The Diocese of Wichita, Kansas, announced Jan. 14 that it is amending the vaccination policy for its 41 schools. Beginning this fall, students can claim a religious objection to any required vaccine.
Parents and staff of diocesan schools were informed of the new policy via a letter by Bishop Carl Kemme and Janet Eaton, the diocese’s superintendent of Catholic schools.
“The change in our policy now brings the Diocese of Wichita in alignment with the other three dioceses of the state of Kansas,” Bishop Kemme and Eaton wrote, according to the diocese. “We realize that this topic has a history of strongly held views and diverse perspectives. We ask for your understanding, acceptance, and support in our efforts to provide prayerful and well-discerned policies for the Catholic schools.”
The new policy was developed by the diocese’s special Immunization Policy Task Force, which is composed of clergy, principals, physicians, school council members, and parents. The task force voted unanimously in favor of the change.
Before the new policy, students could only be exempted from required vaccines for medical reasons.
The letter also included a document answering frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the policy. In that document, the diocese stressed that the Catholic Church does not oppose vaccinations.
The document explained that the phrase “religious exemption” is taken from Kansas state law and is not the most precise theological term for the task force’s own reasoning, which relied on the Church’s teachings about individual conscience.
“In Kansas, ‘religious exemption’ is state-law terminology, not a statement that the Catholic religion teaches vaccine refusal,” the FAQ document said. “The Church generally encourages vaccines for the common good, while also teaching that conscience must not be coerced.”
“The exemption is granted as a prudential school policy operating within the state’s categories,” the explainer continued, “while we continue to teach clearly that Catholic moral teaching supports vaccination in general, even if some individuals – rightly or wrongly – judge they cannot comply in conscience.”
Some parents have publicly attacked the policy change. According to KWCH 12News, an online petition opposing the policy has several hundred signatures.
Katie Phillips, a parent who signed the petition, explained that she does not want to oppose the Bishop but has reservations about the new policy.
“Really the decision to sign the petition wasn’t an effort to oppose the decision of the bishop or the decision of the school board, but to just gain an understanding and to share that our Catholic values are meant to promote protection of the vulnerable,” Phillips told the outlet, “and I don’t feel that this is doing that.”
In the FAQ document, the diocese explained that the task force decided to err on the side of individual conscience.
“Inasmuch as legitimate conscientious concerns are raised by the cooperation with evil involved in some vaccines’ development,” it said, “the doctrine of primacy of conscience would support a religious exemption to such vaccines.”
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