Nairobi, 09 March, 2021 / 6:10 pm (ACI Africa).
Catholic Bishops in Kenya have endorsed the COVID-19 vaccine that arrived in the country on March 3, saying the inoculation is “licit, ethically acceptable and an act of charity.”
In their March 9 collective statement availed to ACI Africa, members of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) say, “The Church notes that it is licit and ethically acceptable to receive all COVID-19 vaccines that the Ministry of Health recognizes as clinically genuine, safe, and effective.”
The Catholic Bishops “urge the Ministry of Health to take all the necessary steps required to affirm to the public that the vaccines are genuine, safe and effective in order to encourage people to be vaccinated.”
“In the absence of other means to stop or even prevent the COVID-19 pandemic, the common good calls for vaccination, primarily to protect the weakest and most exposed,” KCCB members say.
In their two-page collective statement signed by KCCB Chairman, Archbishop Philip Anyolo, the Bishops say that “receiving the available COVID-19 vaccines ought to be understood as an act of charity towards other community members and considered an act of love of our neighbor and part of our moral responsibility for the common good.”
