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Timeline: COVID-19 vaccines and public health

Key moments in the traditionalist Catholic world — councils and documents, communities and their founders, media launches and controversies — each with its sources.
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2021

  1. Viganò urges US bishops to back religious exemptions from COVID vaccines

    In a letter to USCCB president Archbishop José Gomez and to CDF officials, Carlo Maria Viganò argued that the CDF's 2020 note neglected proportionality, said there was a grave duty to refuse the vaccines, and asked bishops to support religious exemptions.

    SourcesAbp. Viganò Releases Letter He Sent to US Bishops and CDF on Vaccine Quandary (Catholic Family News)Letter #136, 2021, Wed, Oct 27: Viganò to Gomez (Inside the Vatican)

  2. La Crosse bishop removes Fr. James Altman as pastor and restricts his ministry

    Bishop William Callahan of La Crosse removed Fr. James Altman as pastor of St. James the Less "for an indeterminate period of time". Catholic World Report said the decree barred him from celebrating public Mass, preaching, assisting at marriages or administering baptism; Altman had drawn national attention with a 2020 video saying no Catholic can be a Democrat.

    SourcesLa Crosse bishop removes Father Altman from ministry (Catholic World Report (CNA))Diocese Of La Crosse Removes Local Priest Over Controversial Political,… (Wisconsin Public Radio)

  3. YouTube permanently removes the LifeSiteNews channel

    YouTube terminated the LifeSiteNews channel, which had more than 300,000 subscribers, citing repeated violations of its COVID-19 misinformation policy. LifeSiteNews said it was not told which video triggered the final strike and continued posting video on Rumble.

    SourcesYouTube's Permanent Ban on LifeSiteNews Prompts Censorship Concerns (Catholic News Agency (via National Catholic Register))Google-owned YouTube deplatforms pro-life group LifeSiteNews (The Federalist)

2020

  1. CDF says COVID-19 vaccines linked to fetal cell lines are morally acceptable

    The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said receiving such vaccines is "morally acceptable" when ethically irreproachable vaccines are not available, and that doing so implies no moral endorsement of the use of fetal cell lines.

    SourcesNote on the morality of using some anti-Covid-19 vaccines (21 December 2020) (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith)Vatican CDF says use of anti-Covid vaccines "morally acceptable" (Vatican News)Vatican OKs getting Covid-19 vaccines that used cell lines from aborted fetuses (CNN)

  2. Five bishops including Schneider and Strickland reject abortion-linked COVID vaccines

    Cardinal Janis Pujats, Archbishops Tomash Peta and Jan Pawel Lenga, and Bishops Joseph Strickland and Athanasius Schneider argued that using vaccines developed with fetal cell lines "cannot be acceptable for Catholics".

    SourcesBishops Schneider, Strickland on the Morality of Vaccines (The Remnant)Covid Vaccines: 'The Ends Cannot Justify the Means' (Crisis Magazine)