ROME – Pope Francis insisted that receiving the coronavirus vaccine is a moral imperative, in apparent contradiction to a statement by the Vatican’s doctrinal office.
“I think everyone should get the vaccine ethically,” the pope told the Italian newspaper Fabio Marchese Ragona in a television interview that will be broadcast on Sunday night. “This should be ready.”
“It is not an option – ‘I think so, I don’t think so’ – it is an ethical choice, because you bet on health, you bet on life and you bet on other people’s lives,” said the pontiff. .
“I don’t know why some people say ‘no, the vaccine is dangerous’,” continued Francis. “Doctors are proposing this as something that can be useful and as something without special dangers, why wouldn’t you accept it?”
“There is a kind of suicidal denial at stake that I cannot explain,” he concluded. “Today, you must get the vaccine.”
Some may find the pope’s seemingly uncompromising tone about the coronavirus vaccine ironic, given his frequent condemnations of doctrinal and moral rigor and his adoption of creative flexibility and personal discernment.
The Vatican’s doctrinal office (CDF) issued a statement in December correcting an earlier statement by US bishops that taking the coronavirus vaccine is a moral obligation.
In a joint statement with Bishop of Fort Wayne, Kevin Rhoades, Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann stated that “being safely vaccinated against COVID-19 should be considered an act of love for others and part of our moral responsibility for the common good. ”.
Pope Francis, in an opinion piece in the New York Times on Thanksgiving Day, criticized groups protesting restrictions on coronavirus blocking, while Americans gathered to celebrate the holiday. https://t.co/O0i8sWbEAQ
– Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) November 28, 2020
In its clarification note, the Vatican office said that, from a moral perspective, receiving the vaccine must be voluntary.
The practical reason “makes it clear that vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and therefore must be voluntary”, declared the CDF.
The text adds that, from an ethical point of view, “the morality of vaccination depends not only on the duty to care for one’s own health, but also on the duty to care for the common good, which can“ recommend vaccination, mainly to protect the most weak. and more exposed. “
The CDF note said that it is morally imperative for the pharmaceutical industry, governments and international organizations to ensure that vaccines “are also accessible to the poorest countries in a way that is not expensive for them”.
After the CDF released this clarification, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City reversed his earlier statement on the moral duty to receive a coronavirus vaccine, saying that his words on the subject were misinterpreted.
“Some interpreted the December 14 statement as if Catholics had a moral obligation to receive the vaccine,” wrote Carol Zimmermann to the Catholic News Service (CNS) on Tuesday.
“The short answer is that we have no moral obligation” to do so, Archbishop Naumann told CNS in an interview. The intention of the declaration was “to show that the use of these vaccines is permitted”.
“What we say is that there is a moral obligation to work for the common good,” he added.