Missouri Bishops justify ‘problematic’ vaccines

This just in from Bishop McKnight’s most recent Monday Morning Memo, emphasis ours:

On Nov. 20, the Missouri Catholic Conference issued a statement to address ethical concerns about vaccines and the use of aborted fetal stem cells in vaccine research. The bishops stated that if safe and effective vaccines are available that don’t rely on aborted fetal cell lines, they “should clearly be the preferred option” for Catholics. “The vaccines currently in development which utilize problematic cell lines, however, should not keep Catholics from seeking vaccination,” they stated. “Preserving one’s health and that of others outweigh the remote association with past abortions which were neither desired nor intended by those now using the vaccines.”

Signed by St. Louis Archbishop Rozanski, Kansas City-St. Joseph, Bishop Johnston, Jefferson City Bishop McKnight and Springfield-Cape Girardeau Bishop Rice, the two-page document waffles between standing firmly against the use of aborted fetal tissue and turning a blind eye to it. “Noble ends do not justify unethical means,” they preach, and then proceed to do exactly that:  justify the preservation of health by means of unethically produced vaccines. “Catholics may in good conscience utilize vaccines, even those derived in an unethical manner, in order to protect themselves.”

Meanwhile, as reported by LifeSite News on December 2, we see what happened to Father John Fields who enthusiastically participated in the third stage trial of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, which is formulated using cells from aborted babies. The otherwise healthy priest dropped dead in his home of an apparent heart attack.