BE NOT YE THEREFORE PARTAKERS WITH THEM

 A MESSAGE FOR THE 3RD SUNDAY IN LENT

There’s been a lot of discussion recently, and even controversy, surrounding the question of whether it is morally permitted to take the Covid-19 vaccine.  While there are many factors other than moral that we should certainly take into account before rolling up our sleeves, the question from a purely Catholic point of view is whether there is anything sinful in being vaccinated.

Very briefly, it would seem to depend on which of the Covid-19 vaccines you would be injected with.  From what we are told by doctors (and I’m not aware of any evidence that they are lying or mistaken about this), no human stem cells are contained in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, although cells from an aborted baby were used in testing.  On the other hand, Johnson & Johnson readily admits that its recently FAA-approved vaccine does have human stem cells as one of its components.  We can safely say that it would be mortally sinful to deliberately choose to receive this Johnson & Johnson vaccine.  But what about the other two?

First of all, let me repeat that whatever medical or political objections you may have to vaccination in general are not being taken into account here.  My purpose is not to try and persuade you that any of the Covid vaccines are good or effective.  That’s for you to decide based on your trust of the medical and pharmaceutical professions who are promoting their merchandise.  But there was a little phrase in today’s Epistle that caught my eye, “Be not ye, therefore, partakers with them.” As we can readily apply St. Paul’s warning to the vaccine controversy, it is appropriate to address here, albeit very briefly, the moral principle of Cooperation in the Sins of Others.

Cooperation in the sins of others consists in assisting another to commit a sin which he is already determined to commit.  Cooperation can be either formal or material.  Formal cooperation is when you approve of the sin itself, and deliberately participate in it directly, as, for example, if you acted as the getaway driver for the bank robbers.  This, obviously, is always wrong.  It would be direct participation to allow yourself to be injected with aborted baby cells, as used in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, even if you didn’t approve of the initial abortion, and therefore your act would be sinful.  Material cooperation stands only distantly in relationship with another’s sin, and may be permitted under the following conditions:  1) if the act is itself either good or at least morally indifferent (such as being vaccinated; 2) if there is grave reason for performing the act (you can certainly argue that it is of vital importance that you do not contract the coronavirus); and 3) that you do not desire nor consent to the other person’s sin (obviously, you would not approve of the use of aborted baby cells for the testing).  That being said, we can argue with moral certainty that it would not be sinful to receive the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, as your cooperation does not rise to the level of formal.  Nor, however, would it be sinful to refuse the vaccine, even if mandatory, whether your objection is based on moral or medical grounds.