After Washington state announced a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for school employees, the Bishop of Spokane said that conscience rights should be respected, but that priests shouldn’t sign documents regarding the conscience of another.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee announced a COVID-19 vaccine requirement Aug. 18 for all employees who work in K-12 schools, most early childhood learning centers, and higher education. The mandate applies to public and private schools.
The mandate allows medical or religious exemption, but does not address conscientious exemption.
Bishop Thomas Daly of Spokane issued a statement in response to the governor’s mandate affirming the conscience rights of the individual Catholic to decide whether to receive the vaccine, while also stating that “priests should not be involved in signing any document concerning the conscience of another.”
Bishop Daly, while affirming the Church’s guidance that vaccination is morally permissible and beneficial for the common good, noted that clergy are not to “replace one’s conscience,” but to “assist with informing a person’s conscience.”
“While we encourage vaccination, we do not intend on violating the consciences of our Catholic school teachers nor do we intend on vouching for another person’s conscience,” Bishop Daly wrote.
“If a person has health concerns or moral objections about vaccines, he or she should not be forced into being vaccinated.”
Bishops across the country have issued varying guidance for Catholics wishing to seek conscientious objections to COVID-19 mandates.
Some, such as the bishops of South Dakota, have explicitly expressed support for Catholics wishing to seek exemptions, while in contrast, many bishops in California, as well as in Chicago and Philadelphia, have instructed clergy not to assist parishioners seeking religious exemptions from receiving COVID-19 vaccines, stating that there is no basis in Catholic moral teaching for rejecting vaccine mandates on religious grounds.
In its December 2020 Note on the morality of using some anti-Covid-19 vaccines, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith stated that “vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation” and “therefore, it must be voluntary.”
It said that “in the absence of other means to stop or even prevent the epidemic, the common good may recommend vaccination.”
“Those who, however, for reasons of conscience, refuse vaccines produced with cell lines from aborted fetuses, must do their utmost to avoid, by other prophylactic means and appropriate behavior, becoming vehicles for the transmission of the infectious agent,” the congregation wrote.
Full story at Catholic News Agency.
“If a person has health concerns or moral objections about vaccines, he or she should not be forced into being vaccinated.”
And yet, you won;t allow priest to sign off exemptions?
This is the same crud my wife got when she asked for help. “Of course, your consience is primary but we can’t help you. See you in the pew next week”.
So, pretty much like the wuflu shutdown…. You are all on your own. No real help from the Church. Just more cheap words.
The governor also announced mandatory vaccination for all employees working in K-12 schools and higher education. This includes private and religious schools. While we encourage vaccination, we do not intend on violating the consciences of our Catholic school teachers nor do we intend on vouching for another person’s conscience. We are in conversation with civic and health officials about government mandated vaccination requirements and will offer further guidance to parish and school personnel in due time.
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Live, Jesus, in our hearts forever.
This is nuts Bishop Daley. So disappointed in these Bishops not assisting the flock.
These exemptions have no weight anyway all they do is make the person feel better. They don’t protect you from being denied entry into a space or to be employed if your employer mandates it.
The flock follows the shepherd.
Some Shepherds are wolves deguised in sheeps clothing
The Good Shepherd is Jesus Christ.
I see on this website a lot of distrust of bishops and even the Pope.
If they tell you to sin or tell you to do something that Christ said not to do, don’t do it.
Otherwise, you need to obey them.
If you are having a difficulty, the first person to talk to is your pastor or associate pastor. They may be able to help you.
If there is something that bothers your conscience, you can write them. Some have social media accounts. Snail mail is always available.
Please take it seriously and maturely.
Everyone makes mistakes and most bishops will admit that they have. Let them know because if you are having a difficulty others are too.
Just be respectful and don’t accuse them of things they did not do. Don’t bleed other issues onto it.
And remember, you are called to love them and they to love you. Act as if.
Not assisting the flock in doing what, exactly. We have the prophets and the law. We have the commandments. Are we the ones who lay hold of our salvation by leaving everything and following Christ or do we need a priest and bishop to hold the door for us? It’s the welfare state mentality. Others must do for us what we can do for ourselves.
Don’t want the shot? Don’t get it. But don’t ask anyone to hold your jacket for you or give you a medal because then it is no more a laudable act than sounding a horn while giving alms.
Then I would make an exemption for my donations for anything in that diocese.
Do Catholics no longer remember that self-will is the equivalent to spiritual death?
Why would you do this?
Not getting something you want is not an excuse to not donate to your diocese.
You, of course, are free to do with your money as you please (and answer for it at the end), but this is really immature.
No exemptions, no donations.
No Sacraments, no salvation…congratulations.
