E P I P H A N Y C A T H O L I C C H U R C H Feast of the Epiphany January 3, 2021 THE VATICAN AND COVID VACCINES page 3 FATHER ERIC’S CHRISTMAS HOMILY Page 9 OUR FEAST DAY children dying before birth, under the guidance of its then FUNERAL MASS director, Professor Bogdan Chazan. The principles were adopted by other hospitals, but some FOR 640 UNBORN BABIES IN POLAND institutions reportedly still store the bodies indefinitely. The coffins contained the bodies Abortion is once again the subject of a heated dispute in Poland after the country’s constitutional court declared Oct. 22 that a law permitting abor- of children who had died follow- tion for fetal abnormalities was unconstitutional. Under a law introduced ing stillbirths, miscarriages and in 1993, abortion is only permitted in Poland in cases of rape or incest, abortions. risk to the mother’s life, or fetal abnormality. Catholic News Agency Approximately 1,000 legal abortions take place in the country each year. The vast majority are carried out in cases of fetal abnormality. The ruling, WARSAW, Poland — A Catholic bishop which cannot be appealed, could lead to a significant reduction in the presided Saturday at a funeral Mass for number of abortions in the country. 640 unborn children in Poland. The ruling sparked nationwide protests, some of which targeted the Cath- Bishop Kazimierz Gurda of Siedlce cele- olic Church. Protesters disrupted Masses while holding signs supporting brated the Mass Dec. 12 in the Church of abortion, left graffiti on Church property, vandalized statues of St. John Holy Trinity in Gończyce, 50 miles south- Paul II, and chanted slogans at clergy. east of the capital, Warsaw. The government responded by delaying publication of the Constitutional In his homily, he said: “These children Tribunal’s ruling, which has no legal power until it appears in the Journal have the right to a worthy burial as they of Laws. Meanwhile, the European Parliament passed a resolution last are persons from the moment of concep- month condemning Poland’s “de facto ban on the right to abortion.” tion. The right to life is a right that cannot be taken away from anyone, including Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, president of Poland’s bishops’ confer- and above all from a defenseless child in ence, criticized the reso- the womb.” lution. He said: “The right to life is a fundamental “Whoever has received the gift of life human right. It always from God has the right to life and has the takes precedence over right to love. Even if their life story ended the right to choose, be- in a few months, even before they were cause no person can au- born, it doesn’t mean they ceased to ex- thoritatively allow the ist. A person’s life changes, but it doesn’t possibility of killing an- end. Their life goes on. God has pro- other.” longed it for all eternity.” Following the burial of After Mass, the unborn children’s coffins the unborn children in were solemnly buried in a nearby ceme- Gończyce, Bishop Gurda was invited to strike a bell blessed by Pope Fran- tery. The coffins contained the bodies of cis in September, along with others present for the ceremony. children who had died following still- births, miscarriages and abortions. They The Voice of the Unborn bell was commissioned by the Yes to Life Foun- were collected from different hospitals, dation. The bell is decorated with a cast of an ultrasound image of an un- mainly from Warsaw. born child and a quotation from Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko: “A child’s life begins under the mother’s heart.” The ceremony was the initiative of Maria Bienkiewicz, of the New Nazareth Foun- Pope Francis was the first person to ring the symbolic bell after giving it dation, who has been organizing funerals his blessing in a courtyard in Vatican City after his general audience. for unborn children since 2005. The pope noted that the bell would “accompany events aimed at remem- That year, the Holy Family Hospital in bering the value of human life from conception to natural death.” “May Warsaw began to put into practice new its peal awaken the consciences of legislators and all people of good will principles for the care of the bodies of in Poland and the whole world.” Page 2 Epiphanyparish.com objective is only to consider the moral aspects of the use of FROM THE VATICAN the vaccines against Covid-19 that have been developed from cell lines derived from tissues obtained from two fe- THE VATICAN & COVID VACCINATION tuses that were not spontaneously aborted. 