidelines and “wouldn’t even take our concerned parents’ opinion into consideration.” Gabbard believes that the evidence shows that school-age children are not at risk of serious illness from Covid-19 and that the bishops should “focus on being shepherds of the soul rather than shepherds of the body.” Gabbard took part in organizing a rally against mandatory masking on August 2 outside the diocesan offices, which, she said, “fell on deaf ears.”
Toward the end of the August 2 rally Bishop McElroy came out of the office and had a “brief encounter” with the remaining attendees, Gabbard said. “He mostly spoke with the kids about pleasantries. There was no effort to dialogue with us as the parents.” Gabbard filmed the bishop’s interactions with the children and parents. Her video shows Bishop McElroy talking with a group of children for about two minutes and then talking to adults for about one minute before turning away.
Asked to comment on the parents’ petition to meet with Bishop McElroy, Kevin Eckery, a spokesman for the San Diego diocese, said “Bishop McElroy met with parents [about] this issue on August 2 at the Pastoral Center.” When asked specifically about the diocese’s plans in the event of a vaccine mandate, Eckery said, “There’s really nothing to say right now. The earliest a mandate might take hold is at the end of January. Until more is known, we’re just going to follow developments.”
Joe Jones, the father of three San Diego Catholic school children, said that he attended the August 2 rally and afterward continued to ask the diocese for a meeting with the bishop or the diocesan director of schools, John Galvan. He would like to discuss the scientific data surrounding the danger Covid-19 poses to school-age children and ask that Bishop McElroy stand up to pro-abortion politicians, rather than acquiesce to their wishes concerning the safety of his children. “By this silence, you are nakedly affirming these anti-life politicians,” Jones said he wants Bishop McElroy to know. “Please prove us wrong and show us that you are our shepherds looking out for us.”
Jones said he would be “even more disheartened” if he were to learn that the diocese considered the bishop’s appearance at the August 2 rally to be a substitute for a meeting with “in-depth discussion.” He said that Bishop McElroy came outside the office for a “few minutes” before taking an NBC reporter, who was covering the rally, inside for an interview.
Sonia Salcido, the mother of a Catholic San Diego high school student, would like to speak to the bishop about how a vaccine mandate is a “one-size-fits-all approach to a virus that does not impact all people equally” and that Catholic schools ought to respect the conscience rights of Catholics who have moral objections to abortion-tainted vaccines.
“These are important questions about how we manage the health of our kids, whether it’s through masks or vaccines or social distancing or other measures,” Farry said. “We all care about our kids and keeping them safe. It’s worthy of a conversation about what are the best ways to do that.”
– Exclusive to Cal Catholic by Mary Rose
How could a diocesan spokesman seriously say the bishop met with parents, if it was for less than two minutes?
Does Bishop McElroy believe what Vatican II teaches about parents being the primary educators of their children?
And, why spend more time with an NBC reporter than with the flock he shepherds?
Does he not follow the Pope’s directive for pastors to be with the sheep and acquire their “smell,” rather than in the rarefied air (or odor) of media elites?
So much for dialogue from this most chatty of prelates. This weak bishop does not deserve the honor of having your children enrolled in his diocesan schools. Take them out to be homeschooled.
Valid concerns on the parents part of course. The bishop might, while honestly addressing their concerns, use this opportunity to reciprocate and inquire into the sacramental life of the parents that send their children to these schools, ostensibly because they appreciate the Catholic Church and what she offers all of society and culture.
My spouse got their vaccines (Pfizer) in February. He was going to get a booster but he was curious as to how much protection he still had. He got an antibody test. It was a yes/no test (there are antibodies or there are not antibodies.) His results were negative-no antibodies.
So we found out that the tests don’t check for vaccine antibodies. Guess we wasted our money.
