It is time the Church accepted that even nuns have a right to resist coercive medication
The idea that vaccination is the way out of the Covid-19 pandemic is opening up fault lines throughout the free world, felt perhaps most keenly over the question of vaccine mandates, the obligation to accept a jab in order to continue in employment or have access to other freedoms.
It is the issue of coercion, rather than the morality of the vaccines that tends to be the preeminent source of tension between those who seek greater restrictions and those who seek greater freedom.
Complaints against the Tyburn Nuns would indicate that Catholics appear as divided as everyone else on such questions of personal principle and public pragmatism.
Support for mandates has been demonstrated not least by the Vatican, which in December declared that all employees must be vaccinated against the coronavirus or show proof of having recovered from it.
But this policy came in spite of a declaration by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith only a year earlier which said that vaccination “is not, as a rule, a moral obligation … and must be voluntary”.
Some U.S. dioceses had chosen to ignore this caveat long before the Vatican flouted its own rules. In Chicago, for instance, Cardinal Blasé Cupich introduced vaccine mandates for all employees and clergy as early as August.
As the Omicron variant arrived in Europe, the bishops of Austria agreed to the imposition of a vaccine mandate if it was used “as a last resort”, and from February the government made vaccination compulsory for every citizen over the age of 18.
Across the border, German Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich announced he was not opposed to the idea of mandatory vaccination, claiming it “can be an important step” in the fight against the coronavirus.
In Australia, agencies such as Catholic Health Australia called for compulsory vaccination of health and residential care workers, while in New Zealand the bishops said they “believe that, on balance, the introduction of vaccine mandates for certain sectors, as well as the use of vaccine certificates, are warranted for now”.
In Canada, where mandates led to the Freedom Convoy, vaccine passports were imposed on all churches in Quebec, prompting the bishops to say they were “deeply upset” by the measure but would consent to it.
It would seem that the appetite for coercion appears strongest in the most liberal parts of the Western world.
Repeatedly, Church leaders in such places point to the examples of Pope Francis and retired Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI who received their jabs as an “act of love” and tell the faithful they should copy them.
Such gentle persuasion is acceptable. Yet Catholic teaching is not supportive of coercive medication. On the contrary, it is opposed to it.
Prof David Jones, director of the Anscombe Bioethics Centre, an institute serving the Catholic Church in the UK and Ireland, said: “Vaccine mandates are coercive and unjust.”
Those within the Church who, like him, oppose vaccine mandates are finding that the courage to speak out often comes at a cost.
Besides the Santa Caterina in Perugia, closed after 520 years when the Benedictine nuns refused the jab, an Italian priest, Fr Emanuele Personeni, was suspended because he made an anti-mandate pilgrimage across the country in protest at all over-50s being forced to accept a Covid vaccination.
Bishop Francesco Beschi of Bergamo disowned him, declared vaccination as a moral and legal obligation and forbade parishes from hosting any of his talks.
The mayor of Bergamo urged Bishop Beschi to go further and also suspend Fr Alessandro Nava and Fr Andrea Testa who joined Fr Personeni in co-authoring a pamphlet against forced vaccination last year.
Is this really the right way to treat priests who wish to express honestly-held opinions or is it heavy-handed, hysterical and intolerant?
Surely such bishops are acting outside of their competence and by doing so they demonstrate how liberalism, to which so many have unwisely subscribed, is now collapsing into authoritarianism, a trend now convulsing the whole of the Western world in a variety of different ways.
Is it not wrong to point out that while the vaccines appear to work well in modifying the illness and reducing hospital admissions, ventilation and death, they are not wholly safe. Here in the UK government data reveals that one in 117 people have reported adverse reactions to vaccinations, with more than 2,000 deaths.
Nor is it offensive to say that not one of the vaccines has completed a phase three drug trial so there is no data on any potential long term adverse effects, such as what they might do to the fertility of young people. We need to know about the efficacy and the safety of the vaccines for our consent to be informed.
Both the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki – the cornerstone document on human research ethics – and the Nuremberg Code of 1947 embraced the principle of informed consent as an ethical and legal obligation of medical care.
At its heart is the right of any person with capacity to refuse treatment for any reason or for no reason. Even if their decisions may seem unwise to others, they must be legally entitled to make them. It is what helps to keep the rest of us free.
In spite of the healthcare demagoguery shown by politicians and Quisling clerics, the exercise of free consent is legally and morally right.
No-one should be made to accept any medical treatment they do not wish to have. Children, in particular, should not be pressured into having these vaccinations until more is known about the side effects.
Nor should Church leaders ever bully those whose obedience they often take for granted into ignoring the demands of a well-informed conscience.
The cure must not be worse than the disease. The Tyburn Nuns deserve respect and understanding rather than opprobrium. They should not be punished. They should be left in peace.
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