The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) issued a note on Monday, approving the use of “clinically safe and effective” Covid-19 vaccines, regardless of moral issues possibly arising from the development of any specific vaccine.

“It is morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process,” the CDF stated in the doctrinal note released Monday.

“[A]ll vaccinations recognized as clinically safe and effective can be used in good conscience,” the CDF statement said, “with the certain knowledge that the use of such vaccines does not constitute formal cooperation with the abortion from which the cells used in production of the vaccines derive.”

A note signed by the Prefect, Cardinal Luis Ladaria SJ, and by Archbishop Giacomo Morandi – Secretary to the CDF – contained the statement. Pope Francis explicitly approved the text of the note on 17 December.

Vatican News reported that the Note on the morality of using some anti-Covid-19 vaccines referred to three earlier pronouncements: two from the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV) in 2005 and 2017, and the CDF Instruction Dignitas personae of 2008.

In the Note released on Monday, 21 December 2020, CDF said that the use of Covid-19 vaccines involves remote material cooperation in the evil of abortion, at least on the part of the one who receives it. “[The] moral duty to avoid such passive material cooperation is not obligatory,” CDF explained. Given the grave danger of “uncontainable spread of a serious pathological agent,” the use of the vaccine is morally licit.

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