Page 70 - Vaccines

Vaccines and Catholic morality

l. Conclusion
Although the case of the MMR vaccine in the 1990s is not
identical to the case of vaccines against coronavirus, many
of the moral considerations involved are similar. It is true
that all casuistry can appear at times to be “mere” casu-
istry, “tricks” and sophistry. However, authentic casuistry
has always been used by our great theologians and saints,
such as St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Alphonsus Liguori,
to dissociate the Church from manipulative and uncon-
vincing sophistry. This makes possible good moral theol-
ogy, responsible pastoral theology and genuine pastoral
care. Without this, we risk falling into emotivism, senti-
mentalism or utilitarianism on the one hand or into the
position of those who, however well-intentioned, make
statements which are undermined by being in some
respects beyond their competence, too generic and hence
imprecise, misleading and even incorrect, and hence,
insofar as they are not an ordinatio rationis rectae, risk being
articulations of mere voluntarism.
In regard to the use of vaccines derived from or tested
using material derived from aborted human foetuses, if
the strict conditions outlined and explained above are
observed stringently (including those vaccines to be
avoided to the extent that effective, less problematic
vaccines are effectively available,), the merely material
cooperation involved in being vaccinated against coro-
navirus, would be remote, passive and subsequent.

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