Which COVID-19 vaccine is preferred for a practicing Catholic?
It’s complicated.
Father Tad Pacholczyk, a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, and director of education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, joined Patrick Conley, host of the “Practicing Catholic” radio show, to discuss the ethics of COVID vaccines. The interview airs at 9 p.m. April 23 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM.
Father Tad Pacholczyk
Father Pacholczyk — known widely as “Father Tad” — has a doctorate in neuroscience from Yale and completed postdoctoral work at Harvard. Speaking with Conley, he addressed concerns that some cell lines derived from abortions decades ago have been used in vaccine manufacture. He shared one ethics-related question he has heard: If people get a COVID-19 vaccine, are they cooperating in the evil of abortion?
“This question has been looked at by the Vatican, actually, on a number of different occasions,” Father Pacholczyk said. “And the basic conclusion was, one is not able to cooperate with an over-and-done event that happened 50 years ago.”
Father Pacholczyk said that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines use a completely cell line-free manufacturing system, but their first batches used some testing with an abortion-related cell line. “So, there is a kind of secondary relationship or reliance in that way,” he said.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine relies much more directly on an abortion-related cell line, he said, because it uses a cell line derived from an aborted fetus as part of making the vaccine.
“There’s a sense here in which the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is more entangled with abortion than the other two,” Father Pacholczyk said.
“What we say at the Center is, look, if it’s the case that you have access in your city to all three of these and they all have the same efficacy and there’s no other sort of issue of side effects that would pertain to you, everything else lines up equally, you should consider as a personal choice and testimony to receive the one that has less direct association with abortion,” he said.
But a person might not have access to all three vaccines, or perhaps access to just one, he said. In addition, some people could have an allergy to polyethylene glycol, which is used in the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, leaving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as their only option. “So, use prudence and personal assessment,” he said.
Vaccines in general should be seen as a great blessing, Father Pacholczyk said, because they have helped eradicate “many awful diseases” or significantly limited their impact.
“We hope that eventually, with the different strains and variants here around COVID and the new developments with respect to vaccines, that that will be similar, long-term, and we will see a significant tamping down of the effects of COVID-19 in our society,” he said.
For more information, Father Pacholczyk suggested people visit the National Catholic Bioethics Center’s website at ncbcenter.org and his personal website at fathertad.com.
What did he have to say about herd immunity? Tune in to this episode of the “Practicing Catholic” radio show to hear the complete interview. It also airs at 1 p.m. April 24 and 2 p.m. April 25 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes interviews with Therese Coons, who previews the archdiocesan Synod’s small group sessions this fall, and a speech by Archbishop Jose Gomez, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who addressed the Minnesota Catholic Conference’s Catholics at the Capitol event April 15. That address also can be viewed at catholicsatthecapitol.com.
Listen to all of the interviews after they have aired:
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