In his Sept. 6 article “Conscience rights don’t stand alone,” Alan Yoshioka states that “a minority of Catholics have rejected authoritative teachings (see CCC 1785) in favour of an alternative Magisterium.”
What authoritative teachings? CCC 1785 cross-referenced Dignitatis humanae 14, which says, “It is [the Church’s] duty to give utterance to, and authoritatively to teach, that truth which is Christ Himself.” Would Jesus really approve of us resorting to abortion-tainted vaccines when there are safe and effective treatments for COVID-19?
According to Dr. Peter McCullough, a highly published professor and practising physician, 85 per cent of COVID-19 deaths could have been prevented if early treatment protocols were in place and government agencies. Medical organizations have admonished doctors for treating COVID patients outside of hospital.
This withholding of effective early treatment from COVID-19 patients is humanely unconscionable.
Mee Chan
Surrey
As I read the letters in the Sept. 27 B.C. Catholic it was an affirmation of how many of my fellow Catholics have been unconditionally accepting the mainstream media narrative.
To criticize a columnist’s opinion and then launch into an ad hominem attack on her betrays lack of charity and wisdom. If one must criticize, our faith teaches us to engage with facts, wisdom, charity and prudence.
Complaining that B.C. Catholic coverage lacks “balance” and then suggesting that people who only read The B.C. Catholic “will be convinced that getting vaccinated is wrong” is not only intellectually dishonest, but frankly naïve. Look around you! Television and newspapers give you the “other side of the story” on a daily basis.
Under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, medical treatment cannot be forced or coerced. Informed consent is an absolute must.
Finally, the Holy Father is not a medical practitioner, therefore his area of competence and authority is not in medical therapeutics. To suggest that his opinion should not be questioned is both dangerous and disingenuous. We are the flock of Jesus Christ; sheep, yes, but sheep encouraged to think critically.
DBT Doering
Coquitlam
Canadian governments are demanding everyone take an experimental drug whose ingredients and long-term side effects are not known or face unconstitutional punishments. They refuse to debate anyone questioning them, even physicians, professors, and researchers who are being lied about, threatened, and censored.
The government and media’s misdirection of “cases” and deaths is based on a test that Dr. Bonnie Henry admitted earlier this year is “unreliable.” The survival rates for COVID-19 are over 99 per cent.
It is irresponsible of the government and the media to claim the vaccine is the only means of “recovery.” Common sense based on statistics show us there is no need to mandate these experimental vaccines nor punish the unvaccinated who have natural immunity and pose no risk to others.
Lisa Lewko
Delta
In her Sept. 20 column “God’s gifts of freedom and dignity,” Colleen Roy quotes St. Thomas Moore in A Man for All Seasons in her argument that conscience justifies vaccine refusal.
St. Thomas risked his own life to follow his conscience. Risking other people’s lives for one’s personal freedom seems the antithesis of Christ’s love.
Seniors, Down syndrome children, pregnant women, and unborn babies are all at heightened risk from COVID-19. Neither Pfizer nor Moderna were created from abortion-derived cell lines. Both are now fully approved in Canada. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith finds these vaccines “morally acceptable.” The Pope urges Catholics to be vaccinated, yet The B.C. Catholic repeatedly publishes comments saying we don’t need to listen to the Pope in this matter.
Publishing this column reflects an appalling lack of editorial judgment.
Julie Bartlett
North Vancouver