Dlew, do you think the diocese's guidance will have an impact on vaccination rates?
I don’t know, but I doubt it.
I mean surely you know it wouldn't increase vaccination rates
Honestly, I don’t know the reach or influence of this bishop or his message, though it was certainly amplified by the media attention.
I feel like everyone is pretending he said something other than what he said. So I’ll quote it again just as a reminder:
[W]e advise that if the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine is available, Catholics should choose to receive either of those vaccines rather than to receive the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine because of its extensive use of abortion-derived cell lines.
If someone was on the fence about chipping and read that message and their take away was “the bishop doesn’t want me to get vaccinated” I don’t know what to say.
If you want to get more heady/detailed about it, medical ethics is a pretty important topic among Catholic wonks and the vaccine is the issue de jour. What I learned today from looking into all of this is that, depending on the circumstances (which are likely overwhelmingly frequent) it is morally permissible in the eyes of the Church to take “morally compromised” vaccines. To the extent any hardcore Catholics were holding out because of the ethical issues, guidance issued by the Pope and by this bishop could give people clarity into how they can morally proceed - otherwise, people could very well listen to the most assured sounding person on their Catholic Facebook group who says “any use of a vaccine that involves aborted fetal tissue in any way is a mortal sin per [some esoteric Catholic authority].
But like I said, I doubt the statement at issue is going to tilt the scales very much one way or another.