The Vatican’s doctrinal office said on Monday it was morally OK for Catholics to receive coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines tied to aborted fetuses for the sake of the “common good.”

The note from the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (CDF) said use of Covid-19 vaccines produced with cell lines derived from two aborted fetuses in the 1960s was “morally acceptable,” amid the the pandemic.

“In the absence of other means to stop or even prevent the epidemic, the common good may recommend vaccination, especially to protect the weakest and most exposed,” the doctrinal office’s note said.

The office added that vaccination should still be voluntary, but those who choose not to be vaccinated must “do their utmost to avoid, by other prophylactic means and appropriate behavior, becoming vehicles for the transmission of the infectious agent.”

Despite the CDF’s approval of people receiving the vaccines tied to aborted fetuses under the circumstances of the pandemic, it says that it maintains its formal stance against abortion.

The CDF explained that “the moral duty to avoid such passive cooperation is not obligatory” because of the danger due to the “uncontainable spread of a serious pathological agent.”

“In such a case, all vaccinations recognized as clinically safe and effective 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.”

The CDF added it was also “morally imperative” to ensure vaccine accessibility to the poorest countries.

The use of fetal tissue by growing viruses in cultured fetal cells is not rare in vaccine development, DPA International reported.

Last week, a University of Virginia Health System employee filed a complaint against his employer when they would not allow a religious exemption from getting the flu shot. The man objected to the flu shot based on his Christian beliefs about vaccines made from fetal cell lines derived from an abortion or made by companies that profit from selling such vaccines. CURRENTPH