The Vatican has extended a vaccine mandate for all officials, employees, and visitors to offices of the Roman Curia.

As of December 23, a certificate of vaccination—or of recovery from Covid—will be required for access to Vatican offices. The rule applies not only to Vatican officials but to “external collaborators, personnel of outside firms, visitors, and users.”

Vatican officials who do not have a certificate of vaccination will be suspended without pay.

In a December 2020 statement on the moral use of Covid vaccines, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faiths said that “vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation, and that, therefore, it must be voluntary.”