Florida AG warns bishops over vaccine mandates in Catholic schools
August 03, 2026
» Continue to this story on @AGJamesUthmeier
CWN Editor's Note: Citing state law, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier warned the state’s bishops that a refusal by Catholic schools to grant religious exemptions to vaccine mandates is “troubling and may disqualify them from state scholarships and vouchers.”
“As a Catholic, I am confident that the teachings of the Catholic Church do not require Catholic schools to compel students to take vaccines derived from the tissue of aborted children against the sincerely-held religious objections of their parents,” the attorney general wrote in his July 31 letter.
Uthmeier cited several Church documents, including the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s 2020 note on the morality of COIVD vaccines. He concluded, “Please provide a response in writing no later than August 7, 2026.”
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Posted by: steve5158 -
Aug. 04, 2026 8:18 PM ET USA
Everything in this article is upside-down and backwards. The state is forcing the Church to allow religious exemptions for medications that violate the Church's pro-life stance. Bananas.
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Posted by: grateful1 -
Aug. 04, 2026 8:14 PM ET USA
How unspeakably sad it is that a state official (himself a Catholic) must remind Catholic bishops to obey Catholic teaching on such a basic Catholic issue.
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Posted by: feedback -
Aug. 03, 2026 8:02 AM ET USA
The logical expectation would be for the Bishops of the Church to stand for religious freedom of the people of God entrusted to their care, even against the State, and not the other way around. This undermines the Bishops moral authority and it harms the Church. No Bishop should have any skeletons hidden in his closet, or else he could become subject to blackmail and pressure from the dark side, which I hope isn't the case in Florida.
