The Catholic Church Does Not Oppose Vaccination
With unprecedented ease, a post has been published claiming that Jesus was against vaccines! The reason for this conclusion is a video address by a nun from Great Britain who claims that they received a request for prayers for 50 people who died from vaccines. However, the Catholic Church supported the vaccination, and the Pope is vaccinated
We are reviewing a Facebook post claiming that Jesus is against vaccines. As part of the post, there is a video address by a nun from the Catholic Church in London, UK.
In the video she said:
You are made in the image of the Lord. You are born free. Do not let them take away your freedom. Protect children and do not allow them to receive the vaccine under any circumstances, it kills people. Since January we have been asked to pray for the 50 people who have died. I have been a nun for 28 years and during all this time, I have never been asked to pray for people who have died or been injured by a vaccine, except once, for a little girl in 2015. But from January 2021 until now, 50 people have asked us to pray for people who have died from the vaccine in London, England. We encourage you and pray for you.
However, is this personal stance of the nun an indication that the Catholic Church’s general position is that its members should not be vaccinated? Absolutely not. The fact that 50 people asked the nuns in the church in England to pray for the dead does not prove that those 50 people died from the vaccination! There is no evidence of who they are, whether they were vaccinated at all, and whether the death occurred as a result of the vaccine.
The Catholic Church in Great Britain supported vaccination
The Catholic Church in Great Britain issued the following official statement on 3 December 2020:
“The development of a vaccine against COVID-19 presents an important breakthrough in protecting others as well as oneself from the virus; a virus which has not only caused a global pandemic and led to a huge loss of life but has also placed a great burden on healthcare workers and systems. Each of us has a duty to protect others from infection with its danger of serious illness, and for some, death. A vaccine is the most effective way to achieve this unless one decides to self-isolate. At present, debate concerns the use of the vaccines developed by Pfizer & BioNTech, Moderna, and AstraZeneca. Some have questioned the use of the Astra Zeneca vaccine since it has been developed from cell-lines originating from the cells of an aborted foetus in 1983.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Academy of Life have expressed the view that one may in good conscience and for a grave reason receive a vaccine sourced in this way, provided that there is a sufficient moral distance between the present administration of the vaccine and the original wrongful action. In the COVID-19 pandemic, we judge that this grave reason exists and that one does not sin by receiving the vaccine. Both the Pfizer & BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have a different source since they are mRNA-based vaccines. On 2 December 2020, the Pfizer & BioNTech vaccine was approved for use in the UK. Each Catholic must educate his or her conscience on this matter and decide what to do, also bearing in mind that a vaccine must be safe, effective, and universally available, especially to the poor of the world. Catholics may in good conscience receive any of these vaccines for the good of others and themselves. In good conscience, one may refuse a particular vaccine but continues to have a duty to protect others from infection.”
Religious leaders and members of religious groups, when disseminating information on topics in the field of public health, have a great responsibility, because believers and followers of religions take their claims with great confidence.
Religious leaders in our country supported vaccination as well
This public call by the MOC, the IRC and the Catholic Church shows that the leaders of all religious communities in N. Macedonia support the vaccination and encourage the believers to be vaccinated.
After the meeting of the Prime Minister Zoran Zaev with the leaders of the Macedonian Orthodox Church – Archbishopric of Ohrid, the Archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia Mr. Mr. Stefan, of the Islamic Religious Community Reis ul Ulema Hadzi Shakir Efendi Fetai and of the Catholic Church Monsignor Kiro Stojanov, Bishop of Skopje and Diocese of Strumica-Skopje, the government said that all leaders support vaccination against Covid-19.
“Religious leaders present at the meeting pointed out that the protection of health is not only an obligation of the state, but also a religious obligation because every person is obliged, both socially and religiously, to be in the service of health. It is commonly concluded that in these moments when humanity is facing an unpredictable virus, common sense is needed by all believers, because the disease does not choose religions and nations,” the government said.
The conclusion from all of the above is that every citizen, in fact, every believer or non-believer, should decide for themselves whether to get vaccinated or not. No one should force or deter anyone from the idea of vaccination. That is why the claim in the post we are reviewing, that “Jesus is against vaccines” is incorrect and also ridiculous.
Finally, Pope Francis was vaccinated against Covid-19 in January this year.
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This article has been produced as part of the Rapid Response to Vaccine Disinformation Project, implemented by the Metamorphosis Foundation. It was originally published in Truthmeter, and is made possible by the support of (BTD – The Balkan Trust for Democracy, a project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States). The content of this article is the sole responsibility of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Metamorphosis, BTD or their partners.
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