Catholic vaccine exemptions take the wrong path, San Diego’s Bishop McElroy says – Catholic World Report

Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego has asked that priests in his diocese not sign religious exemption letters from coronavirus vaccine mandates. He criticized a recent exemption letter from the Colorado Catholic Conference for promoting a pathway that he said “merges personal choice with doctrinal authenticity” and wrongly asks pastors to endorse vaccine refusal even when it is motivated by beliefs that diverge from Church teaching. Bishop McElroy’s Aug. 11 letter to San Diego diocese priests asked them to “caringly decline” any requests to approve the Colorado Catholic Conference’s exemption letter or similar exemption statements. He said that several pastors had written to him about requests from parishioners who asked them to sign the Colorado letter. The exemption letter’s aim, in Bishop McElroy’s view, “seems to be to elicit from the pastor a public indication that a specific parishioner’s decision to refuse the COVID vaccine is rooted in and supported by authentic Catholic faith.” “Such a declaration is particularly problematic because the Holy See has made it clear that receiving the vaccine is perfectly consistent with Catholic faith, and indeed laudatory in light of the common good in this time of pandemic,” he said.

Catholic vaccine exemptions take the wrong path, San Diego’s Bishop McElroy says – Catholic World Report