Mykah Brown Exemption Letter

COLORADO CATHOLIC CONFERENCE
1535 Logan Street | Denver, CO 80203-1913

303-894-8808 | cocatholicconference.org
8/24/2021
To Whom It May Concern,
Mykah Brown is a baptized Catholic seeking a religious exemption from an immunization

requirement. This letter explains how the Catholic Church’s teachings may lead individual Catholics,
including Mykah, to decline certain vaccines.
The Catholic Church teaches that a person may be required to refuse a medical intervention,
including a vaccination, if his or her conscience comes to this judgment. While the Catholic Church
does not prohibit the use of most vaccines, and generally encourages them to safeguard personal and
public health, the following authoritative Church teachings demonstrate the principled religious basis
on which a Catholic may determine that he or she ought to refuse certain vaccines:
• Vaccination is not morally obligatory in principle and so must be voluntary. 1
• There is a moral duty to refuse the use of medical products, including certain vaccines, that
are created using human cells lines derived from abortion; however, it is permissible to use
such vaccines only under case-specific conditions—if there are no other alternatives available
and the intent is to preserve life. 2
• A person’s assessment of whether the benefits of a medical intervention outweigh the
undesirable side-effects are to be respected unless they contradict authoritative Catholic
moral teachings.3
• A person is morally required to obey his or her conscience. 4
A Catholic may judge it wrong to receive certain vaccines for a variety of reasons consistent with
these teachings, and there is no authoritative Church teaching universally obliging Catholics to
receive any vaccine. An individual Catholic may invoke Church teaching to refuse a vaccine that
used abortion-derived cell lines at any stage of the creation of the vaccine. More generally, a Catholic
might refuse a vaccine based on the Church’s teachings concerning therapeutic proportionality.
Therapeutic proportionality is an assessment of whether the benefits of a medical intervention
outweigh the undesirable side-effects and burdens in light of the integral good of the person,
1
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), “Note on the Morality of Using Some Anti-COVID-19 Vaccines,” December 17, 2020, n. 5:
“At the same time, practical reason makes evident that vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and that, therefore, it must be voluntary.”
2
See Pontifical Academy for Life, “Moral Reflections on Vaccines Prepared from Cells Derived from Aborted Human Foetuses,” June 9, 2005;
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Dignitas personae, 2008, nn. 34-35; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Note on
the Morality of Using Some Anti-COVID-19 Vaccines,” nn. 1-3. When there is a sufficiently serious reason to use the product and there is no
reasonable alternative available, the Catholic Church teaches that it may be permissible to use the immorally sourced product under protest. In
any case, whether the product is used or not, the Catholic Church teaches that all must make their disagreement known and request the
development of equal or better products using biological material that does not come from abortions.
3
See United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, 6th ed.
(Washington, DC: USCCB Publishing, 2018), n. 28. Hereafter “ERDs.”
4
“A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. If he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn
himself...” Catechism of the Catholic Church (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1993), www.vatican.va, n. 1790. Hereafter “CCC.”
1
including spiritual, psychological, and bodily goods. 5 The judgment of therapeutic proportionality
must be made by the person who is the potential recipient of the intervention, 6 not by public health
authorities or by other individuals who might judge differently in their own situations.
The Catholic Bishops of Colorado have affirmed this in two letters dated December 14, 2020 and
March 17, 2021, concerning COVID-19 vaccines, stating:
“The bishops of Colorado affirm that the use of some COVID-19 vaccines is morally
acceptable under certain circumstances…. However, if individuals have serious moral
objections or health concerns about vaccines, those concerns should be respected by society
and government, and those individuals should not be forced into vaccination, contrary to their
conscience. The government should not impose the COVID-19 vaccines on its citizens.” 7
Furthermore, the free-exercise clause of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment requires state
accommodation of individuals who object to vaccinations on religious grounds. Government
neutrality also requires religious accommodation when the state offers secular exemptions, which is
the case in Colorado for medical and non-medical exemptions 8 and exemptions through the
Americans with Disabilities Act and Civil Rights Act of 1964. 9
Vaccination is not a universal obligation and a person must obey his or her own conscience.
Therefore, if a Catholic comes to an informed judgment that he or she should not receive a vaccine,
then the Catholic Church requires that the person follow this judgment of conscience and refuse the
vaccine. The Catechism is clear: “Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as
personally to make moral decisions. ‘He must not be forced to act contrary to his conscience. Nor
must he be prevented from acting according to his conscience, especially in religious matters.’” 10
Sincerely,
Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila
5
See ERDs, nn. 32-33; nn. 56-57; Part Three, Introduction, para. 2; Part Five, Introduction, para. 3.
6
See ERDs, nn. 56-57. Both of these directives state that the proportionality of medical interventions is established “in the patient’s judgment.”
7
A Letter to the Faithful from the Colorado bishops on Covid-19 Vaccines. Colorado Catholic Conference. (2020, December 15).
https://cocatholicconference.org/a-letter-to-the-faithful-from-the-colorado-bishops-on-covid-19-vaccines/.
8
Vaccine Exemptions. Department of Public Health and Environment. https://cdphe.colorado.gov/vaccine-exemptions.
9
Pandemic Preparedness in the Workplace and the Americans with Disabilities Act. U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/pandemic-preparedness-workplace-and-americans-disabilities-act.
10
CCC, n. 1782, citing Second Vatican Council, Dignitatis humanae, December 7, 1965, n. 3.
NOTES
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COLORADO CATHOLIC CONFERENCE

1535 Logan Street | Denver, CO 80203-1913

To Whom It May Concern,

Mykah Brown is a baptized Catholic seeking a religious exemption from an immunization

Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila

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