This marks an illegitimate move, and for two reasons. True, Pope Francis voiced such a blanket appeal, asserting on one occasion the moral obligation to get one of the COVID vaccines, since, as he suggested, it is “about the lives of others.” This remark by the Holy Father has been invoked as grounds for denying a religious exemption for those Catholics who request it. That they should use as cover generalized appeals to the moral duty not to risk causing physical harm to our neighbor compounds the problem. Let us be frank: It is deeply troublesome that certain bishops have shown themselves willing to run roughshod over such a bedrock principle of Catholic moral teaching as Catholics’ right to render a prudential judgment of conscience, especially when it concerns their physical well-being. Definitive pronouncements on such issues lie outside the proper competence of ecclesiastical authorities. This holds especially in the case of prudential judgments of conscience that concern matters of medical practice. Logically and morally speaking, it does not follow that to say a Catholic can in good conscience take the vaccine means that a different Catholic cannot oppose the vaccine (particularly when mandated). The most that any Catholic (including a bishop) can say, then, is that a Catholic may take the vaccine, never that he must. And on such matters, particularly when opposing sides are both arguable, there can be a legitimate diversity of opinion among good-willed Catholics. Whether to get vaccinated marks, at bottom, a matter of a prudential judgment of conscience. Therefore, Catholics are in no way obliged to relent to any Church authority, even in the person of the Holy Father, who insists they receive a COVID vaccine (or any vaccine). It must be stated at the outset: to pressure the faithful to “get the jab” constitutes a clear abuse of the teaching and governing authority entrusted to the office of bishop (or priest).
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