Wednesday, March 17, 2021
Long time Rockford priest now Bishop in controversy over J&J Vaccine
Rev. David Kagan
He was ordained priest on June 14, 1975 in the Diocese of Rockford. He served at the following assignments: parish vicar of Saint Patrick Parish in Dixon and teacher of religious education at Newman Central Catholic High School in Sterling (1975–1977); teacher of religious education at Boylan Catholic High School in Rockford, and vice-official of Diocesan Tribunal (1979–1984); judicial vicar (1984–1994); parish administrator of Saint Anne Parish in Warren and of Saint Joseph Parish at Apple River (1984–1985); chaplain at the Sisters of St Clare and parish vicar at St Peter's Cathedral in Rockford (1985–1986); pastor of Saint Mary Parish in Byron and teacher of ethics at Saint Anthony College of Nursing in Rockford (1986–1989); and pastor of the Proto-Cathedral of St James in Rockford (1990–1994).
He served as president of the Presbyterial Council, and editor of the Diocesan weekly paper. Kagan was admitted to the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem as a Knight Commander in March 1995.[1] In 1994, Kagan was named Vicar General and Moderator of Curia, as well as Honorary Prelate. In 2011 he was promoted to Protonotary Apostolic.[1]
Episcopacy
Bishop of Bismarck
Kagan was named bishop of Bismarck on October 19, 2011, following the retirement of Bishop Zipfel
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FACEBOOK:
Bismarck Diocese March 3
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NOTICE regarding the Janssen/Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine: The recently approved (FDA 2-27-2021) vaccine produced by Janssen/Johnson & Johnson used abortion-derived cell lines in the design, development, production and lab testing. This Janssen/Johnson & Johnson vaccine is morally compromised and therefore unacceptable for any Catholic physician or health care worker to dispense and for any Catholic to receive due to its direct connection to the intrinsically evil act of abortion. No one should use or receive this vaccine but there is no justification for any Catholic to do so. Two morally acceptable vaccines are available and may be used. As always, no one is bound to receive this vaccine, but it remains an individual and informed decision
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March 8
Diocese of Bismarck says Johnson & Johnson vaccine can be used if no other option is available
Diocese of Bismarck says Johnson & Johnson vaccine can be used if no other option is available(KFYR-TV)
By Hallie Brown
Published: Mar. 8, 2021 at 9:27 PM CST
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BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) - The Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine is creating some tension at the intersection of science and faith.
This is because fetal cell lines were used to produce and manufacture the vaccine.
North Dakota has been allocated doses of all three vaccines but it’s the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that’s causing moral turmoil in for those of the Catholic faith.
Fr. Robert Shea with the Diocese of Bismarck released a statement saying it is possible to receive Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in good conscience if given no other choice, but it should be avoided if there are alternatives available.
“The Catholic Church’s concern about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is that it is morally compromised as a cell line from aborted fetal tissue was used in its development and production. As the U.S. Bishops’ statement on the J&J vaccine indicates, it is possible to receive it in good conscience if given no other choice, but it should be avoided if there are alternatives (like Pfizer or Moderna) available,” said Fr. Shea.
State Immunization Director Molly Howell says since vaccines amounts are limited it is difficult to offer choice for a vaccine.
“We’re currently not offering choice for providers as to which vaccine they can offer, and so it will be difficult and it may mean, I mean ultimately people can choose if they want to receive or not that’s their decision of course and they need to make that decision on their own,” said Howell.
According to a report from NBC News, Johnson & Johnson says there is no fetal tissue in its vaccine.
Above is from: https://www.kfyrtv.com/2021/03/09/diocese-of-bismarck-says-johnson-johnson-vaccine-can-be-used-if-no-other-option-is-available/
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Clarity for Catholics: It's OK to get Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine – if it's the only one available
Elizabeth Weise
Wed, March 17, 2021, 12:47 PM
Catholics might be somewhat confused by reports on differing messages about the acceptability of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine due to a cell line from an abortion being used in its production.
