梵蒂冈城-梵蒂冈星期一宣布，根据使用流产胎儿细胞的研究，罗马天主教徒接受COVID-19疫苗“在道德上是可以接受的”。是不道德的。
梵蒂冈教义正统组织看守所-信仰教义会最近几个月收到了几份“指导”要求。教职办公室指出，主教，天主教团体和专家就此事提出了“多样且有时相互矛盾的声明”。
看门狗办公室的声明借鉴了梵蒂冈过去几年有关从流产胎儿的细胞制备疫苗的声明，并由教皇弗朗西斯（Popes Francis）审查，后者下令将其公开。
天主教会的教导说堕胎是严重的罪过。
梵蒂冈得出的结论是，在公众无法获得“道德上无可指责”的疫苗的研究和生产过程中，“从道德上接受使用已流产胎儿细胞系的COVID-19疫苗是可以接受的”。但是它强调说，“合法”使用这种疫苗“并没有以任何方式暗示在道德上认可流产胎儿所使用的细胞系。”
梵蒂冈没有透露已经在某些国家/地区或已经批准使用的任何COVID-19疫苗。
梵蒂冈在声明中解释说，并非总是可能获得不构成道德困境的疫苗。它援引了“没有道德问题的疫苗无法提供给医生和患者的国家”或特殊的存储或运输条件使它们的分发更加困难的国家的情况。
上周美国天主教主教大会官员的声明中，梵蒂冈的大部分言论与之相呼应。美国会议官员说：“鉴于当前的流行病严重性和缺乏替代疫苗的存在，接受在美国分发的疫苗是合理的，尽管它们与道德受损的细胞系之间存在遥远的联系。”
几周前，两名美国主教，其中一名在得克萨斯州，另一名在加利福尼亚州，使用不道德生产的流产胎儿组织的细胞系谴责了疫苗。其中一位主教说，他拒绝接受这种疫苗，并鼓励普通天主教徒跟随他的领导。
梵蒂冈向信实的天主教徒保证获得COVID-19疫苗不会违反教会的道德教义，并指出“卫生当局不允许公民选择要接种的疫苗。”鉴于这种情况，在道德上是可以接受的梵蒂冈说，这种疫苗可以使用流产胎儿细胞系的疫苗。
梵蒂冈表示，已推出或有望很快用于COVID-19疫苗的细胞系是“从上世纪两次流产获得的组织中提取的”。
梵蒂冈尚未透露弗朗西斯是否以及何时接种抗冠状病毒疫苗。这位84岁的教皇计划于3月初前往伊拉克朝圣，人们普遍预计他和他的助手将在出国旅行之前接种疫苗。
罗马天主教教义办公室说：“通常，接种疫苗不是道德义务”，必须是自愿的。它仍然从伦理的角度说，“疫苗的道德不仅取决于保护自己健康的义务，而且还取决于追求共同利益的义务。”
会众说，那些出于良心选择不接受流产胎儿细胞系产生的疫苗的人，“必须尽最大努力避免”，通过适当的行为和预防手段，成为传播的“载体”。
无论如何，制药行业，政府和国际组织也有“道德上的当务之急”，以确保最贫穷的国家能够获得安全，有效和“道德上可接受的”疫苗，而梵蒂冈的教义办公室对他们来说却不是太昂贵说过。
Vatican: OK to get virus vaccines using abortion cell lines
VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican on Monday declared that it is “morally acceptable” for Roman Catholics to receive COVID-19 vaccines based on research that used cells derived from aborted fetuses, guidance that came after some churchmen in the United States argued that such products were immoral.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's watchdog office for doctrinal orthodoxy, said it had received several requests for “guidance” during recent months. The doctrinal office pointed out that bishops, Catholic groups and experts have offered “diverse and sometimes conflicting pronouncements” on the matter.
Drawing on Vatican pronouncements in past years about developing vaccines prepared from cells derived from aborted fetuses, the watchdog office's statement was examined by Pope Francis, who ordered it to be made public.
The Catholic Church’s teaching says that abortion is a grave sin.
The Vatican concluded that “it is morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses” in the research and production process when “ethically irreproachable” vaccines aren’t available to the public. But it stressed that the “licit” uses of such vaccines “does not and should not in any way imply that there is a moral endorsement of the use of cell lines proceeding from aborted fetuses."
The Vatican didn't name any of the COVID-19 vaccines already being given to people in some countries or authorized to be used soon.
In its statement, the Vatican explained that obtaining vaccines that do not pose an ethical dilemma is not always possible. It cited circumstances in countries “where vaccines without ethical problems are not made available to physicians and patients” or where special storage or transport conditions make their distribution more difficult.
Much of the Vatican's pronouncement had echoes in a statement last week by officials of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The U.S. conference officials said that “in view of the gravity of the current pandemic and the lack of availability of alternative vaccines,” receiving the vaccines being distributed in the United States is justified “despite their remote connection to morally compromised cell lines.”
Weeks earlier, two U.S. bishops, one in Texas and one in California, had denounced vaccines using cell lines from the tissue of aborted fetuses as immorally produced. One of the bishops said he refused to receive such a vaccine and encouraged rank-and-file Catholics to follow his lead.
The Vatican, in reassuring faithful Catholics that getting a COVID-19 vaccine would not violate the church’s moral teaching, noted that “health authorities do not allow citizens to choose the vaccine with which to be inoculated." Given such circumstances, it is morally acceptable to receive vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses, the Vatican said.
The Vatican said the COVID-19 vaccines that are getting rolled out or are expected to be soon used cell lines “drawn from tissue obtained from two abortions that occurred in the last century.”
The Vatican hasn’t said if and when Francis would be vaccinated against the coronavirus. The 84-year-old pontiff has a pilgrimage to Iraq planned for early March, and it's widely expected that he and the aides accompanying him would get vaccinated ahead of travel abroad.
The Roman Catholic church's doctrinal orthodoxy office said “vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation” and must be voluntary. Still, it said, from an ethical point of view, “the morality of vaccination depends not only on the duty to protect one's own health but also on the duty to pursue the common good.”
Those for reasons of conscience opting not to receive vaccinations produced by cell lines from aborted fetuses, “must do their utmost to avoid,” by appropriate behavior and preventive means, becoming “vehicles” for transmission, the congregation said.
In any case, there is also a “moral imperative” for the pharmaceutical industry, governments and international organizations to ensure that safe, effective and “ethically acceptable” vaccines are accessible to the poorest countries and not too costly for them, the Vatican's doctrinal office said.
