A Catholic AG is challenging bishops over vaccines. He may not like the precedent.

(RNS) — Down in Florida, the Catholic attorney general is in a dustup with the state Catholic bishops conference over the issue of school vaccinations. On July 31, state A.G. James Uthmeier sent the bishops a letter saying, “it has come to my attention” that Catholic schools might refuse to grant religious exemptions to vaccination requirements in the coming school year. This, Uthmeier points out, would violate a state law mandating allowance of such exemptions.

The state’s top legal officer then declares in his letter that “as a Catholic, I am confident the teachings of the Catholic Church do not require Catholic schools to compel students to take vaccines derived from the tissue of aborted children against the sincerely-held religious objections of their parents” (using a misleading claim ). What follows are quotes from Thomas Aquinas, recent popes, the Catechism and the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wielded to make the case that the bishops’ policy is, by their own religious lights, wrong. The letter concludes by asking the bishops to “please state clearly the religious grounds” for the policy.

Uthmeier is entitled to ask the bishops for a doctrinal…