Mark – Welll… along about last year this time there wasn’t any sacraments either. If you were blessed to be where those never stopped, you are very fortunate. We were not so blessed.
Faith and loyalty and trust and are cheap and once lost very difficult to get back. There are alot of folks who have been let down by priests and bishops. That is reality for many of us.
No vaccinations, no masks, no admission to Mass.
People are dying out there folks. Hospitals are overwhelmed in those areas, especially, that have low rates of vaccinations. It is common knowledge that deworming medicine for horses won’t cure covid. The Delta variant is worse that the initial virus. We live in a world were vaccines are required for almost everything, like going to school. You have to have polio vaccine, you have to have diphtheria vaccine, you have to have smallpox vaccine, etc. Why is this one an issue? There is no part of the Catholic religion/faith that says we should not take vaccines except for those that have aborted tissue in them. The Pfizer and the Moderna don’t. To refuse to take the vaccine for this virus says that you don’t care about your fellow men and women; it is unchristian and un-American.
How dare you use a fake litmus test to challenge my Christianity or patriotism.
DV, I think he just did. And so do I.
And I reject your response too.
Doesn’t the devil always reject fraternal correction?
There are no fraternal considerations in hell.
Bob One — “No vaccinations, no masks, no admission to Mass.”
1. These ‘vaccines’ do not prevent transmission.
2. These POS masks do not prevent transmission.
3. These ‘vaccines’ are killing people and are certain to kill many, many more.
Lotus, how is it that you claim to know so much more than almost every physician, nurse, public health official, coroner, scientist. You know more than Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Governor Desantis, ex-Governor Szhwarzenegger, More than phsysicians and immunologists and epidemiologists, not just in the US, but in hundreds of countries around the world, whether they be socialist, sharia, democratic, communist. You must know more than people who have fought infectious diseases for decades all over the world, saved millions of lives already. More than people who have treated millions of COVID patients. More than family members of those who died. I wonder how it is that you got to be so smart?
You need to stop with the fear porn too before your head explods.
Ah, the tyranny of the experts, eh?
Is this the same AMA who no longer believes in two sexes and recommends that be removed from birth certificates?
And, I should listen to you, and Ahnold and Biden for medical advice? Or, TikTok influencers?
I’ve told you before. I can make my own informed decsion? If you remain fearful stay inside, wear masks, chant.
This is the problem or part of the problem. distrust. You do not have to trust experts or politicians. Ask you personal physician. You don’t come off as very informed. You just seem belligerent.
I don’t watch TV. I read articles by professionals trained and practiced in the subjects they talk about.
Infants are dying tonight in their mothers wombs because they didn’t get the vaccine. Infant ICUs are full to overflowing in many cities because people like you scared mothers into a fear of a safe vaccine. If you are prolife you will stop this disinformation campaign and respect life.
YFC – If that were true, you’d know the following info regarding infant mortality for covid. I suspect that you just read an Aug 9th MSNBC report with those same scare headlines.
I feel sorry for you. I hope you can get some real help for your anxiety.
Hospitalizations (23 states and NYC reported)*
Among states reporting, children ranged from 1.6%-3.6%of their total cumulated hospitalizations, and 0.2%-1.9% of all their child COVID-19 cases resulted in hospitalization
Mortality (44 states, NYC, PR and GU reported)*
Among states reporting, children were 0.00%-0.22% of all COVID-19 deaths, and 7 states reported zero child deaths
In states reporting, 0.00%-0.03% of all child COVID-19 cases resulted in death
What’s you point and where is your link? You cite percentages out of nowhere without acknowledging the fact that fetuses are dying in their mothers’ wombs. And mothers right beside them.
Is this a matter of quantity of deaths to you? How many are too many? How many too few? You would rather go around unmasked and unvaccinated to prove some silly point, rather than protect these innocent children?
They aren’t statistics to their grieving parents.
YFC, we’re supposed to believe the same doctors about COVID who also say that you can’t know a baby’s sex at birth? Medicine has become corrupted by wokeness. Medicine doesn’t follow the science anymore. It promotes woke propaganda. Understand that.
These same doctors saved millions of lives. I’m not sure what doctors you are talking about. Maybe a few dozen? Ignore those guys who tell you you can’t know a baby’s sex at birth. They are not the ones who are telling you about THIS virus. They number in the dozens, not in the hundreds of thousands who actually treat infectious diseases like this one.
Listen to tens of thousands of physicians and medical professionals who ascribe to every religion and politics, and stop listening to people who have no expertise or experience in medicine.
And if for some reason, you still have doubts, I honor that. If you are not ready for the vaccine just yet, fine. But please don’t spread false information and suspicions when lives are at stake. You are responsible for the errors you spread.
