#VACCINATION RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION LETTER PROFESSIONAL#

The Catholic tradition provides a rich, complex and nuanced understanding of conscience. Roughly 65% of these have come from Catholics, many armed with some version of the template.Īs Tobias Winright and Jason Eberl, both professors of health care ethics, have helpfully argued, the suggestion that there are religious or moral grounds for COVID-19 vaccine exemptions for Catholics is false. One of my colleagues who works in mission integration at a Catholic health system told me that his system alone has processed over 1,000 employee requests for religious exemptions just for the state of Michigan. It also ignores most of the necessary components of Catholic moral discernment - our liturgical identity, charity and the virtues, the consensus position of magisterial authority, Catholic social teaching and even principles of Catholic bioethics.Īnd this template is being used. This position not only distorts Catholic teaching on conscience. One organization even crafted a 'religious exemption template letter' that has been promoted by a small number of bishops, advertised in parish bulletins and distributed through social media networks. Conference of Catholic Bishops that all the COVID-19 vaccines are morally acceptable and that Catholics have a 'duty,' 'responsibility' or 'obligation' to be vaccinated, some Catholic voices continue to suggest that the vaccines might somehow be 'morally compromised' and are actively supporting Catholics in requesting 'religious' exemptions from vaccine requirements on the basis of Catholic teaching on the primacy of conscience.

Yet in contradiction to the authoritative guidance repeatedly provided by Pope Francis, the Holy See and the U.S.

#VACCINATION RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION LETTER PROFESSIONAL#

Educational institutions and some professional bodies have had vaccine requirements for decades. Catholics support vaccination, with only 7% as 'vaccine refusers.' In fact, Catholics appear to be ahead of most other faith traditions in stepping up, being pro-life and protecting the common good.Ĭatholic hospitals and universities, likewise, are witnessing the church's commitments to life, healing and the common good by requiring that employees and students who wish to return to offices and campuses and participate in the goods of common life be vaccinated.

A recent PPRI poll found that 80% of U.S. In other words: Almost all these deaths could have been prevented.Ĭatholics, for the most part, have shown their commitment to life on this issue. So it will continue each week through September, with COVID-19 potentially becoming again the leading cause of death in the U.S., as it was in January 2021.ĭata from the end of August show that the unvaccinated account for 94-99% of current COVID-19 deaths. By the time you read this, at least another 10,000 people will have died from it - and probably more, since COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths are growing exponentially as the fourth wave of the pandemic surges. Last week, 1,150,284 Americans were newly diagnosed with COVID-19, more than 100,000 people were hospitalized and 10,386 people died from it.

Vaccination religious exemption letter