Majority of German Catholics don’t like Church being against abortion, poll finds

Washington D.C., Mar 18, 2021 / 08:38 am (CNA).- The White House on Wednesday claimed that Pope Francis has affirmed “the safety and efficacy” of the three COVID vaccines approved for use in the U.S.

However, the latest statement of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) on the morality of some COVID vaccines limited its judgement to “moral aspects” of their use, and not their “safety and efficacy.” And while Pope Francis has strongly recommended that people be vaccinated against COVID-19, he has not commented on the safety of specific vaccines.

On Thursday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked by Owen Jensen of EWTN News Nightly about “ethical concerns” regarding the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Johnson & Johnson.

Jensen asked Psaki if President Biden could speak to concerns of Americans about the vaccine; the Johnson & Johnson vaccine utilized cell lines derived from what is believed to be a baby aborted in the 1970s. The cell lines were used in the design, production, and testing of the vaccine.

Psaki replied that Pope Francis has upheld the safety of the vaccines.

“He [Biden] would say, I know the Pope has spoken to the safety and efficacy of all three vaccines, and the American people—these vaccines have been validated by health and medical experts. They’re trying to save people’s lives, keep people safe, and return our country to normal,” Psaki said.

The Vatican’s CDF and the U.S. bishops’ conference have both said that vaccines derived from the problematic cell lines are morally acceptable for Catholics to receive, due to the gravity of the pandemic. However, Catholics should seek to receive a vaccine with a lesser connection to the cell lines if one is available to them, both offices have said.

The CDF, in its Dec. 21 statement, noted that its judgment was on the moral application of the vaccines, and not their efficacy.

“We do not intend to judge the safety and efficacy of these vaccines, although ethically relevant and necessary, as this evaluation is the responsibility of biomedical researchers and drug agencies,” the Vatican stated.

When he received a COVID vaccine in January, Pope Francis said in a television interview “I believe that, ethically, everyone has to get the vaccine. It is an ethical option because it concerns your life but also that of others.”

He said that people should accept a vaccine if doctors advise them it is safe, but did not comment on any specific vaccine. Although the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was made available to Vatican employees and officials in January, it was not reported which specific COVID vaccine Pope Francis received.

“I don’t understand why some say this could be a dangerous vaccine,” Pope Francis said. “If doctors present it to you as something that can be fine and has no special dangers, why not take it?”

Currently, three COVID-19 vaccines have been approved for use in the U.S. In addition to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the companies Pfizer and Moderna each produced a vaccine that was approved late in 2020. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines utilized the controversial cell lines in some tests, but had no direct connection to the cell lines in design and production.

The Vatican’s statement acknowledged situations where Catholics may not have a choice of vaccine—such as local health authorities only making one vaccine available to residents, or when “special storage and transport conditions” inhibit the distribution of one vaccine in a particular area. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require special cold storage and are administered in two shots, whereas the Johnson & Johnson vaccine can be kept at refrigerator temperature and is administered in one shot.

Other vaccine candidates without any connection to the controversial cell lines are still being developed. When “ethically irreproachable” vaccines are not available, the Vatican said, “it is morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process.”

Although reception of a vaccine would be “passive material cooperation” in the abortion from which the cell lines are believed to have originated, such cooperation would be “remote” and can be justified in light of the gravity of the pandemic, the Vatican said.

“It must therefore be considered that, in such a case, all vaccinations recognized as clinically safe and effective can be used in good conscience with the certain knowledge that the use of such vaccines does not constitute formal cooperation with the abortion from which the cells used in production of the vaccines derive,” the Vatican stated.

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CNA Staff, Jun 25, 2020 / 12:01 pm (CNA).- The parliament of the Channel Island of Guernsey voted Wednesday to approve a bill expanding abortion time limits, and removing time limits altogether on the abortion of unborn children with disabilities.

Votes held June 24 on 12 propositions made by the health and social care committee of the States of Guernsey carried each of them.