Doctors, nurses and other health care workers who do not want to take the shot are being censored as to what they are seeing happening. Everyone knows that Cuomo deliberately put those healthy elderly in with sick patients even though there was another place he could have sent them.
This is why America is doomed without God’s help God gives you a way out of a tragic problem and people are too stubborn (or something else) to take it. People would rather think up drama than be smart and do the right thing. Too many movies and video games.
Pray hard, people. Pray that people will turn back fully to the Lord. Be willing to suffer.
So many suffer involuntarily because so few suffer voluntarily.
People abort babies, use birth control, have sex with people they should not have sex with and kill and rob other people for absolutely no reason other than meanness and selfishness. Then these people refuse medicines God gave to save us from death.
No country with a people who rebel is going to last without the mercy of God.
Please God continue to bless American in spite of the rebellion of so many. Thank you for your blessings including the vaccines. We submit to Your Holy Will in all things.
Turn hearts back to You. Blessed Virgin Mary, pray for us. St. John the Baptist, pray for us.
Holy God, Holy Omnipotent, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
Lotus, you may have been misinformed about the battle against these awful viruses. Let’s be clear, we must convince everyone to get a vaccine unless they have a medical condition that suggests otherwise. This effort is not some government program to control the population. People are dying. The vaccine, like all vaccines, was developed to reduce the likelihood of getting the virus, and if you did get it, to keep you out of the hospital and the ICU. Can you catch the virus after having been vaccinated? Of course you can, but you won’t likely end up in the ICU. If you catch the virus after being vaccinated, you will likely be asymptomatic, so you wear a mask so that you don’t infect other people. The vaccines work. This new Delta variant is what is killing people now, if they are not vaccinated. If you do not have a doctorate in the study of viruses, usually an MD or PHd, they you should not tell people not to follow well established public healthcare protocols. Your opinion is not as valid as that of someone who knows what of they speak.
“This new Delta variant is what is killing people now,“
It’s ADE — from the COVID vaxxes— not any variant (except secondarily at most).
Read the science.
It is not from the vaccine. The vaccines protect against it but not totally.
Turn off CNN, your head is exploding from the fear porn.
I think you are the one who is afraid. A lot of people are. They are afraid the vaccine with kill them, maybe not right away. They are afraid they will be taking part in some government conspiracy to steal freedom from people.
What good is freedom if you don’t use it for good?
Fear is useless; what is needed is trust.
I live in an area where there are a lot of young people and kids getting it. Some have died.
There are a lot of people in the hospital who wish they got the vaccine.
No one can take your free will.
Your need to belittle people who are really just trying to save your life and the lives of your family members is disappointing.
Not afraid, I had covid and have natural immunity. God will take me when He sees fit.
I also have rights as an American citizen that I hold dear, and I will not bow to government hacks trying to assert power over me. Neither should you. Live on your feet, not groveling at someone else’s. Not belittling anyone, just pointing out that CNN is not your friend and does not care about you, just their ratings from porn fear.
TV Off, I’m ok with not listening to CNN, Fox News, or MSBC, News Max and any other network left or right of center. But I think we should listen to the experts with decades of experience fighting viruses around the world. They are the ones that gave us the vaccines that keep us healthy- polio, etc. Experts at the CDC and major university research centers around the country all have the same message – get the vaccine and wear a mask in public. As American citizens, we are a free people, but that doesn’t mean that we have the right to harm others, we don’t. By the way, the antibodies that you have if you had covid are not enough to keep you from getting the Delta virus, you need the vaccine and the booster. Each year most people get the flu shot to help reduce the seriousness of that virus. What is the big deal about getting the covid vaccine?
Bob if you haven’t figured out what the big deal is but now we must throw up our hands at your unwillingness to see
Bishop Daly made the right decision. Perhaps some CCD readers would benefit from viewing the video of Pope Francis encouraging people to get vaccinated. Pope Francis stated getting the vaccine is an act of love.
Well he is wrong about that.
“Bishop Daly . . . noted that clergy are not to ‘replace one’s conscience.'”
So even Daly admits that his priests must still examine their consciences in discerning whether to obey Daly. Good.
Regardless, Catholics don’t need a letter from a priest to qualify for an exemption.
I wonder if CCD readers actually read the articles or do they just want to kvetch? From the article:
“While we encourage vaccination, we do not intend on violating the consciences of our Catholic school teachers nor do we intend on vouching for another person’s conscience,” Bishop Daly wrote.
A meaningless document attesting to the conscience of an individual by a priest is inappropriate and unnecessary. If a gov’t agency won’t take the word of an objector based on religious or conscientious objection, they sure won’t from a clergyman.
Again looks like ” Separation of Church & State ” only works one way : Against our Constitutional Rights. Another Wake Up Hello?
