January 2022
The Bethlehem Declaration:
‘For by His incarnation the Son of God has
united Himself in some fashion with every man’ (GS 22).
Whereas the Second Vatican Council rightly summarized the horror of abortion classifying it as an “abominable crime” which also encompasses a “supreme dishonour to the Creator”
(GS 51 § 3; 27);
Whereas St. John Paul II taught all must oppose such deliberate “murder” of the most vulnerable with “maximum of determination” (EV, 58; CL);
Whereas, the sanctity of pre-born babies, created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:27), is gravely violated by their utilitarian exploitation and commodification; thereby furthering the descent of the human race into “a civilization of ‘things’ and not of ‘persons’, a civilization in which persons are used in the same way as things are used” (St. John Paul II, GS 13);
Whereas all of the experimental COVID-19 gene-based vaccines currently available in the Western world, are abortion-tainted having been tested or developed through the abuse of stolen fetal cells from the bodies of murdered pre-born children;
Whereas last December (2020) the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) released a Note on the morality of using some anti-Covid-19 vaccines (Note) the subject of which was limited to “the moral aspects of the use of the vaccines against Covid-19 that have been developed from cell lines derived from tissues obtained from two fetuses that were not spontaneously aborted,” while specifically stating as well that the congregation did “not intend to judge the safety and efficacy of these vaccines, although ethically relevant and necessary”;
Whereas the Note affirms there remains a “moral duty to avoid such passive material cooperation” in the crime of abortion by use of said injections; yet explains this duty is “not obligatory” in the presence of a “grave danger” that can be evaded by the “vaccine,” and when an “ethically irreproachable Covid-19” alternative health intervention is not available;
Whereas absent the presence of at least these criteria it remains morally illicit to receive said injections;
Whereas despite the Note stating the current “pandemic spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19” constitutes the necessary “grave danger” to justify the use of abortion-tainted vaccines, such a judgment is “contingent and conjectural” relying on scientific data which continually develops over time (DVer, 24), while also being outside the proper competence of bishops, as their authority is defined as pertaining to the realms of faith and morals (LG 25);
Whereas hundreds of medical professionals with due competence have come to the opposite conclusion classifying use of these experimental COVID-19 injections as “unnecessary, ineffective and unsafe;” while over 59,000 medical scientists and practitioners have affirmed that due to the relatively mild danger of COVID-19 to the vast majority of the population, “those who are at minimal risk” should be permitted “to live their lives normally [and] build up [herd] immunity to the virus” apart from any vaccines; and several thousand others have called exposing the population to an inadequately tested vaccine to counteract such a mild virus “irresponsible;”
Whereas “[i]n the vast majority of people (~99.8% globally), SARS-CoV-2 is non-lethal. It is typically a mild to moderately severe illness. Therefore, the overwhelming majority of people are not at risk from COVID-19 and do not require vaccination” (source)
Whereas COVID-19 has an average age of death which is higher than that of the general population demonstrating its mild nature, including an overall survival rate of 99.74%;
Whereas reported survival rates for those under eighteen years of age are 99.998%, for those between eighteen and fifty years, 99.95%, from fifty to sixty-five, 99.4%, and for those over sixty-five years, 94%, equating to those under 70, having a better chance of dying from influenza than COVID-19 which presents an overall threat comparable to the medium influenza pandemics of 1936 and 1957;
Whereas even these figures constitute significantly inflated death statistics caused by heavily flawed counting methods used and promoted by conflicted-interest federal government health agencies;
Whereas hundreds of medical professionals affirm, “approximately 99% of people are already protected against COVID-19 by memory-type antibody responses,” and “most people will now have immunity due to exposure to SARS-CoV-2,” thus this population will not “benefit at all from being vaccinated;”
Whereas the government officials who have been charged with vetting the COVID-19 gene-based vaccine injections have been heavily compromised with multiple conflicts of interest through their deep connections to the pharmaceutical industry even actually profiting from the products that they have vetted, even while the research is funded and influenced by these drug corporations who are producing the products in question;
Whereas these same conflicted-interest government officials, along with the media, suppressed the voices of thousands of doctors and scientists from around the world who attested to the availability of safe, very effective, inexpensive and ethically produced treatments for COVID-19, including “miraculous” ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), quercetin, vitamins D, and C with zinc, etc., all of which have a phenomenal track record whenever these protocols are administered, such as in Mexico City;
Whereas all of the currently available COVID-19 “vaccine” injections are really gene-based medical treatments, “qualitatively different than standard vaccines,” calling into question the Note’s applicability to these drugs;
Whereas Dignitas Personae distinguishes such drugs from vaccines specifying, “[g]iven that gene therapy can involve significant risks for the patient, the ethical principle must be observed according to which, in order to proceed to a therapeutic intervention, it is necessary to establish beforehand that the person being treated will not be exposed to risks to his health or physical integrity which are excessive or disproportionate to the gravity of the pathology for which a cure is sought. The informed consent of the patient or his legitimate representative is also required” (26);
Whereas since there has been no long-term animal testing to determine the long-range harmful side effects of the new experimental gene-based COVID-19 products, nor have standard safety committees been put in place to assess the data — causing many experts to insist the vaccination program “should be halted immediately” — it is impossible to assert that the benefits of these injections are proportionate to the harmful side effects as is morally required to be known before such experimental gene therapies can be morally acceptable;
