By DEXTER DUGGAN
PHOENIX — The director of medical ethics of the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix reviewed ethical considerations involved with receiving a vaccine for COVID-19 in a homily to members of the Phoenix guild of the Catholic Medical Association.
Fr. Ignatius Mazanowski, who also is chaplain to the Phoenix guild, spoke during a February 13 evening Mass for the guild’s members at St. Joan of Arc Church in north Phoenix offered by the pastor, Fr. Dan Connealy.
Although the Mass was in the main church, St. Joan of Arc has a chapel with an altar that was used at the nineteenth-century Philadelphia home of the wealthy Drexels, one of whose daughters, St. Katharine Drexel, became a pioneering missionary nun to Native Americans and blacks. She died at age 96 in 1955. Her feast day is March 3.
Connealy told The Wanderer that although his parishioners are well aware of the Drexel altar, not many other people show up looking for it.
Mazanowski provided a three-page handout printed on both sides to the Mass-goers that is a rough draft of a pamphlet being prepared for the diocese on COVID-19 vaccines. He didn’t read the complete handout during his homily, but referred to information in it. It addressed the use of abortion-derived cells in the vaccines’ production. He began the homily by noting the Gospel recounting the isolation of lepers, “a real parallel to COVID-19.”
There’s a lot of information about this virus, Mazanowski said, but not all of it is accurate.
Although some companies are seeking to have a COVID-19 vaccine from ethical sources, the handout said, “The unfortunate reality is that at this time . . . an ethically produced vaccine has not been produced.”
While the Church “hopes, prays and advocates” for the arrival of such a day, the handout explored the current production methods, ethical rules, and the people who might receive the vaccine.
One approach for COVID-19 vaccine has “(n)o abortion-derived cells in the manufacturing process (i.e., those that do not use abortion-derived cell lines in the manufacturing process but used an aborted fetal-cell line at one point in development, such as confirmatory testing),” the handout said, citing the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List.
A different approach, the handout said, used “(a)bortion-derived cells . . . in development (i.e., those that use abortion-derived cell lines in more than one phase of development and, in particular, the manufacturing process).”
Neither of these methods is ethical, it said, “because the destruction of human life through abortion should never be considered an ethical means to derive cells for developing, manufacturing, or testing vaccines.” The handout then reviewed different levels of cooperation with evil.
“Formal cooperation means you are directly and intentionally choosing to take part in the immoral action, and doing so is always wrong,” the handout said. “In effect, you become an accomplice to the evil action, and you have an evil end that is directly chosen through an evil means.
“Material cooperation occurs when the evil end and means are indirectly chosen by the person who has chosen a good end and good means,” it said. “All acts of material cooperation must involve a grave reason in order for it to be a moral or permissible act.”
The handout provided additional categories.
“Immediate material cooperation means that your involvement is necessary for the evil to continue; thus, it also is immoral and always wrong. . . .
“Mediate material cooperation is when your involvement is only contingent or accidental to the wrongdoing. In other words, the cooperation does not contribute to the perpetuation of evil….
“Cooperation can also be proximate (i.e., a contribution to the act that does lead to the commission of the act) or remote (i.e., a contribution to the act that does not lead to the commission of the act). Proximate acts of cooperation normally are considered immoral, and remote acts of cooperation are normally permissible.”
As to persons who could receive the vaccine, the handout said:
“In the case of a normal person who is taking the vaccine because of their age, underlying conditions, or because they have close contact with someone who is vulnerable due to age or underlying conditions, this would be mediate, remote, indirect and moral material cooperation with evil and, though ultimately undesirable, as all cooperation with evil is, it would be considered morally permissible.
“When it comes to a healthy person who isn’t in direct contact with vulnerable populations, it would be a matter for personal discernment and prayer, and they would be free, morally speaking, to take the COVID-19 vaccine or not take the vaccine.”
Does the Catholic Church specifically believe, the handout asked, if “taking the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is an ethical option?” The answer, it said, is that receiving these vaccines “is mediate, indirect and remote material cooperation with evil and, thus, it is a moral and ethical option for Catholics.”
The Church recommends, it said, that people urge pharmaceutical companies “that future vaccines would not use cell lines from aborted fetal tissue,” that people also make others aware of this issue, and that they should pray and fast “for an end to the immoral use of aborted fetal tissue in vaccine production and in all scientific research.”
If an effective, safe, ethically produced vaccine becomes available, “then Catholics do all they can to take it,” the handout said. “Catholic hospitals should do everything they can to make it available, especially if they are mandating it for their employees.”
The handout referenced the website of the Children of God for Life (cogforlife.org) for additional COVID-19 vaccine information.
The power of intercessory prayer never should be underestimated, the handout said, citing the Scriptures. “When you are . . . faithfully bringing your intentions to God, things change as a result.”
Born An Heiress
St. Katharine Drexel, the missionary nun whose family altar is at the St. Joan of Arc campus, also has a stained-glass window in her honor in the Virginia G. Piper Chapel at Phoenix diocesan headquarters. Born an heiress, Drexel left that life behind to serve the disadvantaged, a reversal of “the ‘rags to riches’ American dream,” Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted once wrote.
An article at Catholic Online said Katharine’s own mother died shortly after she was born, and her father remarried. “After watching her stepmother suffer with terminal cancer for three straight years, Katharine also learned that no amount of money could shelter them from pain or suffering. From this moment, Katharine’s life took a turn,” this article said.
A December 2019 article in the Phoenix Diocese’s now-shuttered Catholic Sun newspaper said: “When visiting Pope Leo XIII in Rome to ask him for missionaries to staff some of the Indian missions she was financing, she was surprised to hear the Pope suggest that she herself become a missionary.”
She became a powerful leader, founding schools and exercising other influence.
Among her accomplishments, the Catholic Sun article said, she founded Arizona’s St. Michael Indian School and “was also influential in establishing the Diocese of Gallup, N.M., which included the northern parts of what is now the Diocese of Phoenix. At her invitation, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli visited the Navajo reservation in northern Arizona and New Mexico in 1936 and three years later, as Pope Pius XII, erected the new diocese.”
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