Florida Officials Tell Catholic Bishops to Allow School Vaccine Exemptions

For some unaccountable reason, some Catholic schools in Florida do not permit religious exemptions from vaccination. The state government is addressing this moral and medical crisis by writing to Florida Catholic bishops.

Attorney General James Uthmeier (R-Fla.) sent a letter to the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops. A belief in free will is Catholic doctrine, one amply grounded in scripture (e.g., Joshua 24:15, Galatians 5:13, Mark 8:34-35). When it comes to medical treatments and vaccines, parents and children should have the ability to reject said treatments and vaccines if independent assessment indicates more harms than benefits. This is particularly true when it comes to vaccines that utilized aborted babies' tissues, since the Church condemns abortion as morally evil in all instances. But apparently not all Catholic Florida schools agree with this line of reasoning.

Uthmeier, who is Catholic, was disturbed to note that one Florida diocese in particular, along with the National Catholic Bioethics Center, claim religious exemptions are impossible because the Catholic Church does in rare instances and with a very specific set of circumstances allow vaccinations developed using aborted babies in the research (frankly, I think this is a dangerous exception, but it is theoretically supposed to be a rare one). But the Church's official policy does not preclude religious exemptions; it only allows an extra option for choice.

"[As] a Catholic, I am confident that the teachings of the Catholic Church do not require Catholic schools to compel students to take vaccines derived from the tissue of aborted children against the sincerely-held religious objections of their parents," Uthmeier emphasized. "In fact, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has stated that 'practical reason makes evident that vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation.'" Florida law provides for religious vaccine exemptions, and Uthmeier wants the Catholic schools to comply with the law.

Uthmeier continued, "The Catholic Church has taught consistently for millennia that '[f]rom the moment of conception, the life of every human being is to be respected in an absolute way'", protecting every "innocent human being", meaning that it is particularly ridiculous to require students to have "abortion-derived vaccines." And "Church teaching also recognizes that no one should be forced to take a vaccine 'if it would violate the sanctity of his or her conscience.'" Furthermore, the Church has always glorified parents' role as primary decision-makers for their children based on the Fourth Commandment, "Honor thy father and thy mother." (Exodus 20:12) Parents' "rights and the obligation ... as the primary educators of their children" are under attack with forced vaccination. Thus, whether because of vaccines' abortion connections or for another religious reason, Florida's government respects freedom of conscience on vaccination, and Catholic schools should, too.

Likewise, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo exclaimed, “It’s ironic that a Florida organization that should support people’s relationship with God doesn’t respect the sovereignty of those same people and their ability to define that relationship for themselves. Denial of religious exemptions is all control-based doctrine, no spirituality.”

I actually had this problem with a Catholic university in Minnesota. During the era of COVID vaccine mandates, I was briefly enrolled in a master’s degree program at the University of St. Thomas. I say "briefly" because the university refused to give me either a medical or a religious exemption from the COVID vaccines, even though I was doing an online program. Such abuses are not grounded in Church doctrine nor in the fundamental American principle of freedom.

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