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Last week, three events involving the Catholic Church may have caught the attention of vaccine sceptics.
One event concerned prominent Catholic leader and vaccine sceptic, US Cardinal Raymond Burke. He admitted he’s still having breathing difficulties after being hospitalised for COVID-19.
Another involved a decree formalising the Vatican’s decision regarding its employees. Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said everyone must be vaccinated or show proof of a negative COVID-19 test. Medical exemptions are possible, but religious exemptions are not offered.
Then there was the theme for the opening of the Vatican Pontifical Academy for Life’s General Assembly: Catholics need to get vaccinated and help make it possible for others to do the same.
The Academy advocated for equitable distribution of vaccines and to combat vaccine scepticism.
Set against the vocal minority of Catholic vaccine sceptics, Burke and others with big audiences at their fingertips have yet to use their large platforms to encourage fellow Catholics to get vaccinated.
“We are actually witnessing the greatest vaccination effort ever made in history,” Italian Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said. Echoing Pope Francis, he begged Western countries to combat global disparities when it comes to vaccine access.
“It is necessary to overcome not only the vaccination divide [in relation to vaccine sceptics] but also the unequal access to public health …”. This can involve removing barriers like a lack of facilities and managing treatment resources more wisely, he suggests.
According to American bioethicist Therese Lysaught, who is a corresponding member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, only about 10% of U.S. Catholics are vaccine-hesitant. Many simply want a space to “sit down face-to-face with someone and talk about their concerns,” she said.
This isn’t a one size fits all answer, however. “As far as I can tell, the resistance from some church officials and organizations is coming from a very different place,” Lysaught said.
“Their statements consistently reflect a deep resistance to the legitimacy of government, often a veiled resistance to the papacy and leadership of Pope Francis, a troubling resistance to reason, and an unfortunate resistance to dialogue.”
She’s hoping the Academy will be able to help change this.
The Academy is “modeling the church’s commitments to the absolute value of every human life, to truth, science, and reason, to cooperation with governments and other social organizations to promote the common good and to the constant process of dialogue,” she said.
Another academy member made a similar comment, noting that both the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Academy have made it clear that the vaccines are morally acceptable.
It also protects others from being infected and that charity and respect for the common good argue for a moral duty to be vaccinated.
“Education, persuasion, the encouragement of local parishes to work with public health authorities to combat vaccine hesitancy and even sponsor health fairs in which unvaccinated persons can be vaccinated are all constructive ways forward that the Academy can endorse,” he said.
“This is not ethical laxity. It is faithful, common sense, thoroughly Catholic reasoning.”
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