15 year old boy in Sonoma County, CA died of a heart condition two days after getting his second Pfizer jab, with no other contributing factors to his death. His death is on the vax pushers’ hands. Do not take the poison jab. It’s poison, not a vaccine. They are lying to you.
https://www.abc10.com/article/news/verify/covid-vaccine-sonoma-county/103-db7460e3-7d73-416e-8a7d-3f9841fe287d
That misleading “fact-checking” story is how vax pushers are trying to hide problems with the jab. Story says that the county “did not rule” that the boy’s cause of death was from the jab. All that means is that county health officials are refusing to state a conclusion. They did not rule the jab out as the cause of death either, which the story fails to state. No, these elites are so insistent that people get the poison jab that they are refusing to say that the cause is or could be the jab. Any intelligent, independently thinking person will rightly conclude that this story about this boy and so many other healthy teens dying of heart attacks after getting jabbed are directly related to and caused by the jab, even if government and medical elites won’t say so.
So are you all relying on the lying government to tell you what’s true? Or are you going to think for yourselves like intelligent and free people? Are you not even curious why a healthy 15 year-old would suddenly die of a heart attack after getting the jab? Do you not wonder if they could be related? Or you just accept whatever the government and media tell you? Come on!
The jab was the only significant contributor to the boy’s death. The official report states that there were no other significant contributors to the cause of death other than the jab. But the government and media misleadingly state that there has been no conclusion that the jab caused the boy’s death. People, think! Think! Don’t be mindless idiots!
What is so heartbreakingly sad in that propaganda story that cd provided is that near the end the parents of the boy who died urge other parents to give their children the vaccine. What? The parents have been so brainwashed that they won’t connect the dots and don’t even get angry about their son’s unnecessary and preventable death, don’t warn other parents about the dangers of an insufficiently tested medical injection, and they parrot the Democrat party line even in the face of the death of their healthy son. Compliant, docile automatons. That’s what the California Democrat Party wants in the state. That’s what Democrats in the federal government and in the media want all Americans to be.
what is truth is that it is unfortunate that you pretend the COVID and COVID vaccinations are a political thing, when in truth they are medical things. Prominent California Republicans, including all the major candidates who ran against Governor Newsome in the recall, are in vaccinated and in favor of vaccination.
https://apnews.com/article/business-health-coronavirus-pandemic-b6049fa972077f6baa2d0c9d3278debd
How many deaths are on the hands of those who would push people away from vaccines, and who tell lies about it like it is a poison jab. You think you bear no responsibility?
How many deaths? Deaths? Um….zero. Unless you have a really broad application of the phrase “on the hands” in which case you could argue that every single person that voted for a democrat in the last 20 years has the deaths of hundreds of thousands of humans “on their hands”, which I’m guessing you won’t want to do….
YFC, that was bad. People with health anxiety can’t really help it.
I have people in our family with both extreme forms of it – people who never doctor because of anxiety and people who over-doctor because of anxiety.
It is impossible to change them.
I used to be so anxious about taking medicines that I really messed up my health-permanently. so I learned the hard way.
I hope the anti-vaxxers go the rest of their lives without finding out for themselves or for their families what Covid can do to you.
I know a young man who is under 30 who has been on ECMO for over a month. When you hear the day to day suffering, every day there are things that improve but also setbacks, I would never hesitate to get the vaccine. Even when he get off ECMO, he will have a long time in the hospital and in rehab. His first child was born right after he got put on a ventilator. He is waking up enough to see videos of the baby.
I also know people who were dead less than a week after getting it. They were in perfect health before getting it.
This disease is so bad. It is so tragic. What really helps get people vaccinated is when a friend or family member has a bad case of it, but I don’t want anyone to suffer that.
I’m sorry your friend had to go through that. I wish him a full recovery. And I hope people listen to your story and that of others and realize that this is a horrible and largely preventable situation now that we have vaccines that work in almost all cases against serious disease.
I tried to post here asking for prayers for a man who after leaving ICU ended up with blood infection. It was not posted. He has died. Will you at least post it so people can pray for his soul and his family?
Pray for all. the administration probably could not post every request for pray on here, but your post is a good reminder to pray for all the dead from COVID and their families, and for people to make wise and holy decisions about this sickness, realizing that every persons situation is different.
May your friend and all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace, and may the families be given comfort and the grace to make wise decisions.
