Much of the Catholic discussion around the ethics of vaccines has focused on the remote connection with abortion. There has been an implicit assumption that all testing on HEK-293 is unethical. But as not all remote cooperation with evil is immoral. Thus, we need to ask if the tests Moderna and Pfizer did on HEK-293 were immoral on the part of the companies & scientists. I don’t think there is a clear definitive answer but I will give principles to… Read more
Pope Francis and the Australian Bishops had some good words about those with disabilities for International Day of Persons with Disabilities. I wrote about this on FrMatthewLC.com so I’ll quote a bit of that here. Tomorrow is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. (Obviously, some of us – particularly the blind, Deaf & autistic – prefer identity-first language but most disabled people prefer person-first language.) The Church celebrates it on the closest Sunday (i.e. in three days). This year, I was… Read more
In the discussion around vaccines tested on fetal cell lines there is what appears to be a small matter of terminology but actually points to a significant difference both ontologically and morally. This is the distinction between cells from a fetal cell line and fetal cells. Fetal cells can often be termed as aborted baby parts, murdered baby organs, or similar. This will examine the ontological and moral distinctions, then ask a question about the COVID vaccines’ use of fetal… Read more
In Spring 2021, I recorded an interview with Sr. Josephine Garrett, CSFN, primarily for the families at the school where she ministers on helping kids with learning differences at home and at school. Now a few months later, she has turned this into a podcast. I figure some of you might be interested so I’m sharing it here. I hope this helps parents with autistic children or other neurodivergent children. It should also help teachers and staff at Catholic schools…. Read more
Recently, it’s been in the news that the Archdiocese of Cincinnati is starting a program to reduce the number of parishes. I wanted to share a little about what I saw working in the area about a decade ago, but it got just too long for a tweet or Facebook post. Cincinnati’s Announcement The Pillar Reports: The Archdiocese of Cincinnati announced on Friday a restructuring initiative that could eventually close 70% of archdiocesan parishes. The process will begin by clustering… Read more
Despite claims to the contrary from some circles, the Church has never taught that medicine being tested on fetal cell lines is a significant enough moral issue to skip that medicine. I wrote this up in a semi-academic piece that covers a lot of details but I want to offer a summary for readers here. The Church has clearly taught in her ordinary magisterium that one may reject a vaccine grown on fetal cell lines, but in so doing, she… Read more
I think a little timeline is helpful to understand how my post on how almost every medicine was tested on HEK-293 changed the argument. You can’t argue that based on your standard now, the standard I applied in January 2020 is inaccurate. I was applying the standard Catholics who are against getting COVID vaccines were using at that moment. After this article, those Catholics objecting based on this principle changed their argument from any link to a very circumscribed link… Read more
I’ve done a bunch of podcasts on being autistic or how the Church can reach out to autistics. I recently spoke with John Aidan Byrne on his podcast Dig Life Deep! Most of the stuff about autism was pretty similar to other podcasts but we talked a little more about my family and my background in the Legion. John Aidan Byrne is a journalist who is originally from Ireland but lives in the USA. His podcast covers a mix of Catholic… Read more
Last year, I wrote a piece on lying to avoid mask mandates. I think it applies to two situations about vaccines. It is immoral to create fake vaccine cards and it is immoral to claim one reason for a vaccine exemption when you really want it for another reason. I will briefly note these two issues then refer you to that article to apply these principles. New Issues with Honesty I have seen people promoting both of these. Obviously fraudulent… Read more
Israel recently killed a top Iranian nuclear scientist. On its own, that might be news, but wouldn’t be a focus of what I talk about. However, the AI-assisted smart gun using facial recognition brings up a whole bunch of moral issues. Let’s look at the story then briefly discuss both the privacy issue with facial recognition and the issues of autonomous warfare. Iranian Scientist Killed Futurism reports: Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated by an AI-assisted sniper rifle… Read more
