“Leaving due to compulsory vaccination?” – Diocese of Innsbruck responds to critics
The Diocese of Innsbruck against all those who have turned their backs on the church and left or intend to die due to the church’s position on compulsory vaccination. The diocese goes under the title “Resignation due to compulsory vaccination?” to the most frequent inquiries with which they have been reported in recent weeks – such as the question of why the bishops have not fought against compulsory vaccination or why the church has not done more to help the disadvantaged? After all, as the Catholic Church, you want to “continue to be home for many people”.
With regard to the official church position on the subject of compulsory vaccination, the diocese once again states that the bishops have not spoken out in favor of compulsory vaccination, but would have given a vaccination recommendation. “We are concerned with the balance between the freedom rights of the individual and concern for the common good,” says the Diocese of Innsbruck. “In all debates, please do not forget that the pros and cons of vaccination is not a question of faith! The different approaches and opinions must not divide us as people or divide us as believers. Likewise, the pros and cons of compulsory vaccination have nothing to do with church membership .”
In addition, the diocese points out that the Catholic Church has always “spoken against any form of disparagement and asked for a disarmament of words and gestures”. “Only respect for different points of view can ensure peaceful coexistence. We all, the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, have a duty to make a personal contribution to the common good.”
In its statement, the diocese also counters the misinformation that the churches were closed during the lockdown: the churches were never closed – only services were temporarily or suspended. it can only take place under appropriate security precautions. “Especially during the lockdown times, churches, chapels, cemeteries, etc. were visited in large numbers by many people,” the diocese of Innsbruck notes. In addition, numerous parish initiatives have been set “to reach people even in the critical phases”.
It was regrettable that pastoral care in old people’s and nursing homes could not be maintained everywhere during the first lockdown; However, they have campaigned emphatically and successfully to ensure that this is now possible anywhere and at any time. In the hospitals, pastors were also on hand during all lockdowns.
The statement then also addresses the criticism that was expressed in view of the vaccination route set up in Vienna’s St. Stephen’s Cathedral. The initiative was an attempt to “win the population over to vaccination and thus make a contribution to the common good”. However, it is not “the” Austrian Church that is behind the action, but the Archdiocese of Vienna. “Not every action, in whatever diocese it takes place, should be decisive as a criterion for personal church membership.” (Information: www.dibk.at/Themen/Austritt-wegen-Impfpflicht)
Source: catpress