As the first doses of the much-anticipated COVID-19 vaccines make their way across the country and to the first round of recipients, the chairmen of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine -- Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend -- and Committee on Pro-Life Activities -- Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas -- issued a statement on the new vaccines.
They address the moral concerns raised by the fact that the three vaccines ready for distribution in the United States all have some connection to cell lines that originated with tissue taken from abortions 40-50 years ago.
With regard to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, they concluded:
“In view of the gravity of the current pandemic and the lack of availability of alternative vaccines, the reasons to accept the new COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are sufficiently serious to justify their use, despite their remote connection to morally compromised cell lines.
“Receiving one of the COVID-19 vaccines ought to be understood as an act of charity toward the other members of our community. In this way, being vaccinated safely against COVID-19 should be considered an act of love of our neighbor and part of our moral responsibility for the common good,” they wrote.
With regard to the AstraZeneca vaccine, the bishops found it to be “more morally compromised” and consequently concluded that this vaccine “should be avoided” if there are alternatives available. “It may turn out, however, that one does not really have a choice of vaccine, at least, not without a lengthy delay in immunization that may have serious consequences for one’s health and the health of others,” they said. “In such a case … it would be permissible to accept the AstraZeneca vaccine,” they added.
The bishops also warned that Catholics “must be on guard so that the new COVID-19 vaccines do not desensitize us or weaken our determination to oppose the evil of abortion itself and the subsequent use of fetal cells in research.”
In the statement, they noted that cell lines used in the vaccines were derived from tissue samples taken from fetuses aborted in the 1960s and 1970s. Since then, the cells have been grown in laboratories around the world.
"It is important to note that the making of the rubella vaccine -- or that of the new COVID-19 vaccines -- does not involve cells taken directly from the body of an aborted child," Bishop Rhoades and Archbishop Naumann said. "Cells taken from two abortions in the 1960s were replicated in a laboratory to produce two cell lines that can be reproduced again and again, indefinitely."
"To make the rubella vaccine, cells from these cell lines are stimulated to produce the chemicals necessary for the vaccine," they explained. "It is not as if the making of the vaccine required ever more cells from ever more abortions."
The full statement from the bishop chairmen may be found here.