it's a good thing

that we decided against sending the kids to Catholic school, because we would have discovered (likely right after writing a big deposit check) that we couldn't have enrolled them anyway. Apparently, while the public school children in Maryland can claim religious exemption for certain vaccines that were created using aborted fetal tissue, the Archdiocese of Washington does not allow any conscious or religious exemptions. Since we don't contribute in this manner to the culture of death, we would have been pressured to vaccinate. I hate to feel that I am more Catholic than the bishop, but...



This is an excerpt of a letter written by Jennifer O'Brien whose daughter was dismissed from a local Catholic preschool because she didn't have the varicella vaccine.


not only was the Superintendent of Catholic Schools, Patricia Weitzel-O'Neill, well aware of the connection between the vaccine and abortion, but she would continue to require the vaccine for all students attending Catholic schools in the Archdiocese. She has no intention as of now to change the policy, which allows for only medical exemptions from vaccines; no ethical, religious or conscience exemptions are allowed for vaccines in Archdiocesan schools.

The refusal to acknowledge a parent's right of conscience regarding the abortion-tainted vaccines seemed rather odd to us, especially since a medical and religious exemption is allowed in the MD public schools. So, our child can currently attend a public school without the tainted vaccine, but cannot attend a Catholic school.

Is not the Archdiocese, as well as Catholics around the country, currently fighting for the right of conscience regarding the health care plans? Why are we okay with the right of conscience in health care, but not in our own schools?

We are not anti-vaccine, but we are pro-parental rights and pro-conscience. In our quest to change the policy, we have been in contact with Bishop Barry Knestout. He was unaware of the nature of the vaccine, and thankfully researched the topic and read the information we sent. As of right now the policy is still unchanged, partly because of the lack of people contacting the Archdiocese to let them know this is unacceptable.