Spokane, Wash., Aug 26, 2021 / 14:02 pm (CNA).
Bishop Thomas Daly of Spokane wrote on Tuesday that Catholic schools in the diocese will be expected to comply with the state’s vaccine mandate, while also seeking to clarify exemptions under state law and how Catholic schools will acknowledge the exemptions.
“We continue to comply with Governor Inslee’s mandate that all school employees receive one of the approved vaccines. The state recognizes two exemptions from this mandate. The first is a medical exemption that one may obtain through his or her physician. The second is a religious exemption which, for us as Catholics, rests on the fact that a properly formed conscience is inviolable,” Bishop Daly wrote Aug. 25.
“A Catholic school employee could, therefore, exercise his or her right to a religious exemption. This exemption places the burden on the individual’s conscience rather than on Church approval.”
Washington Governor Jay Inslee announced a COVID-19 vaccine requirement Aug. 18 for all employees who work in K-12 schools, most early childhood learning centers, and higher education. The mandate applies to public and private schools.
While the mandate allows medical or religious exemption based on “a sincerely held religious belief,” Bishop Daly has noted that clergy are not to “replace one’s conscience,” but to “assist with informing a person’s conscience,” and therefore “priests should not be involved in signing any document concerning the conscience of another.”
Across the state to the west, Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle has said Catholics do not have religious grounds for refusing the vaccine or seeking an exemption to the mandate, and has similarly instructed clergy not to sign any exemptions based on personal conscience.
Bishop Daly encouraged priests to speak with employees and parishioners who are uncomfortable with the vaccination for religious or moral reasons and help them to understand why the Church encourages vaccination.
Bishop Daly, speaking to CNA, said he has relied on the Catholic Medical Association and the National Catholic Bioethics Center to provide guidance in his decision making on the question of COVID-19 vaccination.
Daly affirmed the Church’s guidance that vaccination is morally permissible and beneficial for the common good, and concluded with a prayer that “mask-wearing and an increase in vaccinations will help bring an end to the suffering and death caused by this pandemic.”
“While we encourage vaccination, we do not intend on violating the consciences of our Catholic school teachers nor do we intend on vouching for another person’s conscience,” Bishop Daly wrote in a statement Aug. 19 in response to the governor’s mandate.
“If a person has health concerns or moral objections about vaccines, he or she should not be forced into being vaccinated.”
In a Q&A accompanying his Aug. 25 letter, Bishop Daly again addressed the question of whether priests of the dioceses will be signing exemption forms for Catholics wishing to be exempt from the mandate.
“A Catholic individual, under church teaching, is capable of testifying to the state of his or her own conscience on a particular question. Their self-attestation is sufficient both in regards to state law on religious exemptions and church teaching,” the document reads.
Bishops across the country have issued varying guidance for Catholics wishing to seek conscientious objections to COVID-19 mandates.
Some, such as the bishops of South Dakota and of Colorado, have explicitly expressed support for Catholics wishing to seek exemptions, while in contrast, many bishops in California, as well as in Chicago and Philadelphia, have instructed clergy not to assist parishioners seeking religious exemptions from receiving COVID-19 vaccines, stating that there is no basis in Catholic moral teaching for rejecting vaccine mandates on religious grounds.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, echoing guidance from the Vatican, has since stated that all three vaccines approved for use in the United States are “morally acceptable” for use because of their remote connection with abortion, but if one has the ability to choose a vaccine, Pfizer or Moderna’s vaccines should be chosen over Johnson & Johnson’s.
In its December 2020 Note on the morality of using some anti-Covid-19 vaccines, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith stated that “vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation” and “therefore, it must be voluntary.” Pope Francis has encouraged COVID-19 vaccination, calling it an “act of love.”
Washington and Oregon both issued vaccine mandates for educators last week. In California and New Jersey, educators have the option of either showing proof of vaccination or being tested at least once per week. Some cities and school districts, such as New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles also recently announced a vaccine requirement for all school employees.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is expected to soon announce a similar vaccine mandate for teachers as well as mask mandates for students.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Not surprisingly, I disagree with Pope Francis on the vaccines being “an act of love.” How is it loving to implicitly approve the fetal cell research that developed, produced, or tested the currently available vaccines? It’s not that we can change what has happened in the past, but accepting such vaccines implies the approval of fetal cell research going forward. Instead of approving these vaccines, Pope Francis and the entire leadership of the Catholic Church should be calling for at least one vaccine that has been researched, developed, produced AND tested without any immoral connections. If they had done this on behalf of the 1.3 billion Catholics around the globe, this discussion would be moot. Catholics could act out of love, without approving the most unloving, horrendous act involved in fetal cell research.
I could not agree more and my heart is breaking that my religion is so accepting of this and that my archdiocese has not even responded to my 3 communications. One being for how to be exempted. I will be forced to get this vaccination so I can put food on my table and my religion has turned its back on me. Whatever happened to this world is just about the flesh and our souls are what matters?
We are monetarily rewarding those that have perpetrated a horrible mistreatment of the most helpless when we take these injections. As those cell lines age and no longer replicate, they’ll simply do it to another helpless human being. To get legal help for religious exemptions from vaccinations go to LC.org/exempt
To get legal help with religious exemption go to LC.org/exempt
My thoughts exactly, Donna. Thank you so much for expressing them beautifully and succinctly. God bless you
In Washington State the government still requires teachers to not work with children even if they file a valid exemption.
WA State is requiring it of all teachers, even private Catholic school teachers, and the bishop essentially have thrown them under the bus. The state should have no control over Catholic schools but the bishops don’t stand up. I am a church employee in the Seattle archdiocese, and I’m worried I will be forced to vaccinate. I refuse to take it, and I’m already looking for employment elsewhere because I think it’s coming.