Both Pope Francis and Emeritus Pope Benedict received a covid19 vaccine on Thursday.

The Catholic Church has urged believers to get vaccinated while also holding it to be a matter of individual conscience.

The Church has also long appealed for vaccines to be developed in an ethical way, free of cell lines derived from aborted foetuses.

But it also accepts that, in the absence of freely available alternatives, there is no moral wrongdoing in taking a vaccine that is remotely connected with abortion.

The Vatican is using the Pfizer jab which was developed and produced without using foetal cell lines, although it was tested on a cell line that is thought to derive from an abortion in the 1970s.

On Sunday, Pope Francis threw his full support behind the drive to vaccinate.

“I believe that ethically everyone must take the vaccine. It is an ethical action, because you risk your own health, your life – but you also risk the lives of others,” the Pontiff said.