According to VAER’s 1348 babies in the womb have lost their lives because their mother got vaxxed. Since VAER’s reporting only captures between 1%-10% of actual statistics according to their own studies that number maybe 10-100 times higher. Shame on you YFC. You ask for citations but provide none for your outrageous claims.
No that is not what VAER says. It says that a certain number of mothers who lost their lives during pregnancy did so after being vaccinated. That doesn’t mean they lost their lives bECAUSE of being vaccinated. Pregnancy and childbirth is all by itself a sad cause of mortality, for all the reasons we well know and have known for centuries. Having COVID during that process ups the ante on infant and prenatal morality many many times. The vaccine does not. The actual facts are very clear on this. If you want to save fetuses, you will encourage vaccination. Deaths of babies is skyrocketing because of this preventable disease.
Take a rest from your gloom and doom, you are drinking the Kool Aid.
If you don’t like what I write just move on. Nobody is forcing you. And try to keep your homophobia to yourself. And since when is promoting life gloom and doom?
Used the traditional meaning of gay which is happy, which vax pushers and bullies are clearly not. No homophobia, just descriptive language.
“That doesn’t mean they lost their lives bECAUSE of being vaccinated.”
Yeah. It’s all just a coincidence.
And the fact that the spike protein is known to concentrate in women’s ovaries? Just a coincidence.
And the fact that these vaxxes are pushed by population control advocates? Another coincidence. (And on, and on, and on.)
If you are pregnant, please pray over whether to get the vaccine. The initial recommendation to not get the shot has changed because they are seeing so many pregnant women die of Covid.
Follow your doctors instructions and pray.
Please don’t use the Internet or a website for your medical advice.
Catholic Person Nice try but we’re not buying your so-called moral outrage at the sins of today while at the same time equating refusal of getting this untested vaccine. We can see right through it. How dare you “judge” those who cannot or will not get vaccinated for personal or medical reasons.
Refusal to get the vaccine is not a sin.
Some persons have valid reasons. Some just procrastinated and are sorry. Some people have silly reasons or have been duped by lies. Some people seek out lies just because they do not want to get the vaccine. Some people are scrupulous about the cell line. Some people refuse to get the vaccine as a sign of rebellion against the government who they feel is overstepping its bounds.
Spreading lies about the vaccine is a sin if the person knows it is a lie or does not try to find out the truth.
It actually could be a sin of omission. It would depend on the reason. If you just don’t care if people die or you want people to die, that would be probably a grave sin.
I am not a moral theologian.
Please give a break which is it a sin or not? Make up your mind. I personally had to get the vaccination because of health issues whereas a close relative cannot get the vaccine because of his health issues so please stop judging others
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/resource/55995/a-primer-on-catholic-morals
Catholic person. Maybe you should reread this carefully too. And your point is?
I thought you were sincere in wanting to know how to tell whether something was a sin. Apparently not.
I think the part of my post you are referring to was written badly.
What I was saying is that America has a lot of people who sin gravely and the government and the media is very supportive of it. So, the Lord allows the virus (going with the old way of Catholic thinking that scourges are punishments of sins) but he also brings a relief from the virus which is the vaccine. But, in some areas, over half the people won’t take the vaccine.
Another way to mitigate the danger of the virus is wearing a mask. Some people can’t. Some people won’t.
Also, stay home but Memorial Day 2020-I can’t go to church because so many Americans felt the need to go to the beach and to bars.
The Lord has been merciful to us and to the whole world, just like we prayed for Him to be. His greatest mercy is Baptism, Communion, Confession but a lot of people reject those, too.
And the masks are a disaster. I know of a child who attends public school who has been sick four times this year whereas she was rarely sick. I blame it on the masks wearing 10 hours a day.
Ronnie, yes, masks will have problems. You are an adult. You weigh the risks. Like with air bags.
There seems to be less common sense now, more magical thinking, more childish thinking.
Who legalizes marijuana? Fireworks? Same sex marriage? Abortion?
Who gets married planning to never have children?
Who has children while planning to let other people raise them so they can pursue a career?
People no longer understand that there are predictable consequences to behavior.
There is a lot of pressure on people not to react to sinful behavior so the traditional social consequences have been lessened..
There are people who cannot stand anyone telling them they have to do something they don’t want to do.
They choose selfishness over the common good.
People used to understand that this was a disorder. Not anymore.
There are also people who go blindly wherever the government tells them to go. Trust but verify. Let all the facts be aired & then you decide.
What public school is 10
Hours a day?
Working Moms? After school?
Catholic person & I think I’m pretty well aware of what a sin is & you come across as someone who has all the answers on Catholic teachings.I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree but please stop judging those who cannot get the vaccine. You don’t know what’s in their heart or health history.
Correction: After school care, with school 8-6pm.