We, the undersigned, the faithful of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, and concerned Catholic parents, have undertaken to fulfill our God-given right and duty to educate our children fully in the Catholic faith.[i] Moreover, we recognize our fundamental right to choose a school for our children, which corresponds to our convictions and best assists us in our task as first educators.[ii]
 
We therefore, respectfully petition the Archdiocese of Washington to guarantee us these parental rights by ensuring us the “concrete conditions for its exercise,”[iii] namely by granting us freedom of conscience in the decision-making on behalf of our children. This includes, but is not limited to, the freedom to request and to obtain a religious exemption for any vaccinations that, in conscience, we believe are morally and ethically compromised.
 
Catholic Church teaching unequivocally upholds the dignity of human life in all stages from conception until natural death.[iv] As parents and Catholics, we claim the freedom in conscience to refuse vaccines derived from or associated with aborted fetal cell lines, for ourselves and for our children. In taking this stand against any morally compromised vaccines, we are sincerely seeking to bear public witness to the undeniable pre-eminence of the right to human life.
 
It is unacceptable and constitutes “coercion of conscience” that any Catholic school should require students to obtain morally objectionable vaccines for admission. Even if, as a matter of general principles, it is not always morally illicit to use abortion-tainted vaccines temporarily, the use of such vaccines must never be advanced as mandatory, or as a universal duty, especially for the admission of children to a Catholic education.
 
It violates our rights as laity, to be forced to submit to a moral coercion of our conscience, which is a grave violation,[v]on pain of forfeiting a Catholic education for our children in the Archdiocese of Washington.[vi]
 
Finally, as parents, we believe that we must teach our children not simply by our words but also by our actions. It is also to be noted that, pragmatically, pharmaceutical companies will not change their research programs—they will continue to do what is easiest for them—unless Christian institutions take a stand against them, which is objectively to be expected in a free society.
 
Therefore, we strongly enjoin the Archdiocese of Washington to align diocesan policies fully with the official teachings of the Catholic Church and officially promulgated Canon Law which:
-       entrust to parents the education and choice of Catholic education for one’s children;
-       uphold the dignity of human life from conception until natural death;
-       affirm the primacy of obedience to one’s well-formed conscience;
-       respect a person’s informed judgments about the proportionality of medical interventions unless they contradict authoritative Catholic moral teachings;[vii] 
-       maintain the general moral duty to refuse the use of medical products, including certain vaccines, that are produced or tainted by human cells lines derived from direct abortions;[viii]
-       determine that vaccination is not morally obligatory in principle, even in consideration of the common good, and so must be voluntary.[ix]
In closing, we expect full acknowledgement of this petition by our Shepherd, and enjoin him to pastor the flock entrusted to him in truth and righteousness.

Sincerely,
 
 

[i] Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), 2221; Code of Canon Law (CIC), Can. 793.
[ii] Cf. CCC, 2229; CIC, Can. 793, 796.
[iii] CCC, 2229; Can. 794.
[iv] Cf. CCC, 2270.
[v] “There is a grave responsibility to use alternative vaccines and to make a conscientious objection with regard to those which have moral problems,” wrote the Pontifical Academy for Life in 2005, in guidance confirmed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; abortion-tainted vaccines create a “context of moral coercion of the conscience of parents, who are forced to choose to act against their conscience.”
[vi] Despite a certain consensus among some moralists and ethicists that vaccines derived from aborted fetal tissue are not only morally permissible (licit), but also (nearly) morally obligatory for the sake of the common good, such determinations run afoul of our rights of conscience to refuse such vaccines, clearly defended by the Church, in Dignitas Personae (CDF 2008) and Note on the morality of using some Covid-19 vaccines (CDF, 2020). Some have concluded that since there is nothing in Catholic teaching that determines the use of aborted fetal vaccines as immoral, there are simply no grounds for any form of religious exemption. However, it should be noted that there are no Catholic teachings stating that such vaccinations are in fact, moral. Additionally, there are no Catholic teachings that children must be vaccinated. Nor are there Catholic teachings stating that parents cannot abstain from vaccinations. Moreover, in order to claim a religious exemption, State laws do not require that one’s religion opposes immunization. The exemption is based on the religious beliefs of the parent or vaccine recipient, not the Church.
[vii]  Cf. https://www.usccb.org/about/doctrine/ethical-and-religious-directives/upload/ethical-religious-directives-catholic-health-service-sixth-edition-2016-06.pdf
[viii] It is permissible to use such vaccines only under certain case-specific conditions, based on a judgment of conscience. Cf. https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20081208_dignitas-personae_en.html
[ix] Cf. https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20201221_nota-vaccini-anticovid_en.html