There apparently may be some misunderstanding that members of the Catholic faith are not bound to a specific religious belief about vaccines and vaccinations. This addresses that topic based upon an article written by Timothy P. Collins, MD, titled “The Vaccination Question” published in the February 2006 issue of The Angelus, which according to its mission statement says, “As an apostolate of the Catholic press, we have the mission of spreading the Faith through the printed word by our books and magazine publications.” (http://www.angeluspress.org/oscatalog/about_us.php)
On the last page of Dr. Collins’s article this heading appears: What Catholics must do. Catholics are instructed to telephone the 800 numbers listed in the information for each vaccine maker to determine that NON-fetal cell lines were used in the manufacture of the vaccines they elect to use.
Furthermore, a Catholic’s duty, according to a Pontifical Academy’s document, is “to motivate drug companies and use whatever leverage possible against them to produce NON-FETAL cell line vaccines where no alternative to ABORTED FETAL cell line vaccines now exist. There are no NON-FETAL vaccine alternatives for chickenpox, measles/mumps/rubella, rubella (alone), shingles, ebola, HIV, and sepsis.” The 2006 article does list resources for NON-FETAL cell line vaccines.
However, one wonders why the Pontifical Academy stopped at aborted fetal cells—or diploid cells—such as WI-38, A-27, MRC-5, PER C6, when in reality toxic ingredients that often cause irreversible health damages to children also are included, e.g., mercury (a hazmat and neurotoxin) in the form of thimerosal, formaldehyde (a carcinogen), aluminum in at least four formulations (a neurotoxin implicated in Central Nervous System damage and dementia), MSG (an excitotoxin that damages brain cells), polysorbate 80 (produces infertility in lab rats), plus numerous other adjuvants, excipients, and media growth materials.
Since many vaccines are grown on diploid cell media that resulted from aborted fetuses, the Catholic Church declares it a matter of conscience NOT to use such vaccines. So, Catholics do have a legitimate religious and moral objection to vaccines made from/with diploid cell medium in addition to any other religious objections that may be of a personal persuasion.
In a letter from the Pontificia Academia Pro Vita dated June 9, 2005, to the Executive Director of Children of God for Life, notation was made that
“…Catholic parents were often challenged by State Courts, Health Officials and School Administrators when they filed religious exemptions for their children to this type of vaccination.”
The very next paragraph provides the answer:
“This Pontifical Academy for Life, carrying out the commission entrusted to us by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, in answer to your request, has proceeded to a careful examination of the question of these ‘tainted’ vaccines, and has produced as a result a study (in Italian) that has been realized with the help of a group of experts. This study has been approved as such by the Congregation and we send you, there enclosed, an English translation of a synthesis of this study. This synthesis can be brought to the knowledge of the interested officials and organisms. A documented paper on the topic will be published in the journal ‘Medicina e Morale’ edited by the Centra di Bioetica della Universita Catholica in Rome.” [emphasis added]
The religious issue surrounding vaccines for Catholics is addressed in depth in the booklet, The Vaccination Question by Timothy P. Collins, MD, ($2.00) at the following web site: (http://www.angeluspress.org/oscatalog/advanced_search_result2.php…)