"Thou shall not kill." Students at a Catholic university are reverting to the Bible's 10 Commandments in a lawsuit against St. John's University in New York, which they accuse of violating their religious rights. Seventeen students at the school have filed a case against the Catholic University over its COVID vaccine mandate.
"As a devout Roman Catholic, I believe life is precious. In the Ten Commandments, it says, 'Thou Shall Not Kill,'" one of the 17 plaintiffs, 19 year old second year pharmacy student Kimberly Vineski told the New York Post. She was referring to abortion, from which three of the federally approved COVID vaccines take "aborted fetal tissue or human embryonic stem-cell derivation" in its development and testing stages.
According to court papers, St. John's University will not consider a religious exemption for the 17 plaintiffs because there are questions about "the genuineness of their purported religious beliefs." Meanwhile, the Catholic Church has expressed its support of the COVID vaccine mandate, saying that the shots do not violate church teachings or dogma.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops concluded in a guidance issued that "neither Pfizer nor Moderna used an abortion-derived cell line in the development or production of the vaccine." However, they acknowledged that cell lines were indeed used to test vaccine efficacy and that it was "wrong to create abortion-derived cell lines and for pharmaceutical companies to utilize them."
According to the bishops, despite the fact that hte COVID vaccines have "abortion-derived cell lines," the use of these "is very remote from the initial evil of the abortion." The bishops concluded that "the use of vaccines produced with such cell lines should be avoided if comparable alternatives with no connection to abortion are available."
Meanwhile, the 17 plaintiffs suing the Catholic university are seeking $2.75 million in damages, barring a change in St. John's University's position. The case was filed in the state Supreme Court in Suffolk County on Long Island. The school has campuses located in Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island and Hauppauge, Long Island.
"St. John's University is trampling on students' religious rights. It's disgusting," James Mermigis, the plaintiffs' lawyer, declared. He also denounced how St. John's University recently honored its alumnus, Frank D'Amelio, who serves as the chief financial officer and executive vice president of global supply for Pfizer, the company behind the first COVID vaccine that was granted full approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
St. John's, whoever, is confident that their COVID vaccine mandate will "withstand this legal challenge," school spokesman Brian Browne said. He added, "Courts have consistently upheld student vaccination requirements as necessary to promote health and safety."
On Friday, the Supreme Court rejected a request from a group of teachers in New York to block New York City's vaccine mandate that requires public school teachers to get the COVID vaccine before going back to work. Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor denied the emergency request without comment, according to USA Today.
Similarly, the Supreme Court refused to block a COVID vaccine mandate at Indiana University in August, thereby enabling the university to mandate vaccines for its students and faculty members.
