Editor’s Note: Allentown Diocese Bishop Alfred Schlert clarified his position on the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine and lehighvalleylive.com published a story about this clarification after the following letter was submitted.
I just finished reading the article titled “Allentown Diocese urges Catholics to choose alternative to ‘morally comprised’ J&J vaccine.” While I do endorse the use of quotes around the phrase “morally compromised,” I have concerns about the slant of the article as a whole.
I understand that it is not an article written entirely by lehighvalleylive.com staff and contains information from The Associated Press, but that does not mean the flawed opinion of the bishop is best suited as the initial emphasis of the article and headline of the piece as it appears on the website.
Considering we are in a nationwide pandemic — with many lives clearly still at stake — more emphasis should be placed on this paragraph in the article: “While not disputing the church officials’ contention that an abortion-derived cell line is used in the production, Johnson & Johnson issued a statement Tuesday stressing that there is no fetal tissue in its vaccine.”
The Pope himself has said Vatican staff may be subject to sanctions if they do not receive the vaccine with no mention of which manufacturer has created it. With the bishop’s ill-informed and potentially life-threatening opinion on avoiding the J&J vaccine taking a front seat, those who follow the Catholic faith could erroneously interpret his quotes to mean Catholics should refuse the J&J vaccine as a whole if no other vaccine is available at the time.
I would urge you to remove this article and print a follow-up to the piece that focuses more on the science-based, factual information about the J&J vaccine and the fact that it is NOT made of aborted fetal cells or tissue.
We are in a crisis in our country where false information has been spreading like wildfire. We need to be extremely cautious in not encouraging those damaging flames to spread.
Monica Dieterly
Bethlehem
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