MEXICO CITY, Mexico — On Sunday the Archdiocese of Mexico City called on the faithful voluntarily to get vaccinated against COVID-19, but the archdiocese is currently not considering making vaccination mandatory for clerics or employees. 

In an Aug. 22 editorial in its publication Desde la Fe entitled, “It Depends on Us,” the Mexico City Archdiocese referred to the recent video in which Pope Francis says that “getting vaccinated is an option of love for all, especially the most vulnerable.”

Other cardinals and bishops appear in the video as well, including Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes of Mexico.

The archdiocese said Aug. 22 that, “accordingly, we call on the population, especially believers, to go get vaccinated and not get carried away by fake news, which seeks to create confusion and doubts about the effectiveness of vaccines.”

"Let’s remember that, to get to the point where we are, these vaccines have been subjected to studies and represent the effort of a large number of men and women who have worked to mitigate this terrible pandemic,” the editorial stated.

For the archdiocese, “along with individual responsibility, the commitment of the authorities to guarantee universal access to the vaccine, as well as to health services, is important.”

Javier Rodríguez, the director of communications for the Archdiocese of Mexico, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that the position taken in the editorial “was to encourage people to get vaccinated, as it is the best alternative to control the pandemic.”

However, he noted that “the initiative was promoted to do so voluntarily.”

“As of now, it has not been under consideration to make it mandatory or a requirement for any activity,” he pointed out.

Currently in Mexico, seven vaccines are authorized for emergency use: Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Sputnik V, CoronaVac, CanSino, Covaxin, and Johnson & Johnson.

More than 30 million people have received full doses of the COVID-19 vaccines in Mexico as of Aug. 21. The government expects to have completed the vaccination plan for more than 107 million people by December 2021.

As of August 21, more than 3.2 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Mexico, with more than 252,000 deaths. It is estimated that there are more than 154,000 active cases in the country.

In its December 2020 note on the morality of using some anti-Covid-19 vaccines, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith stated that “vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation,” and, “therefore, it must be voluntary.” 

It said that “in the absence of other means to stop or even prevent the epidemic, the common good may recommend vaccination.”

The congregation wrote: “Those who, however, for reasons of conscience, refuse vaccines produced with cell lines from aborted fetuses must do their utmost to avoid, by other prophylactic means and appropriate behavior, becoming vehicles for the transmission of the infectious agent.”