1. As the Instruction Dignitas Personae states, in cases where cells from The question of the aborted fetuses are employed to create cell lines for use in scientific re- use of vaccines, in search, “there exist differing degrees of responsibility”[1] of cooperation in general, is often at evil. For example,“in organizations where cell lines of illicit origin are being the center of contro- utilized, the responsibility of those who make the decision to use them is versy in the forum of not the same as that of those who have no voice in such a decision”.[2] public opinion. In recent months, this 2. In this sense, when ethically irreproachable Covid-19 vaccines are not Congregation has available (e.g. in countries where vaccines without ethical problems are received several re- not made available to physicians and patients, or where their distribution quests for guidance is more difficult due to special storage and transport conditions, or when regarding the use of various types of vaccines are distributed in the same country but health vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus authorities do not allow citizens to choose the vaccine with which to be that causes Covid-19, which, in the inoculated) it is morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have course of research and production, em- used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production pro- ployed cell lines drawn from tissue ob- cess. tained from two abortions that occurred 3. The fundamental reason for considering the use of these vaccines mor- in the last century. At the same time, di- ally licit is that the kind of cooperation in evil (passive material coopera- verse and sometimes conflicting pro- tion) in the procured abortion from which these cell lines originate is, on nouncements in the mass media by bish- the part of those making use of the resulting vaccines, remote. The moral ops, Catholic associations, and experts duty to avoid such passive material cooperation is not obligatory if there is have raised questions about the morality a grave danger, such as of the use of these vaccines. the otherwise uncontain- There is already an important pronounce- able spread of a serious ment of the Pontifical Academy for Life pathological agent[3]--in on this issue, entitled “Moral reflections this case, the pandemic on vaccines prepared from cells derived spread of the SARS-CoV-2 from aborted human fetuses” (5 June virus that causes Covid- 2005). Further, this Congregation ex- 19. It must therefore be pressed itself on the matter with the In- considered that, in such a struction Dignitas Personae (September case, all vaccinations rec- 8, 2008, cf. nn. 34 and 35). In 2017, the ognized as clinically safe Pontifical Academy for Life returned to and effective can be used the topic with a Note. These documents in good conscience with the certain knowledge that the use of such vac- already offer some general directive crite- cines does not constitute formal cooperation with the abortion from which ria. the cells used in production of the vaccines derive. It should be empha- sized, however, that the morally licit use of these types of vaccines, in the Since the first vaccines against Covid-19 particular conditions that make it so, does not in itself constitute a legiti- are already available for distribution and mation, even indirect, of the practice of abortion, and necessarily assumes administration in various countries, this the opposition to this practice by those who make use of these vaccines. Congregation desires to offer some indi- cations for clarification of this matter. We 4. In fact, the licit use of such vaccines does not and should not in any way do not intend to judge the safety and effi- imply that there is a moral endorsement of the use of cell lines proceeding cacy of these vaccines, although ethically from aborted fetuses.[4] Both pharmaceutical companies and governmen- relevant and necessary, as this evaluation tal health agencies are therefore encouraged to produce, approve, distrib- is the responsibility of biomedical re- ute and offer ethically acceptable vaccines that do not create problems of conscience for either health care providers or searchers and drug agencies. Here, our Continued on Next Page Epiphanyschools.org January 3, 2021 Page 3 Continued from Page 3 the people to be vaccinated. CELEBRATING OUR FAITH 5. At the same time, practical reason makes evident that SACRAMENTS SCHEDULE vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and that, therefore, it must be voluntary. In any case, from the ethi- cal point of view, the morality of vaccination depends not only on the duty to protect one's own health, but also on Mass Times the duty to pursue the common good. In the absence of Incense is used at 10:30am Sunday Mass. All Ministers have other means to stop or even prevent the epidemic, the Gluten-free Hosts. 7:30 am Sunday Masses are Broadcast on common good may recommend vaccination, especially to Facebook at Epiphanyparish.com Drive Up Communion is avail- protect the weakest and most exposed.