All Catholics should advocate for the availability of ethically developed vaccines, according to the Catholic Bishops of Ireland.

They gathered remotely this week for their Winter 2021 General Meeting via video-link, instead of the usual location at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth.

In a statement released after the meeting, they urged everyone to continue to support the Covid19 vaccination programmes.

However, they also called for pressure to be applied that vaccines be developed in an ethical way.

“In that way they bear witness that biomedical research should always be conducted in a manner which is consistent with respect for life and for human dignity.  We ask that the Departments of Health, North and South, would actively promote the development, sourcing, and supply of vaccines which do not have a historical link with abortion”.

They added: “Anyone who, for reasons of conscience, chooses not to be vaccinated must, nevertheless, do their utmost to avoid, by other means and by appropriate behaviour, becoming vehicles for the transmission of the infection”.