The differences have been resolved and Catholic teaching is clear: Catholics have a moral duty to protect themselves and others from COVID-19 by being vaccinated. However, if given the choice, they should avoid the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, according to the Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Should they choose not to be vaccinated, they have a moral obligation to mask, socially distance and "do their utmost" to avoid becoming infected or infecting others, the Vatican said.
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The message was somewhat garbled when the Diocese of Bismarck in North Dakota issued a statement March 2 saying the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was "morally compromised and therefore unacceptable" to be given or received by Catholics.
"The local bishop is taking a harder stance than either the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops or the Vatican," said Dr. G. Kevin Donovan, a Catholic bioethicist at the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University Medical Center.
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A week ago, however, the Bismarck Diocese walked back its initial hard line.
"The Catholic Church’s concern about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is that it is morally compromised as a cell line from aborted fetal tissue was used in its development and production," said Father Robert Shea, diocesan ethicist for health care. "As the U.S. Bishops’ statement on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine indicates, it is possible to receive it in good conscience if given no other choice, but it should be avoided if there are alternatives (like Pfizer or Moderna) available."
A December statement from the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made clear the overarching moral mandate is to be vaccinated or do the utmost possible to avoid passing along the virus.
When "ethically irreproachable" COVID-19 vaccines are not available, "it is morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process," the statement said.
Neither the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines are entirely free from moral quandary as both used fetal cells from an abortion for early testing, though not in the actual production of the vaccine.
Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI both received their first doses of the Pfizer vaccine on Jan. 13.
Catholics' duty is to protect "the common good," the Vatican statement said. The vaccines "can be used in good conscience with the certain knowledge that the use of such vaccines does not constitute formal cooperation with the abortion from which the cells used in production of the vaccines derive."
Father Tad Pacholczyk, director of education with the National Catholic Bioethics Center, notes Catholics have an obligation to voice their concerns, whichever vaccine they get.
"End users have a duty to push back and make known their disagreement with the continued use of these cells by researchers in the pharmaceutical industry and academia," he said.
That can include writing letters to the companies, posting on social media or writing letters to the editor, he said.
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It's certainly permissible for an individual to refuse a vaccine they find morally problematic, Donovan said. But they are then obligated to do whatever they can to reduce the risk of transmitting COVID-19 to themselves or others.
That would include masking, social distancing and hand-washing.
"That's something that shouldn't be missed," said Donovan. "We have a moral obligation to not only take care of our own health but to protect others whenever possible and by whatever reasonable means are available."
His statement echoed the Vatican, which said people who refuse vaccines produced using cell lines from aborted fetuses have a responsibility to protect others.
They must “do their utmost to avoid, by other prophylactic means and appropriate behavior, becoming vehicles for the transmission of the infectious agent.”
The issue is over the PER.C6 cell line, which came from retinal cells from an 18-week old fetus legally aborted 36 years ago in the Netherlands.
In the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the cell line is used to help to create the vaccine but isn't actually in the vaccine, said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
"It's in the vat; it's not going into your arm," he said.
He added, "To wait for a vaccine from Pfizer or Moderna is a choice to take an unnecessary risk, one that could harm others."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine OK for Catholics, if it's the only one
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Some US bishops discourage Catholics from getting Johnson & Johnson vaccine if others are available
By Madeline Holcombe, Tina Burnside and Kay Jones, CNN
Updated 1:40 PM ET, Wed March 3, 2021
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops, as well as at least 6 other dioceses from across the country have released statements expressing "moral concerns" over the shot due to its use of lab-grown cells that descend from cells taken in the 1980s from the tissue of aborted fetuses.
Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine given to first patients in Ohio
The vaccine is the third to be authorized for use in the United States. Unlike its predecessors -- from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna -- the Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only one shot and can be kept at normal refrigerator temperatures, making it easy to transport.
Health experts have cautioned that Americans should get the vaccine they are offered.
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"If people are offered the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, they shouldn't say, 'I don't want it,'" Dr. Paul Goepfert, director of the Alabama Vaccine Research Clinic, said last month. "We are not in a scenario where we can pick and choose vaccines."
Prior to the US emergency use authorization for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the doctrinal office for the Roman Catholic Church -- the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith -- said that "it is morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process."
