Coronavirus
Fresno bishop warns Catholics against stem cell-based COVID vaccines, including Pfizer’s
As Fresno anticipates receiving the first doses of a coronavirus vaccine by mid-December, Bishop Joseph Brennan of the Diocese of Fresno warned Roman Catholic against jumping on the “COVID-19 vaccine bandwagon.”
In a video statement posted on the diocese website this week, the bishop said he is typically a very optimistic, hopeful person.
“I don’t like to rain on anyone’s parade. But I’m going to rain on a parade today. It’s the vaccine parade,” he said.
In the 12-minute video, during which the bishop quotes from the church’s Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and also from the TV series “Star Trek,” Brennan said the church is not against vaccines created by good, ethical science. He had recently received a flu shot, and has taken shots to protect against pneumonia and the shingles.
But Catholics must “always and only pursue vaccines that are ethical and morally acceptable,” and that the use of fetal stem cell material at any stage of a vaccine’s development means it would be off limits to Catholics.
“My brothers and sister I must tell you, as your bishop, as you teacher, as a believer in the ultimate value of life and how that forms and fashions our conscious and our choices, I must tell you that there’s some serious problem with a number of the vaccines.”
That includes the vaccine made by Pfizer, which appears to be 95% effective in treating the virus. The company has asked U.S. regulators to allow emergency use of the vaccine.
There are some vaccines that would adhere to the church’s ethical standards, Brennan said, including one in development at the John Paul II Medical Research Institute. He pointed to the National Catholic Bio-ethics Center, which has been following the vaccine developments and will help Catholics determine which are morally accessible.
The Charlotte Lozier Institute, an anti-abortion organization, lists both the Pfizer vaccine and one created from Moderna, as well as the John Paul II Medical Research Institute as “ethically uncontroversial.”
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