Get ready for liberal outrage against Catholics in the military.
The Catholic church says members of the US military can refuse the COVID jab for religious reasons.
U.S. service members should have the right to refuse the military's COVID-19 vaccination requirement on conscientious grounds, the Catholic Church's Archdiocese for the Military Services said Tuesday.
The statement by Archbishop Timothy Broglio focuses on potential objections over the use of fetal cell lines in vaccine development, after the church advised Catholics to avoid the single-shot Johnson & Johnson shot, if possible.
Broglio's message lends support to troops who claim religious exemptions to vaccination mandates and who are increasingly unable to meet services' oncoming inoculation deadlines, particularly in the Air Force, with two-shot vaccines that take longer.
About 25% of all service members are Catholic.
"No one should be forced to receive a COVID-19 vaccine if it would violate the sanctity of his or her conscience," Broglio wrote in the statement, which was first reported by Defense One. "The denial of religious accommodations, or punitive or adverse personnel actions taken against those who raise earnest, conscience-based objections, would be contrary to federal law and morally reprehensible."
Researchers used cell lines originally from elective abortion tissue created decades ago to produce proteins for some variants of the vaccine, but that tissue wasn't put directly into the vaccine.
Photo: E+
Young female doctor injecting COVID-19 vaccine in arm of senior military soldier for coronavirus immunization.