Florida attorney general confronts Catholic schools over vaccine mandate

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has sent a letter to the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops urging compliance with state law requiring religious exemptions for vaccine mandates.

In a July 31 letter addressed to Michael Sheedy, the conference’s executive director, Uthmeier, a Catholic, expressed concern that “at least one diocese” appears to have adopted a policy articulated by the   National Catholic Bioethics Center in 2011 that states Catholic institutions “cannot grant an exemption from vaccination on religious grounds.” Under Florida law, the attorney general pointed out, both public and private schools are required to provide religious exemptions for vaccinations.

Tweet Citing Church teaching on respect for human life from conception to natural death, Uthmeier noted that “the Catholic Church has historically encouraged the faithful to abstain from the use of vaccines produced from aborted fetal tissue, while at the same time recognizing the moral permissibility of using such vaccines in certain circumstances.”

“But even if abortion-derived vaccines may be permissible to take, Church teaching also recognizes that no one should be forced to take a vaccine ‘if…