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The new statement from the Conference of Bishops is at odds with a note approved by Pope Francis, who received a vaccine in January. The December note said that "the use of such vaccines does not constitute formal cooperation with the abortion from which the cells used in production of the vaccines derive."
In a statement to CNN, Johnson & Johnson said: "We are proud to bring our COVID-19 vaccine to the world and to contribute to ending this pandemic. Our single-shot COVID-19 vaccine uses an inactivated non-infective adenovirus vector -- similar to a cold virus -- that codes for the coronavirus "spike" (S) protein, and there is no fetal tissue in the vaccine.
"We are able to manufacture hundreds of millions of doses using our engineered cell-line system and look forward to delivering those doses around the world and help meet the critical need."
The White House on Wednesday pushed back on the statement from the Conference of Bishops.
An administration official pointed CNN toward the Vatican statement from December, adding that the Biden administration is also "addressing hesitancy and working with local messengers on how to address that, including with religious leaders."
President Joe Biden is a practicing Catholic.
Making a vaccine with cells descended from fetal tissue
Vaccine makers sometimes use fetal cell lines when developing a vaccine.
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Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna used cell lines originating from fetal tissue to test their vaccines, whereas they were used in Johnson & Johnson's "development, confirmation and production,"according to Dr. James Lawler, an infectious disease expert at Nebraska Medicine.
Those cells are thousands of generations removed from the original fetal tissue, said Lawler.
Along with the use of cells, Johnson & Johnson's vaccine is made differently than the other two authorized vaccines.
The company developed an adenovirus vector vaccine, in which the adenovirus -- which has been modified to not cause illness -- carries genetic material with a coronavirus spike protein into a body so a person's cells can make the spike protein itself and activate their immune system against the virus, Lawler said.
Johnson & Johnson used the fetal cell line that it did because it is "a well-studied industry standard for safe and reliable production of viral vector vaccines," Lawler said.
Ohio State University clinic manager Paige Blankenship, left, administers one of the first Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines on Tuesday.
What bishops are saying about the vaccine
But now, statements from US bishops are encouraging Catholics to opt to receive the Pfizer/BioNTec or Moderna option when possible.
The Archdiocese of New Orleans called the Johnson & Johnson vaccine "morally compromised" in a statement last week, and the dioceses of Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Burlington, Vermont, have released statements expressing concerns over the shot.
Bishop Michael Duca from the Baton Rouge Diocese released a statement that reads, "If for any reasonable circumstance you are only able to receive the vaccine from Johnson and Johnson, you should feel free to do so for your safety and for the common good."
The statement, which was echoed in Burlington, went on to say that the decision to receive the vaccine is between an individual conscience and their health care provider, but that "in no way does the Church's position diminish the wrongdoing of those who decided to use cell lines from abortions to make vaccines."
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While Pfizer and Moderna vaccines should be chosen over Johnson and Johnson's where possible, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a statement Tuesday it is "morally acceptable" to receive vaccines when "ethically irreproachable" options are not available.
"Given the world-wide suffering that this pandemic is causing, we affirm again that being vaccinated can be an act of charity that serves the common good," the statement said.
The statement was an update to one released in December that echoed the Vatican's statement, saying that Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were morally acceptable despite their "remote connection to morally compromised cell lines" due to the gravity of the pandemic.
What health experts are saying
Many health experts are encouraging those to whom the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is available to take it.
"My advice to all my patients and to all my friends will be to get the first vaccine you can get. That's what matters the most -- to get protected," said Dr. Jeff Carson, Provost at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences of Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Fauci: 'I would take whatever vaccine would be available to me'
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert who was raised Catholic, on Sunday urged Americans to take any of the three "highly efficacious" coronavirus vaccines now available to them and not delay getting one vaccine over another.
Americans generally haven't been offered a choice on which vaccine to get, although that may shift in some places as supply increases.
With the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, some sites have been offering whatever vaccine they have the most of that day. The supply changes from week to week.
And though Pfizer and Moderna options boast an efficacy of about 95% compared to Johnson & Johnson's 72% in the US, experts say it is not the inferior option.
