Vatican approves getting Covid-19 vaccines that used abortion cell lines

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Vatican on Monday, December 21 declared that it is “morally acceptable” for Roman Catholics to receive Covid-19 vaccines based on research that used cells derived from aborted fetuses. The guidance came after some churchmen in the United States argued that such products were immoral, Time reports.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s watchdog office for doctrinal orthodoxy, said it had received several requests for “guidance” during recent months. The doctrinal office pointed out that bishops, Catholic groups and experts have offered “diverse and sometimes conflicting pronouncements” on the matter.

Drawing on Vatican pronouncements in past years about developing vaccines prepared from cells derived from aborted fetuses, the watchdog office’s statement was examined by Pope Francis, who ordered it to be made public.

The Catholic Church’s teaching says that abortion is a grave sin.

The Vatican concluded that “it is morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses” in the research and production process when “ethically irreproachable” vaccines aren’t available to the public. But it stressed that the “licit” uses of such vaccines “does not and should not in any way imply that there is a moral endorsement of the use of cell lines proceeding from aborted fetuses.”

Much of the Vatican’s pronouncement had echoes in a statement last week by officials of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The U.S. conference officials said that “in view of the gravity of the current pandemic and the lack of availability of alternative vaccines,” receiving the vaccines being distributed in the United States is justified “despite their remote connection to morally compromised cell lines.”