Catholic reflections on the new Covid-19 Vaccines Gift and the Duty of Care

by Msgr. Jeremiah McCarthy, Ph.D

Amid the worldwide pandemic, the news that two prominent pharmaceutical firms, Pfizer and Moderna, have developed vaccines with efficacy rates exceeding 90% is a cause for celebration and thanksgiving. While this extraordinary scientific achievement is a gift to the human family, it is incumbent that as many persons as possible take the vaccine as an expression of our duty to protect our health and to care for one another.

Pope Francis, in his most recent allocution, “Fratelli Tutti,” quoted by the California Conference of Catholic Bishops in their strong statement of support for the vaccine, highlights a key principle of Catholic social teaching, namely the virtue of solidarity:

At a time when everything seems to disintegrate and lose consistency, it is good for us to appeal to the “solidarity” born of the consciousness that we are responsible for the fragility of others as we strive to build a common future. Solidarity finds concrete expression in service, which can take a variety of forms in an effort to care for others. And service in great part means “caring for vulnerability, for the vulnerable members of our families, our society, our people”  …Service always looks to their faces, touches their flesh, senses their closeness and even, in some cases, ‘suffers’ that closeness and tries to help them. Service is never ideological, for do not serve ideas, we serve people  Pope Francis [n. 115].

Solidarity, our communion with one another, requires that we shoulder responsibility to assure that another key principle of Catholic social teaching, the common good of the human family, is achieved. From a Catholic, Christian perspective, we are fashioned in the “image and likeness” of the Creator. Following the example of Jesus, we must have a special concern for the most vulnerable and needy among us. In Catholic social teaching, this concern is expressed as the “preferential option for the poor,” embodying the mind and attitude of Jesus while He dwelt among us and bequeathing to us a lasting duty to care for one another.

Deacon Andrew Corder, a chaplain at Tucson Medical Center, receives his COVID vaccine on Thursday, December 17.

 

 

Accordingly, Catholics are urged to take this vaccine. Not only will it protect them from the virus, but, in solidarity with others, it will contribute to strengthening immunity to the virus and thereby protecting those most vulnerable, especially the poor, the elderly, and those suffering from a range of pre-existing medical conditions.

Some have raised concerns because vaccine development frequently uses cell lines cultivated, tragically, from the bodies of aborted children. To be clear, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have not been developed in this manner. The Pontifical Academy for Life has carefully reviewed the morality of vaccine development from tainted cell lines in three statements (2005, 2008, 2017). The Academy invokes the classic principle of cooperation to discern moral culpability resulting from participation in, or association with, the wrongful actions of another. While direct action to secure a cell line from an aborted child is not permissible, vaccines developed from successor cell lines, now distant from the original ancestor line, is permissible, especially where there are no alternatives and there is a serious risk to health. In these circumstances, the association is remote and indirect.

Bishops: Getting COVID-19 vaccine is an 'act of charity,' supporting the common good

The Catholic community is ever vigilant to ensure the protection of human life from womb to tomb. This concern extends to life at every age and stage of existence. The duty of care to protect ourselves and one another flows from the key principles of Catholic social teaching, especially the common good so that all have access to the goods and services essential for human flourishing and the principle of solidarity that affirms our connection to one another as brothers and sisters. Taking the vaccine is an expression of this love and care, and we urge everyone to receive the vaccine as supplies increase and become more widely available in our communities.

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Msgr. Jeremiah McCarthy,
Diocese of Tucson

“The Church’s love for all forms of knowing, including scientific knowledge, springs from a core conviction that faith and reason are allies and not foes. St. Anselm gives voice to this conviction in his famous dictum that theology is faith seeking understanding, “fides quaerens intellectum.”  - Msgr. Jeremiah McCarthy

Msgr. Jeremiah McCarthy, Ph.D., began in September 2010 as the executive director of the Seminary Department of the National Catholic Educational Association, Arlington, Virginia, United States. He taught in 2009-10 at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, California. From 2002-2009, he was director of accreditation and institutional evaluation at the Association of Theological Schools in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He served for twenty years (1982-2002) at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, California, as professor of moral theology, academic dean, vice-rector and rector. He earned his Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California. Msgr. McCarthy is a priest of the Diocese of Tucson, Arizona and currently teaches moral theology to seminarians at the Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, Texas.