Tyburn Convent could face a Vatican investigation after a majority of the nuns refused to accept vaccinations against Covid-19.

The enclosed Benedictine community in the heart of London was referred to the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life by the Archdiocese of Westminster following unspecified external “allegations” connected to the scepticism of the nuns over the safety of vaccinations against the coronavirus.

The investigation comes in spite of official teaching of the Church that “vaccination is not … a moral obligation and … must be voluntary”.

It could trigger a visitation by the Vatican which might result in tough disciplinary action being taken against members of the order – properly called the Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Montmartre OSB.

It also comes just days after the Benedictine Monastery of Santa Caterina in Perugia, Italy, was closed following a visitation which found the community to be functioning spiritually, economically and liturgically, but which objected to the refusal of the nuns to be vaccinated.

The Tyburn Nuns, who were founded in Paris in 1898, have become one of the most successful female religious orders in the Catholic Church at a time when vocations among women have steeply declined.

Their mother house stands just yards from the site of the executions of 105 Catholic martyrs. They have also opened convents in France, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador.

In 2015, the sainthood cause of their French foundress, Mother Marie Adele Garnier, was opened by the Bishop of Langres, France, and in 2018 the order received two male postulants as the first Tyburn Monks.

A spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Westminster said that allegations about the “internal governance” of the order were made by individuals from outside the community and not from within it.

They were referred to Rome by the archdiocese because the order is a Congregation of Pontifical Right over which diocesan authorities have no jurisdiction.

The spokeswoman said: “With respect to vaccines, the Catholic Church’s position is clear that take up of the Covid vaccine is to be encouraged for the good of all.”

She said this was “clearly stated on a number of occasions in correspondence” between Auxiliary Bishop John Sherrington of Westminster to Mother Marilla Aw, the Mother General of the Tyburn Nuns (pictured above).

She said the bishop also “shared the Pope’s comments and the guidance from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales in support of the vaccine programme”.

“He also expressed concern about the support that Mother Marilla had given to anti-vaccine protests and comments she had made criticising the vaccine programme,” she said.

The spokeswoman added that the support of Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster and president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, for the Covid vaccine “has been very clearly articulated in statements, video messages and social media posts”

“He encourages everyone to take up the vaccine as a way of protecting ourselves and others, and as an act of love for others,” she said.

It was reported in a national newspaper that some of the nuns felt they were put under pressure by Mother Marilla not to be vaccinated.

Mother Marilla robustly denied the allegation, however, and has produced an internal email from 2021 which shows she stated explicitly that all of the nuns have the right to decide for themselves whether to accept the vaccine.

Mother Marilla said: “Throughout 2021 I have expressed clearly to every sister in our Institute that it is my right and also a moral duty to express my opinion regarding these anti-Covid injections, but they have the complete freedom of choice of whether they wish to take the anti-Covid injections or not.

“I have communicated this by email, by writing on the community chalkboard and also verbally to a few individual sisters.

“I, in fact, do not know the vaccine status of any of our sisters because I have not asked them. It is their own business and I do not pry into it. If sisters wish to tell me that is their own choice.

“In truth, I think that perhaps one or two sisters may have taken the vaccine, but I only suspect this because of an unusual adverse event which is very similar to a prevalent adverse effect of the vaccines.

“I certainly am not sure of this as I have never asked whether they have been vaccinated or not. I try and look after the needs of the sisters as best as I can.”

She said the teaching of the Church on the acceptance of the Covid vaccine, set out by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in December 2020, was that it was not a “moral obligation” and must be “voluntary”.

The CDF also stipulated that vaccines must be “safe and effective”.

But the latest figures from the UK Government’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency show that the vaccines are not entirely safe.

One in 156 people have reported an adverse effect from the Pfizer jab, one in 102 from AstraZenica and one in 44 from Moderna.

Overall one in 117 people reported an adverse “Yellow Card” reaction and more than 2,000 people have died in the UK directly as a result of receiving an injection against Covid in the last 15 months.

A total of 3.2million children have been vaccinated in the UK and 3,186 have reported “Yellow Card” adverse effects.

The position of the Tyburn Nuns is further supported by a series of statements from the Oxford-based Anscombe Centre for Healthcare Ethics, the bioethics institute serving the Catholic Church in the UK and Ireland.

Anscombe has opposed vaccination of children and has defended NHS and social care workers who refused to accept compulsory vaccination against Covid, describing coercive vaccination as “profoundly unethical”.

Prof David Jones, director of the Anscombe, said: “The need for informed consent is a fundamental principle of medical ethics.

“There are Catholics in good conscience who argue that, in the extreme circumstances of a pandemic, it is legitimate to mandate people to take a vaccine. However, the view of the Anscome Bioethics Centre, is that vaccine mandates are coercive and unjust.”

(Photo of Mother Marilla Aw by Simon Caldwell)

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