Whereas by means of comparison, American casualties in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars equate to 7,074, yet in the U.S. alone credible death reports due to the these injections currently number 19,886 (through December 3, 2021) and are steadily increasing on a passive government reporting system which has historically “under-reported adverse events by about two orders-of-magnitude” meaning actual deaths could be in “the hundreds of thousands for the USA”;
Whereas reports of these vaccine deaths, presently 47 times higher in 2021 than 2020, continue to be suppressed by the media along with the accounts of almost 103,000 hospitalizations and over 36,600 individuals being permanently disabled; and in consideration of a peer-reviewed study revealing a “five times” greater chance of death from the vaccines than from COVID-19 “in the most vulnerable 65+ demographic,” including an increased risk vs. benefits ratio with younger age groups, at least hundreds of doctors insist these experimental gene-based injections are “dangerous” and “not safer” than COVID-19 itself;
Whereas the onus is upon the scientists, government health officials and moralists who promote the acceptance of these injections to prove that the unprecedentedly multitudinous reported adverse events related to these injections are not caused by these shots before others are subjected to them — which certainly has not been done;
Whereas these gene-based vaccines have been shown to be ineffective — far less effective than natural immunity of recovered patients — suffering high-levels of “breakthrough cases” of the “fully vaccinated” as compared to the “unvaccinated” (74%), including hospitalizations (60%), with significantly higher risks to the recovered who accept the shots (56%), along with showing a curious correlation between implementation of “vaccine” campaigns across the globe and sharp increases in COVID-19 deaths; and, lastly, revealing strong indications that the “vaccinated” are just as likely to carry and transmit the virus as the unvaccinated, vitiating the broadly advanced motive for the healthy to be injected out of “love of neighbour” in order to “protect others”;
Whereas facing the unjust implementation and advancement of freedom-killing “vaccine passports” — which “protect nobody” from the virus — in Europe, Israel, Australia, and Canada, along with initiatives at the city, state and federal level in the United States, sparking vast global protests, a legitimate act of “love of neighbour” can rightly be exercised by what many agree is the “only way” to protect the freedom of western democracies: massive non-compliance with “vaccine” mandates and passports;
Whereas the Church has also taught that the use of any such abortion-tainted injections may be chosen only on a “temporary basis,” as habitual material cooperation through multiple shots may, among other dangers, erode the subject’s “sense of right and wrong” engendering “an occasion of grave sin;” and yet the use of at least the two mRNA experimental gene-transfer COVID injections are designed to require “boosters” on an ongoing basis involving a routine and physical concatenation with the crime of abortion;
Whereas taking abortion-tainted products encourages the abortion industry and the pro-abortion pharmaceutical and biomedical research industry to continue abusing cell lines stolen from murdered babies (and even developing new abortion-derived cell lines) despite any and all verbal protests of pro-lifers speaking out in opposition to these atrocities;
Whereas such a counter-witness has the potential of causing scandal to the secular world, it also serves to undermine a higher duty of “love of neighbour” by encouraging the gravely
immoral acts of abortionists, researchers, marketers and administrators involved in these evils, further endangering their immortal souls;
Whereas it must be emphasized that our brothers and sisters who have received these injections with insufficient knowledge or freedom, being victims of propaganda or the violence of criminal mandates, cannot be said to have incurred guilt to their consciences on account of this act;
We the undersigned, in observation of Church teaching, hereby affirm that even presuming an individual is fully opposed to these gene-based vaccines being tainted with the horrendous crime of abortion, that due to the presence of any of the three following conditions as supported above, it remains objectively morally illicit for a person to accept these shots:
- the manifest lack of a “grave danger” posed by COVID-19,
- the positive availability of safe and effective “ethically irreproachable Covid-19” health interventions, and,
- the absence of adequate testing data which is morally necessary for even attempting to calculate a risk/benefit analysis for such experimental gene-based injections, especially when these shots have been shown to be exceptionally ineffective and dangerous, particularly to the most vulnerable.
We further confirm that as a matter of logic at least one such prohibitive condition will apply to virtually all, if not every, individual.
In circumstances which constitute criminally imposed duress or coercion, mandating reception of such dangerous, ineffective and under-tested experimental injections, in violation of the Nuremburg Code and international law, those victimised by these acts of violence are encouraged to make the most prudent decision possible in service to their own health, freedom and the common good.
It also naturally follows that it remains morally illicit to facilitate, promote or mandate the mass reception of these dangerous, under-tested, under-monitored, abortion-tainted COVID-19 injections.
We therefore respectfully appeal to the Holy Father, the CDF, all Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, lay faithful, and all people of good will to vehemently oppose the reception of these morally tainted, dangerous, and ineffective products, along with the gravely unjust mandates for their reception being imposed upon millions of students and workers across the Christian West.
Initial Signatories December 15, 2021
+ Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana
+ Bishop Marian Eleganti, Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus of Chur, Switzerland
+ Rene Henry Gracida, Bishop emeritus of Corpus Christi, Texas
Rev A B. Carter B.Sc. (Hons.) ARCS DipPFS
Fr Koenraad Huysegems
Fr. Timothy Sauppé, S.T.L.
Fr. Michael Menner M.A. Theology; Bachelor of Science in Human Biology
Abbé Janvier Gbénou, priest
Abbé Fr. Guy Pagès, priest, author
Fr. Luis Eduardo Rodríguez Rodriguez, Parish Priest, Venezuela.
Fr. John Rizzo, Diocese of Parramatta, Australia
Deacon Nick Donnelly, MA
Lynn Colgan Cohen, OFS, MA Secular Franciscan.
A further three dozen Initial Signatories followed (including that of the CO Editor).