A Message of Concern for our Bishops about Covid Vaccines (A Perspetive On Covid-19 Part 42)

I am sharing with you a letter I am sending today to the Philippine bishops. My basic message is this:

1. There should be free individual choice as to being vaccinated or not, and everyone should respect such choice.

2. Vaccine mandates are wrong.

3. The Church should focus on things of the Spirit and care for the whole flock rather than doing the work of the State.

4. Churches must not be closed off to God’s people.

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Your excellencies, the peace and joy of our Lord be with you!

Please allow me to speak from my heart, with deep respect and love for you all.

From your pronouncements and actions, you by and large collectively support and promote vaccination with current COVID vaccines. Allow me to express my grave concerns.

Support for COVID vaccines

The science is actually not settled, with very many notable scientists and medical practitioners opposing current COVID vaccines. Even the inventor of the mRNA technology, Dr Robert Malone, has expressed concerns.

What would be valid reasons for not wanting today’s COVID vaccines?

1. They are experimental drugs. They have already caused hundreds of thousands of serious injuries and even deaths throughout the world.

2. They are produced from fetal cells. It is reasonable for pro-lifers to object to them.

3. Their effectiveness lessens in just a few months, necessitating a continuous series of jabs. When will it end?

4. There are those who have been infected with COVID and thus have natural immunity, which is much better than immunity given by these vaccines.

5. Those who have been vaccinated can still be infected and can pass on such infection.

6. There are non-vaccine alternatives such as ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, etc., which have proven effective.

7. There are those who are just waiting for “ethical” vaccines.

Might not the best posture be to just let people freely decide for themselves, and for everyone to respect such decisions, rather than for you to take one side against the other?

Prayer on behalf of COVID vaccines

We as Church indeed should pray for God’s protection and relief from the COVID pandemic. But the second version of the Oratio Imperata thanks God “for the vaccines developed made possible by your guiding hands.” Much as I do hope that they have been developed with God’s guidance, this is presumptuous. And if, as some suspect, there are unseen globalist and depopulationist hands behind some of these vaccines, then we have insulted and demeaned God with this prayer. We can pray without having to include such phrases.

There are also those who believe this pandemic is part of God’s chastisement upon a world in deep darkness of sin and evil. If so, then the basic need is for repentance, which the Oratio does not mention at all.

Collaboration with the State on COVID vaccines

Our Church has now offered parishes as vaccination centers. There is no need to, because there is actually no shortage of such inoculation centers, such as barangay halls, malls, schools, subdivisions, stadiums, parks, etc. By doing so, our Church endorses and appears to be pushing such vaccination.

Can we not just leave this matter to the State?

Forcing COVID vaccines

Throughout the world, COVID mandates are now being used extensively by the State and by elements of the Church. If one is not vaxxed, one cannot eat indoor at restaurants, ride public transport, go to the gym, attend public social events, receive emergency medical care, etc. Many are being fired from their jobs. No jab, no job. For the Church, some parishes have barred the unvaxxed from entering the church and attending Mass.

All these are serious violations of individual human rights and religious freedom, and are forcing people to violate their consciences in order not to be banned. It is a violation of human dignity. It is tantamount to coercion, which is unchristian and devalues the person. It stigmatizes the unvaxxed and makes them objects of hate and derision. It is tyrannical.

A basic reason given is to protect people from the virus passed on by the unvaccinated. But since both the unvaxxed and the vaxxed can be infected and pass on the infection, then this is not a valid reason at all.

A basic argument put forth is love of neighbor. But if the unvaxxed are those who are marginalized, and you might argue, are wrong in their decision, then are they not to be considered the last, the least and the lost? Where is the preferential option for them? Where is the love?

It is an unchristian act to force people to be vaxxed. Even God does not force salvation upon us.

Your support of vaccine mandates supports the State’s tyrannical action to take away the right of people to earn a living and the duty to provide for their family. It is your pastoral duty to speak out against such injustice and tyranny of the State.

Closing the churches

Some churches are being closed off from the unvaxxed. Is this not then endangering their souls, by keeping them out of the churches and deprived of the Eucharist?

And is it not discriminatory to keep out the unvaxxed while permitting those with other communicable diseases free access in the churches?

And now the little children

Now the State wants to vaccinate all the children, including the very young ones. This is insane. They are hardly at risk from COVID. To jab the children is all risk and no benefit. It is very dangerous for the children.

Please protect the little children, and raise your voices against this.

Does your endorsement of vaccination actually work for the good?

One egregious result of a policy of strongly endorsing and even forcing vaccination is to create division within the body—US versus THEM. It segregates the unvaxxed from the vaxxed and results in hateful lines of division. In history, this has resulted in mass slaughter or genocide. Stalin did this to his own people in the Soviet Union. Hitler did this to Jews in Europe. Hutus did this to Tutsis in Rwanda. Is it farfetched to fear such a happening, considering the tensions and divisions already occurring? Why stoke this fire? Let us stop this madness before it consumes us all.

By the way, if the COVID vaccines are so safe and effective, aside from being free, why would anyone not want to avail of them? Why do they have to be forced on people? The fact that this is what is happening is one sure indication that things are awfully wrong. If there is something good that is being offered for free, then people will eagerly accept and take them.

Those who are against the COVID vaccines are not selfish, indifferent or irresponsible. Many of them are committed Catholics. Many of them have already been coerced into being vaccinated, given no choice by State authorities and no support by Church pastors. Such injustice needs to stop.

Dear bishops, please reconsider your collective posture of fully endorsing the COVID vaccines. Leave Catholics to decide for themselves. If you want to give your opinion, please do so privately. You are our spiritual pastors. You are not medical experts nor political activists nor health police of the State. Pushing COVID vaccines is not your calling. You should not act in a way that makes some Catholics second-class or excluded. You must fight for what is right and just and true. And please never close off the churches to the people of God.

May the guidance and wisdom of the Spirit be with you all. God bless you.

Respectfully in Christ,

Frank Padilla

(Note: if you would like to respond, I am just an email away. <fapcfc@gmail.com>)