I bear zero responsibility and can sleep perfectly well every night. I don’t have to go around blaming unvaccinated people, who are simply exercising their medical autonomy, for anything.
What happened to the article about Archbishop Cordileone and others leading a Rosary in San Francisco. Why was it removed from CCD? Perhaps, because it was a fundraiser?
This link provides accurate information about COVID19 and children from a pediatric cardiologist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usmur2WrqaA&t=21s.
Just another govt/pharma scaremonger. No jabs for children! They don’t need this and it will only harm their immune systems. No jabs for anyone, for that matter. Do Not Comply!
The video was from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the non profit non governmental organization that licenses pediatricians. But what would they know?
I made a slight mistake. It is the American Board of Pedriatricians that board certifies pediatricians.
A friend of mine mine who is a prominent Republican in Texas shared with me that many republicans are opposed to the COVID19 vaccines because they want the virus to spread. These folks know that blacks and Hispanics are more likely to die from Covid19 and they are hoping more Covid19 fatalities among these groups will shrink the base of the democrat party.
of all the ridiculous things to claim
St Dymphna is ashamed of your slander and calumny. I think she’d suggest that you go to confession as well as make an act of reparation.
She won’t approve of your “carrying tales” sin.
Can you name one?
Since your friend is a “prominent Republican,” would you mind sharing his or her name? I’m happy to ask your friend directly.
(And, Democrats are quite public about wanting babies killed by abortion, BTW. Black babies are disproportionately aborted.)
I have a friend that is a giant rabbit named Harvey. He says everyone reading this should bring pizza and cash to my house and leave them on the porch.
Are you a rumpot or a crackpot? And how are you, Mr. Barash?
It is abundantly clear that vaccines matter. MODERNA is the best for the long hall. Pfizer is fine if that is the regiment your on. If you oppose vaccination you can do that in America but it would be best if you wore a badge or sign on yourself so the others can support or ignore your position but at least know where they stand. I retired after 30 plus year of hospital governance as an unpaid board member. Enjoy your freedom of speech. I tell my friends family and employees to get vaccinated as I did. Free to chose not. I chose yes. God bless all of you and let’s take care of family and friends; those less fortunate no matter what we believe. It’s time to pull together.
” It’s time to pull together.” You mean do what we liberals.. no thanks I’ll pass, I chose division
1 Corinthians 1:10-13:
I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
Truth and Curious: I am using the same methods used by Fox News and the Catholic News Agency who cite “un-named sources” frequently in their news coverage about a variety of topics. I will not reveal my sources.
These concerned parents may want to refresh their understanding of a bishop’s role as the leader of a diocese. Basically, a diocesan Bishop enjoys sole power to make all decisions affecting a diocese. He does not have to consult with parents, priests or whomever when making decisions. Of course, the effective Bishops do seek guidance far and wide from a variety of sources, however, a Bishop is only accountable to the Pope.
Fred, first and foremost, he is accountable to God.
As are you and I.
Clergy, of course, promise obedience to their bishop.
And, all of us are subject to religious submission*, which applies to magisterial teachings regarding faith and morals, not decisions about who to talk with, press conferences, Catholic school policies, vaccines, etc. In such cases, all Catholics should follow the direction from Canon Law and make their needs known to their pastors. (See Canon 212.2 and 212.3.)
*The Latin term is used in the Latin original document Lumen Gentium of the Second Vatican Council regarding the duty of the faithful to give obsequium religiosum (Latin for “religious submission”) of will and intellect to certain teachings of the Magisterium of the Church.
Christ is the Judge, who will come again to judge the living and the dead, all of us.
Anonymous Clergyman: you are correct! Yes, of course, Bishops, and all of us, are accountable to God. The point of my post was to point out that Bishops have a great deal of power. I’ve seen it first hand.
Got it. Thank you for clarifying that. And, yes, they do have a lot of power. I’ve witnessed, and experienced, it first hand as well.
Authority is a crown of thorns. pray for them.
This is not surprising at all. McElroy rolled over during the pandemic and took orders from Newsom without any questions. While many protestant congregations took this to court (and won), McElroy just stood to the side. I am sorry we have such a wimp in San Diego.