Awakening Consciences About Abortion-Tainted Vaccines, by Stacy Trasancos, PhD

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March 19, 2021
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March 19, 2021

By Stacy Trasancos, PhD, Crisis Magazine, March 19, 2021

Stacy Trasancos, PhD is the executive director of Bishop Joseph Strickland’s St. Philip Institute. She has a doctorate in chemistry and M.A. in dogmatic theology. She is the author of Particles of Faith: A Catholic Guide to Navigating Science.

Stacy Trasancos, PhDBishop Joseph Strickland (Tyler, TX), along with Dr. Catherine Ruth Pakaluk, myself, and two others, recently released the statement “To Awaken Conscience” regarding the scandal given by Catholic leaders’ widespread acceptance of abortion-tainted COVID-19 vaccines. Since then, the statement has received extensive support—more than 3,000 co-signers to date. It has, however, also elicited controversy in the Catholic world. Many people have asked about our motivation for creating the statement, which is what I seek to explain here.

In early March, Dr. Catherine Pakaluk wrote to me at the urging of her husband, Dr. Michael Pakaluk. Both are professors at The Catholic University of America. They read an opinion I wrote at The Catholic World Report about moving beyond vaccines. My concern is that Catholics have surrendered the moral authority at the global level because bishops, moral theologians, and bioethicists have focused too much on defending the permissibility of “remote cooperation in evil” and not enough on the risk of scandal. By making it clear that Catholics find it morally licit to benefit from abortion, we conceded hard-won ground in the defense of the dignity and sanctity of human life.  …