Under the new law meant to ‘modernize’ the territory’s abortion law, the abortion time limit will be increased to 24 weeks, as it is in the UK. The previous law, adopted in 1997, permitted abortion up to 12 weeks. There will be no upper limit on when a child with “significant fetal abnormality” can be aborted. These propositions were approved by a 23-13 vote, with one abstention.

The new law also decriminalizes the procurement of abortion outside the legal framework; drops a requirement that the mother consult with two medical practitioners; allow nurses and midwives to preform medical abortions; and allows medical abortions at home.

It will also force conscientious objectors to make referrals without delay; “make clear that health practitioners may not refuse to participate in care required to save the life or prevent serious injury to the physical or mental health of a woman”; and “create a power in the Law for the Committee for Health & Social Care to make regulations making further provision in relation to the circumstances in which the right of health practitioners to conscientiously object to the provision of care in relation to abortions may be exercised.”

Guernsey is a self-governing Crown Dependency for which the UK is responsible, located off the coast of Normandy. The new law will extend to Guernsey and its associated islands, but not Alderney and Sark, which are also part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey.

During debate on the propositions, according to the Guernsey Press, Deputy Richard Graham commented that “I regret that Health & Social Care have identified the UK as the gold standard to be followed, instead I would urge them to look to those countries that have low abortion rates, and seek to learn lessons from them, they are no less civilised, no less compassionate than we are, and they strike me as a far better abortion role model than the UK.”

The Bailiwick Express reported that Deputy Emilie McSwiggan, a member of the health and social care committee, said: “What we are trying to do is find a way through that is as compassionate as it can be, which is as fair as it can be, which balances and reflects the choices that people have to make and allows people to make those choices safely and within the context of a legal framework that is clear and modern and fair.”

Several amendments to the new law, which sought to reduce the proposed time limit on abortions or to maintain limits on the abortion of unborn children with disabilities, had been defeated June 19. The amendments would have retained the same time limits for the abortion of children with disabilies as of all unborn children; made clear that non-fatal conditions such as Down syndrome or cleft palate are not considered fatal foetal abnormalities; and changed the time limit for abortions to 16 or 22 weeks, rather than 24.

Earlier, a sursis motivé to stay the deliberation of the draft law and allow for broader public consultation had been defeated.

According to official figures, 113 abortions were performed in Guernsey in 2018, with a further three involving Guernsey residents performed in England and Wales.

The Catholic Church on the island held an all night prayer vigil at St. Joseph’s Church in St. Peter Port ahead of debate last week.

Bishop Egan of Portsmouth, the diocese which includes Guernsey, urged Catholics earlier this month to resist the “fundamentally detestable” efforts to liberalize the island’s abortion law.

In a June 7 message he argued the changes would violate the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” and the injunction “Love thy neighbor as thyself”, which formed the basis of laws in civilized societies.

“This is why abortion and the current proposal to ‘modernize’ — that is, to increase — its availability in Guernsey is fundamentally detestable,” he said. “Under the bogus word ‘modernization,’ an attempt is being made to further liberalize abortion, to make it a lot easier and a lot more common.”

Egan said: “They want to allow abortions much later in pregnancy, abortions to be carried out with less red tape, abortions to take place at home and outside hospitals, and, grimly, abortions right up to birth for a disabled child, a child unwell, or a child with Downs syndrome. How must a person with Downs syndrome feel about this?”

“They refer to abortion euphemistically as a ‘procedure,’ a ‘termination’ with help from ‘the professionals.’ But what procedure can justify any professional terminating the life of an innocent baby? The more you see what an abortion is, the more you can see it is anti-life, anti-human and anti-woman.”

In a joint letter, John P. Ogier, pastor of Spurgeon Baptist Church, and Fr. Bruce Barnes, the Catholic Dean of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, criticized the timing of the debate amid the coronavirus pandemic.

They wrote: “We believe this is an entirely inappropriate time to be considering such a sensitive and morally important issue, in the midst of the current COVID-19 pandemic and with such a truncated timescale for public debate and consideration.”

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Notre-Dame de Paris. / barnyz via flickr CC BY ND 2.0.

CNA Staff, Feb 3, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).
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