The Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans has decided the Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccines are acceptable to Catholics, but the new Johnson & Johnson single-shot vaccine is “morally compromised.” It was developed using cloned cells derived from fetuses aborted nearly a half a century ago.
The Religion News Service notes:
The statement is part of a longstanding debate regarding the use of what are referred to as HEK293 cells, which reportedly trace their origins to an aborted fetus from the 1970s. Scholars and ethicists have noted that HEK293 and similar cell lines are clones and are not the original fetal tissue.
From Ed Kilgore comments at New York magazine:
It’s worth noting that another Catholic diocese not far away, in Tyler, Texas, has rejected all three vaccines as having been “produced immorally” because of obscure connections to an abortion in the distant past. But an advisory from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adjudged otherwise on the two older vaccines, and the Vatican itself is administering the Pfizer vaccine (with Pope Francis and his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, among its recipients). Indeed, the Vatican has threatened to fire employees who do not get vaccinated.
So the faithful in Tyler, Texas, have to decide whether they will insist upon being more Catholic than the pope(s), while those in New Orleans and elsewhere may have to wait for the Church to sort itself out on all things COVID-19. Many, of course, will just follow their own consciences, as American Catholics often do, with relatively little weight placed on guidance from the hierarchy.
Better not tell Catholics in Texas and Louisiana how much U.S. wealth was “produced immorally” from centuries of slave labor.