They say the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is an effective vaccine that offers good protection against severe forms of Covid-19. Anyone should take it if given the opportunity. The vaccine's efficacy goes up to 86% against severe forms of the illness.
"If we could prevent people completely from dying or getting hospitalized with Covid, we don't have a problem anymore," Goepfert said.
CNN's Dakin Andone and Jen Christensen contributed to this report.
Above is from: https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/03/health/bishops-catholics-johnson-and-johnson-vaccine/index.html
Edgar County Watchdog: Follow-up on legality of using government Facebook account for electioneering
FEATURE, POPLAR GROVE
Campaigning On Gov't Social Media Account Is Prohibited Political (Electioneering) Activity -
BY JOHN KRAFT & KIRK ALLEN
POPLAR GROVE, IL. (ECWd) -
After our article referencing Village of Poplar Grove President and Candidate Owen Costanza's electioneering on the village's official social media account, several people expressed their opinion that there is no law prohibiting campaigning on an official Facebook page, so it is not electioneering.
We disagree, and suggest, as the State Official and Employees Ethics Act ("Ethics Act") provides, that it is a Class A misdemeanor if found guilty in a Court.
An official social media account for a public body is public property, subject to the Freedom of Information Act, Local Records Act, Ethics Act, Illinois Constitution, and the protections found in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Just as physical real estate (city hall) is public property, so are government vehicles, computers, telephones, fax machines, cell phones, email accounts , time at a government job,. . . and . . . official government webpages and social media accounts.
As with other public property, electioneering with public property is intentionally misappropriating government property [5 ILCS 430/5-15, et seq] by engaging in prohibited political activity for the benefit of a campaign for elective office.
Electioneering involves 15 specifically enumerated "prohibited political activities" as defined in the State Official and Employees Ethics Act, 5 ILCS 430/1-5, and for Poplar Grove, their own Municipal Ethics Ordinance adopts Section 15, and the Gift Ban portion of that Act.
Chapter 1-5 of the Ethics Act defines prohibited political activity, in part, as follows:
- (1) Preparing for, organizing, or participating in any political meeting, political rally, political demonstration, or other political event
- (7) Soliciting votes on behalf of a candidate for elective office...
- (11) Distributing, preparing for distribution, or mailing campaign literature, campaign signs, or other campaign material on behalf of any candidate for elective office...
- (12) Campaigning for any elective office...
While reading the Ethics Act, you might also want to consider the definition of "Prohibited Source" numbers (2), (3), and (4) which may likely apply to the social media posts in question.
Next comes Section 5-15 of the Ethics Act, which the Village of Poplar Grove has adopted in its Ordinance #2018-01, of April 18, 2018 (also listed as Chapter 11 in the Village's Code of Ordinances)
In Section 5-15, it states, in part, "Prohibited political activities.":
- (a) . . . shall not intentionally misappropriate any State (municipal) property or resources by engaging in any prohibited political activity for the benefit of any campaign for elective office . . .
The Illinois Attorney General has determined that Social Media account of public bodies are public record and subject to the Freedom of Information Act (here and here) as digital records have always been within the definition of a "public record."
The Secretary of State has applied the Local Records Act to social media posts and published its "Managing Social Media & the State and Local Records Acts: A Quick Guide for Social Media Policy and Management" - even including relevant legal cases on the last page. This also may encompass private/non government social media pages created and updated by a government actor.
Finally, there is the Illinois Constitution, Article VIII, Section 1, which states "Public funds, property or credit shall only be used for public purposes" - and there is no public purpose for campaigning for elective office using public property, no matter what form the public property takes. Constitutional violations can be used as a predicate for Official Misconduct charges (People v Howard, IL Supreme Court).
What are the penalties for violating Section 5-15 of the Ethics Act?
- Look no further than Section 50-5 of the Ethics Act:
- CRIMINAL: A person is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor if the person intentionally violated any provision of Section 5-15 . . .
- Also included in penalties are discipline or discharge
- Above is from: https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/2021/03/campaigning-on-govt-social-media-account-is-prohibited-political-electioneering-activity/
