Vatican permits use of COVID-19 vaccines made using aborted foetal tissue

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“A note from the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the use of such vaccines was permitted as long as there were no alternatives.”
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@Fauken @Vico thanks for the links to Vatican.va. I am shocked! I think I will take my chances, no alternatives or not.
 
The title of this is somewhat misleading. All vaccine candidates which are cited as currently using “aborted foetal tissue” are not actually using “aborted foetal tissue”.

Yes, in the 70s and 80s aborted tissue was used to create a vaccine template for antibody extraction but that specific aborted tissue has long died. The current cells used are hundreds (if not thousands) of generations removed from the aborted original cells. The Vatican had already issued a similar statement for the rubella vaccine that the cell mitosis generations between the initial abortion of the child and the usage for the development of the vaccine provide sufficient degrees of separation for usage if there is no other alternative.

The Vatican did, however, make a caveat. The cultures derived from aborted tissue will eventually deteriorate and new stem cells will need to be procured to create a new culture. If the cultures are renewed using fetal stem cells, then the degrees of separation would collapse and there would be need to be a re-evaluation of the morality of the vaccine. If the new cultures are made using adult stem cells or umbilical/placental stem cells, as many scientists are now leaning towards, then the moral question would be nullified.
 
CRM_Brother said:
… The Vatican did, however, make a caveat. …
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2. In this sense, when ethically irreproachable Covid-19 vaccines are not available (e.g. in countries where vaccines without ethical problems are not made available to physicians and patients, or where their distribution is more difficult due to special storage and transport conditions, or when various types of vaccines are distributed in the same country but health authorities do not allow citizens to choose the vaccine with which to be inoculated) it is morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process.
 
I was speaking of the original blanket statement the Vatican made in the 90s specifically regarding the rubella and future vaccines in general. The current vaccines are all made using the old cultures, thus they are acceptable. The original caveat comes into play if the culture deteriorates during the process and a new culture would need to be procured. This hasn’t happened yet so the Vatican did not include that possibility in their judgement of the current situation with the vaccine. There is a larger bioethical framework within which the Vatican issued this statement.

The issue with the cell cultures is referenced in that the Vatican speaks of “cell lines from aborted fetuses” not the actual fetal tissue itself. This refers to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith’s original statement on vaccines of this type.
 
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You may find this Bishop interesting to listen to on an alternate and explanation on where the Vatican got that premise and why it doesn’t work.

 
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Bp. Schneider is wrong in this case. His opinion does not trump a moral note of the CDF approved by the Pope.

Roma locuta est.
 
Bishops have authority in their own diocese but it doesn’t rise to the universal authority of the Magisterium as Lifesite News makes it seem. Always trust the Magisterium to guide you.
 
He sad part about all of this is the way it is reported gives a lot of people the wrong idea about ethics and Catholicism
 
Bluebright said:
You may find this Bishop interesting to listen to on an alternate and explanation on where the Vatican got that premise and why it doesn’t work.
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Why would I listen to one who is not-the-pope contradict the Vatican? The COVID vaccine may be new, but this teaching is not. It is the same as it has been under the last three Popes. If an new perspective is needed, I would recommend going to a specialist in the field of bioethics.


This group has been saying the same thing as @CRM_Brother said above for years.
 
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Has there been any definitive word on which vaccines do or do not have any derivation from fetal stem cells?

D
 
pnewton said:
Why would I listen to one who is not-the-pope contradict the Vatican?
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Because you might want to agree with the one who is not-the-pope. 😉 Isn’t that the way things work nowadays? We construct our own realities based on the worldwide menu of ‘expert’ opinions.
 
on_the_hill said:
Because you might want to agree with the one who is not-the-pope. 😉 Isn’t that the way things work nowadays? We construct our own realities based on the worldwide menu of ‘expert’ opinions.
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Right. Bishop Schneider is the Auxiliary Bishop of Kazakhstan. So if you live in the US, you are at least 6,500 miles from the region where he has authority, and even there his authority is limited by the bishop (and we don’t know if that bishop agrees with his auxiliary on this). But some folks will go literally any distance to find someone who disagrees with the Pope.
 
I have to admit, I’m super confused now. After hearing a consistent message for a while here in the U.S. (from the USCCB and the National Catholic Bioethics Center) that the key distinction is “used in the design/development/production” (e.g. AstraZeneca) vs. “only used in testing” (e.g. Pfizer, Moderna), the Vatican guidance seems to wipe away that distinction without even referencing its existence.
DaveBj said:
Has there been any definitive word on which vaccines do or do not have any derivation from fetal stem cells?
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While I haven’t found anything definitive, I have found some (conflicting) indications of some that have no connection to aborted cell lines at all.

I saw a video recently (which I can’t seem to find again) from the president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center saying that we can look for the Novavax and GlaxoSmithKline (recently delayed 4-5 months) vaccines for that.

This Archdiocese of Oklahoma City page has a chart listing which ones involved design/development/production and testing. It is listing ‘no connection’ ones as Sorrento and maybe Merck/IAVI and Sanofi/GSK Protein Sciences:

 
Yep… for some Catholics, you can’t trust the Magisterium… rather you must trust a select list of celebrity traditionalist clerics.
 
This raises an interesting point. Who is his bishop? His Lordship is a global celebrity in traditionalist circles. He is cited as THE authority on a score of issues by many. Who is his bishop? His lordship is a bishop, and thus demands a certain degree of reverence, but his actual authority is very limited.
I personally attended a Pontifical High Mass celebrated by His Lordship some years ago here in Canada… but I feel this was before his positions became so politicized.
 
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