Dear HR Department:

I have been directed to upload proof of COVID-19 vaccination in order to continue my employment with this company. I’m sure the intention is good in this requirement but after considerable self-reflection and a great deal of research from reputable publications and discussion with health care providers and spiritual advisors, I have decided that I cannot in good conscience take any of the COVID vaccines because doing so would violate my sincerely held religious beliefs.

As a devout Roman Catholic, I must follow Holy Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and above all, my conscience. While the Catholic Church does not prohibit the use of any vaccine, there is no authoritative Church teaching universally obliging Catholics to receive any vaccine and a person may be required to refuse a medical intervention, including a vaccination, if his or her informed conscience judges the drug as immorally derived. The sole reason for consenting to vaccines should not be under the threat of losing one’s livelihood.

1. My primary objection to the available COVID vaccines is that they were researched and developed using aborted fetal cell lines. Scripture reveals that “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5) and the Catechism of the Catholic Church states unambiguously “abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law.” (CCC 2271) Despite the noble goal, the scientists who developed the COVID vaccines violated God’s Law and that means I would be participating in morally illicit proximate mediate material cooperation with the evil of abortion. My respect for life is not limited to refusing the COVID vaccine. My family and I also decline other vaccines and medications that use aborted fetal cell lines in the development and testing. I support crisis pregnancy centers financially, mothers of crisis pregnancies, and have worked to end the death penalty in several states.
2. Another moral objection I have with the COVID vaccines concerns therapeutic proportionality. Therapeutic proportionality is an assessment of whether the benefits of a medical intervention outweigh the undesirable side-effects and burdens in light of the integral good of the person, including spiritual, psychological, and bodily goods. It can also extend to the good of others and the common good, which likewise entail spiritual and moral dimensions and are not reducible to public health. The judgment of therapeutic proportionality must be made by the person who is the potential recipient of the intervention in the specific circumstances, not by public health authorities or by other individuals who might judge differently in their own situations. As I have already recovered from SARS-CoV-2 and have maintained natural immunity, the vaccine can offer no further benefit to myself or others, but could potentially cause me and the people around me personal harm. Furthermore, if natural immunity does decrease in the future, I have no underlying health condition that might render me vulnerable to serious disease from SARS-CoV-2, as the intent of the vaccine is to provide protection not from infection itself, but rather severe disease to which I have minuscule risk.
3. While many claim that getting the vaccine benefits the common good, there is actually a risk to the common good to be vaccinated. Breakthrough cases of fully vaccinated individuals have been shown to carry similar amounts of virus to unvaccinated individuals, causing the CDC to maintain mask recommendations for vaccinated individuals. This increases risk for asymptomatic transmission because vaccinated individuals can spread the disease without knowing they have it. In this way vaccination is a threat to immunocompromised more so than the unvaccinated and thus a greater risk to the common good.

Above all else, a person must obey his or her own informed and certain conscience. In fact, the Catechism of the Catholic Church instructs that following one’s conscience is following Christ Himself: “In all he says and does, man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right.” (CCC 1778) 

Therefore, if I as a Catholic come to an informed and sure judgment in conscience that I should not receive a vaccine, then the Catholic Church requires that I follow my certain judgment of conscience and refuse the vaccine. The Catechism is clear: “Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions. ‘He must not be forced to act contrary to his conscience. Nor must he be prevented from acting according to his conscience, especially in religious matters.’”

Because of the aforementioned issues, I cannot receive the vaccine and respectfully request a religious exemption from the company mandate.