Bishops urge calls for DACA protections

Cynthia Monteleone, shown at the "Our Bodies, Our Sports" rally in Washington, D.C., on June 23, 2022. The mother of three is a track coach, a Team USA World Masters track champion, and an advocate for the preservation of women’s sport… […]

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone meets with people experiencing homeless at St. Anthony’s Dining Hall in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood on November 6, 2021. / Dennis Callahan

Boston, Mass., Dec 15, 2021 / 09:29 am (CNA).

After disclosing that he has not had a COVID-19 vaccination, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco has agreed to reschedule a parish visit at the pastor’s request, due to parishioners’ health concerns.

Cordileone, who shared his vaccination status on a Dec. 1 podcast, was scheduled to visit St. Agnes Catholic Church in San Francisco on Dec. 19. According to the parish’s policy, however, only priests who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 may celebrate Mass there.

For that reason, and because parishioners shared their uneasiness about Cordileone not being vaccinated, Father George Williams, S.J., the pastor, called the archbishop and asked him to postpone his visit.

“These are stressful times enough and I felt his pastoral visit to us would be overshadowed by concerns about the pandemic,” Williams wrote in the parish’s Dec. 5 bulletin.

“When I explained this to his Excellency, he graciously understood,” Williams later told ABC7 news. “We look forward to his visit when the circumstances permit.”

Williams said in the bulletin that he feels it is important that “everyone feels safe,” adding that “we all” must “do our part” in preventing the spread of the virus, especially in light of the new Omicron variant.

CNA asked Williams in an email if the archdiocese gives pastors the option to require vaccination, but received no response. That same question was posed to the archdiocese, to which they responded: “health care decisions are a very personal matter.”

“Archbishop Cordileone has every confidence in Father Williams’ ability to know his people well, and respond to their sensitivities with compassion,” the archdiocese added.

Cordileone, 65, first revealed he had not received the vaccine on the San Francisco Chronicle’s “It’s All Political Podcast,” when he responded “Not yet, no,” to the hosts inquiry of his vaccination against COVID-19.

There were “a number of reasons” Cordileone listed for not being vaccinated on the podcast. He said that because of his particular health situation, noting his “good immune system,” his primary care physician told him “it’s probably not necessary” to get vaccinated.

“He didn’t dissuade me from being vaccinated,” Cordileone said. “But he said he was fine if I decided not to be because of my own particular health situation.”

In the interview, which was mostly about abortion, Cordileone talked about equitable distribution of the vaccines, immunity versus protection, vaccine mandates, and his own encounters with an infected person and crowds. 

In March, 2021, Cordileone encouraged parishioners of the archdiocese to get vaccinated “in consultation with their physician.”

Both the Vatican and the U.S. bishops’ conference have said that reception of the vaccines is morally permissible when recipients have no other ethical option due to the gravity of the pandemic. Pope Francis has encouraged COVID-19 vaccination, calling it an “act of love.” In December 2020, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a note stating that reception of the vaccines is morally permissible but “must be voluntary.” The note recognized “reasons of conscience” for refusing vaccines.

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CNA Staff, Jan 5, 2021 / 04:59 pm (CNA).- Looking ahead at 2021, abortion advocates are hoping the incoming presidential administration will bring policy changes and new personnel who are sympathetic to their goals.

“Planned Parenthood is committed to partnering with the Biden-Harris administration to ensure sexual and reproductive health doesn’t take a backseat in health policy and when making appointments,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood and Planned Parenthood Action Fund, in a December 31 essay in Elle.

“On day one, we want Biden to issue an executive order that demonstrates the administration’s commitment to advancing health care access and rolling back harmful policies like the Title X gag rule, which has blocked patients from accessing care at Planned Parenthood health centers,” said Johnson.

The Title X “gag rule” is a Trump administration policy which prohibits the distribution of Title X funds to facilities which refer for abortion services or who provide abortion services.

Johnson called for the Biden-Harris administration to “make critical updates” to Title X, in order for more people to benefit from its funds. She did not elaborate in the essay as to what these “updates” would be.

“Finally, Planned Parenthood will continue to advocate for the appointment of diverse reproductive health champions to executive and judiciary vacancies,” said Johnson.

Johnson is hopeful that the Biden administration will repeal the Hyde Amendment “for good.” She called the Hyde Amendment, a 1977 law which prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for abortion services, “a discriminatory policy that blocks people who get their health insurance through Medicaid or other government-funded programs from accessing coverage for safe, legal abortion.”

President-elect Biden had previously supported the Hyde Amendment and voted for it numerous times throughout his time in the Senate. Over the course of a 24-hour period in June 2019, Biden changed course, following five decades of support for the policy, and announced that he was now in favor of repealing the Hyde Amendment.

Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris took credit for Biden’s abrupt about-face on the Hyde Amendment. In 2021, said Johnson, abortion advocates “must fight for policies that ensure every single person, regardless of their income or zip code, can actually access sexual and reproductive health care.”

Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL, had similar sentiment as Johnson. Speaking on a podcast, Hogue was concerned that the makeup of the Supreme Court could result in Roe v. Wade being overturned.

“We’re certainly preparing with our partners in the movement for [the overturning of Roe],” said Hogue. She said that much of her organization’s work recently “has been about making sure that we have what we call ‘islands of access’–blue states that are codifying the right to abortion, making sure that we have like practice in place where women can go.”

Many states, including New York, have moved to codify a right to have an abortion into state law. Should the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision be overturned, it would be up for states to decide their own abortion policies.

Hogue stated that she would support the creation of a “women’s health czar” in the upcoming administration. “It would send such a clear message that the terrible era that Trump ushered in is over,” said Hogue.

Biden, a Catholic, has previously pledged to codify the right to abortion into federal law.

“Number one, we don’t know exactly what [Justice Amy Coney Barrett] will do, although the expectation is that she may very well move to overrule Roe, and what the only thing–the only responsible response to that would be to pass legislation making Roe the law of the land,” said Biden in October.

“That’s what I would do.”

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