Page 62 - Vaccines

Vaccines and Catholic morality

these violations are being perpetrated. It is true that
vaccines be justly distributed, also to the poor, but most
urgently to those actually most in need because of the
incidence and gravity of the pandemic in specific places.
While the Hippocratic Oath, in its original form,
expressed the authentic commitments of doctors devoted
to the service of the health of the human person on the
basis of natural moral law, the Catholic Church in its
moral Magisterium and in its moral theology has done
more than any other body to promote a correct under-
standing of the basic human goods of human life and
health, and it still has much to say in this regard. Bishops,
priests and laity need the courage to continue to educate
the faithful and humanity as a whole in what is morally
true, good, right and legitimate in the face of a culture
often at odds with the true good of the human person.

h. Avoidance of scandal

In addition to this general education of consciences, it is
indispensable that scandal be avoided. Scandal is always
at issue when there is cooperation with the wrong of
another, even if the merely material cooperation is legiti-
mate in a given case. It is essential that there be clear
witness provided to obviate any possible misunderstand-
ing not only by those more directly concerned, but also
more generally, and so to avoid any possibility of even
only apparent formal cooperation. This is where the
interventions of bishops and the continuing education of
people’s consciences noted above are of fundamental
importance. This element in what is needed for merely
material cooperation to be morally licit, beyond the
proportionately grave reason and the other factors already
seen, cannot be reduced to mere lip-service and must be
realistic. Thus, letters of “reassurance” from political

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