Vatican Reaffirms Support for COVID-19 Vaccines amid Spread of Omicron Variant

The measures have prompted protests in several European countries.

An estimated 44,000 people attended a rally against compulsory vaccines in Vienna on Dec. 11, after the government announced that Austria would become the first Western country to introduce mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 from February 2022.

Italy has seen strikes and protests in response to the government’s decision to make the country’s Green Pass mandatory for workers.

A Green Pass proves that the holder has been vaccinated, tested negative every 48 hours, or recently recovered from COVID-19.

Wednesday’s Vatican statement did not touch on the debate about mandatory vaccination.

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The Vatican last addressed the topic in December 2020, when the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said in its “Note on the morality of using some anti-COVID-19 vaccines” that “vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and that, therefore, it must be voluntary.”

The doctrinal congregation added that Catholics who, for reasons of conscience, refuse vaccines produced with cell lines from aborted fetuses, “must do their utmost to avoid, by other prophylactic means and appropriate behavior, becoming vehicles for the transmission of the infectious agent.”

Pope Francis and senior Vatican officials have repeatedly urged Catholics to be vaccinated against the virus throughout 2021 and called for a just distribution of vaccines.

The Vatican began administering doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine in January and confirmed in February that Pope Francis and Pope emeritus Benedict XVI had received the second dose of the vaccine. It began to administer the third dose in October.

Pope Francis recorded a public service announcement supporting vaccinations that was released in August in collaboration with the Ad Council.

In the PSA, he said: “Getting the vaccines that are authorized by the respective authorities is an act of love. I pray to God that each one of us can make his or her own small gesture of love, no matter how small, love is always grand.”

Since October, the Vatican has required all visitors and personnel to show a COVID-19 pass proving that they have been vaccinated, have recovered from the coronavirus, or have tested negative for the disease.

Three Swiss Guards quit after refusing to comply with the Vatican’s vaccine requirement and three other guards were suspended until they were fully vaccinated.

The Vatican COVID-19 Commission issued a document on Dec. 22 called “Children and COVID-19.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown countless children into severe poverty and left many without parents and caregivers,” it said.

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“Worldwide, there has been increased exploitation of and violence against children and reduced or suspended access to educational facilities. Governments, civil society organizations, and the Church must come together to alleviate the escalating suffering of the most vulnerable children among us.”

The Pontifical Academy for Life also released a text on Wednesday, entitled “Pandemic and Challenges for Education,” focusing on the difficulties facing children and adolescents.

“Even if its effects are not immediately evident, all over the world the psychosocial stress that children are subjected to as a result of the pandemic has resulted in distress and illnesses that have widely differing consequences based on age and social and environmental conditions,” it said.