Help is not on the way
I'm a housewife who won't lose her job if she doesn't get the jab, because I don't have a job. I probably will have to stay put and not go on airplanes, but I'm also 61, have traveled a fair amount, and can live with that.
But I have known for a long time, long before Covid and the current delusional vaccine juggernaut, that the bishops would not come to the aid of anyone daring to question groupthink on this topic. Even if a parent, without challenging vaccines in principle, merely has common-sense objections to sticking an infant with over 20 shots in his first year of life, starting on day one -- even if the parent simply wants to modify the schedule -- the required "religious exemption" will not be supported by any spiritual leader in the Catholic Church he is likely to come across. If a parent is challenged by legal authorities (as many have been, to the point of the child being taken away, even for wanting to delay a shot), I doubt his bishop would come to rescue him.
They haven't heeded the warnings of Fr. Michael Copenhagen about the legitimate concerns of parents faced with subjecting their children to the twin evils of a jab using aborted fetal cells and a mandate to be jabbed in order to participate in society. He rightly points out that without the bishops' support, parents are at the mercy of the bureaucracy in this matter, having no recourse for conscience (or really, medical freedom), since so-called religious exemptions require a declaration from the spiritual leader -- regarding conscience, not the particular intervention.
These issues have been known and have been with us for decades now. Moms like me have been left alone in doctors' offices, trying to navigate the maze that is the balancing of risks and benefits with vaccines for our children, arguing with health professionals who demand submission. I say left alone because I am referring to spiritual support -- at a minimum on the grave subject of aborted fetal cell tissue used in the process.
Bishops caved on the main issues long ago, thanks to legalistic and unscientific theological support from those who dwell in unreal academic corridors, not among the vaccine harmed and those skeptical of increasing governmental intrusion on personal matters.
Now, with Covid, things have come to a head. As the pressure increases to get the still-unapproved, experimental vaccine to work, travel, and otherwise take part in normal activities, people face losing their jobs and their freedom. I have just heard of a nurse in this situation, seeking intervention from her bishop. I can honestly say I doubt he would even read her letter. After all, they didn't read the letters or answer the calls of those reporting abuse of children (see my husband's book, The Faithful Departed, and the tragic story of, among many, Marjory Gallant, the aunt of a boy abused by the notorious John Geoghan). They have moved on to another sort of abandonment.
The bishops are not only unconcerned with such injustices and official overreaction, they have run headlong to support this totalitarian scenario by getting jabbed themselves as a matter of public relations on behalf of a bureaucracy they should resist. They forget the teaching of our Church, expressed in Casti Connubii:
70. Public magistrates have no direct power over the bodies of their subjects; therefore, where no crime has taken place and there is no cause present for grave punishment, they can never directly harm, or tamper with the integrity of the body, either for the reasons of eugenics or for any other reason. St. Thomas teaches this when inquiring whether human judges for the sake of preventing future evils can inflict punishment, he admits that the power indeed exists as regards certain other forms of evil, but justly and properly denies it as regards the maiming of the body...
In my anger, I want to ask them -- should we apostatize, becoming Jehovah's Witnesses or Christian Scientists, to obtain from you support for conscience and medical freedom? Can you really not imagine any circumstance in the future that you would deplore, arising from this precedent? Why not understand that people have valid reasons to refuse injection? Why not do as Catherine Pakaluk, Stacy Trasancos, and thousands of those who signed their statement beg: uphold the right to conscience and awaken the consciences of others?