The president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) has said that Covid vaccination should not be mandatory, and added that a Catholic can have “a very sound Catholic basis” for refusing the vaccine. Dr. Joseph Meaney added that Catholics who take a stand against vaccination “should get the support of the Church for doing so.” His stand puts him in opposition to the official policy of the New York archdiocese, which has instructed priests not to support religious exemptions for parishioners. The NCBC, which regularly advises the American bishops on bioethical issues, has posted a template that Catholic priests can use in writing to public officials to testify that a parishioner has a well-founded conscientious objection.