Pastor’s Corner — August 29th, 2021
Vaccine Mandates, Conscience and the Common Good
Last weekend in my homily, I proposed five ways you can know you’re serving/worshipping the Lord and on the right track to take possession of the promised land of heaven.
1) You have a habit of personal prayer and you go to Mass on Sundays
2) Faithfulness to God’s law is more important to you than what others think of you
3) You refuse to allow the world to dictate to you what’s important in life.
4) As a parent, you are leading your children in the faith.
5) We you realize you’ve put something above God, you quickly have recourse to God’s mercy
One way that we as Catholics can live out point number three is to resist political framing of complex moral issues such as vaccines and vaccine mandates. Unfortunately, Catholics are falling into the false extremes on these issues that line up more with political talking points than Catholic teaching. The end result is Catholics are not only failing to promote the rights of individual conscience and the common good, but are instead causing scandal to others in and out of the Church.
Predictably, the Catholic position on the morality of vaccines and vaccine mandates avoids both the extremes. On the one extreme, we have what can be called an authoritarian temptation, which would advocate the use of top-down authority to mandate vaccines for virtually everyone over and against personal responsibility and individual conscience. On the other extreme, we have what can be called a libertarian temptation which by emphasizing personal responsibility and freedom would end up failing to consider the real benefits of the vaccine for promoting the common good. The truth of the official Catholic position, as I’ve noted before, is found in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s doctrinal note in December 2020, and deftly avoids both extremes.
Since many large employers and schools are now requiring people to have COVID vaccines, many parishioners have come to me asking me to write a letter for a religious exemption. Strictly speaking, the Church cannot offer a religious exemption because according to Church teaching and sound moral reasoning Catholics may morally take any of these vaccines. However, since the Church also teaches clearly that Catholics have a right to follow their consciences and since vaccines are never obligatory, I have been happy to write carefully worded letters in support of those who cannot in good conscience take a vaccine. To be perfectly clear, I believe there are several good reasons why people would conclude they shouldn’t take vaccine, one of which is the outcome of a thoughtful risk/benefit analysis regarding one’s health. Therefore, anyone who would advocate for universal vaccine mandates without leaving room for health and conscience exemptions, is advocating something against Catholic teaching.
Nevertheless, I have heard that some Catholics are using troubling or outright bad reasons to justify their decision to not get vaccinated. While it’s true that we have an obligation to follow our conscience even when it errs, we have a responsibility of forming our consciences according to the truth. Here I’d like to point out two things. First, as Catholics we need to make sure we have the correct understanding of the vaccines, their morality, and the science before we make decision to take one or not. When prayerfully discerning whether or not we should take a vaccine, it’s important to talk to a trusted doctor and get real facts about the vaccines. It’s an unfortunate fact of life that as trust in public health recommendations erodes, it becomes easier to believe in harmful conspiracy theories. Right here I have to be clear: it is not helpful to tell others that vaccines are the government’s way of implanting microchips in your body, or to say that vaccines are a part of Satan’s plan, or that vaccines don’t work. We need to talk to trustworthy doctors who can help us make decisions based on real data. Any rejection of a vaccine needs to be intelligent and well- reasoned or it risks causing scandal to others.
Second, the Church teaches that consideration of the common good can lead to Catholics to recommend receiving a vaccine. The moral decision to get a vaccine doesn’t happen in a vacuum. We’re part of a human community and our responsibility for others needs to be taken into account when considering vaccination. While getting a vaccine is never obligatory, that is it should always be voluntary, getting vaccinated for the sake of love of your neighbor and the common good is a very Catholic thing to do. (This is primarily why I and many others have received the vaccine). Therefore, many in the Church including the Pope, Catholic scientists and healthcare professionals, are rightly strongly recommending vaccination for those who are eligible. Think about it this way; if we didn’t have millions of people get the vaccine, we’d still all be locked down right now and many more people, even people who still aren’t vaccinated, would be dead. I’m thankful that so many people said yes to getting a vaccine, even if these vaccines are not perfect.
Again, the Catholic position neither fits in the authoritarian left nor in the libertarian right. If you’re struggling with this on either side, please read again the CDF’s Doctrinal Note. I also think the Wisconsin Bishops brilliantly strike the right balance in their recent statement as they emphasize both our freedom of conscience and our responsibilities toward the common good.
Your servant in the Lord,
Fr. Mathias