Pope Francis denounces ‘anti-vaxxers,’ calls COVID jab refusal an ‘almost suicidal act of denial’

 Pope Francis has once again touted the abortion-tainted COVID vaccines, reissuing his condemnation of those who refused to take the shot.

VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis has issued fresh condemnation of critics of the abortion-tainted COVID-19 injections, saying that opposition to the shots “distressed” him since “being against the antidote is an almost suicidal act of denial.”

Speaking as part of his newly released memoirs, in a series of interviews conducted by journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona, Pope Francis highlighted his thoughts and responses to the COVID-19 era, including the abortion-tainted COVID jabs and his warm welcome of them.

The Pontiff rebuked those who did not receive an injection, or who voiced opposition to them publicly, saying:

Deciding whether to get vaccinated is always an ethical choice, but I know that many people signed up to movements opposed to the administration of the medication. This distressed me because in my view, being against the antidote is an almost suicidal act of denial.

Francis also made a thinly-veiled condemnation of Cardinal Raymond Burke, who voiced strong opposition to the injections and who was also hospitalized with COVID-19 and serious health issues. 

“There were even a few anti-vaxxers among the bishops: some came close to death,” stated Francis, echoing a veiled dig he made at the American cardinal in 2021.

Referring to the COVID-related lockdowns as a “grim scenario,” Francis stated that “[t]his grim scenario began to change with the arrival of the first vaccines,” failing to mention the multitude of side effects linked to the rollout of the experimental jabs, including upticks in heart, brain and blood diseases, among others issues.

The Pontiff, who has remained an outspoken promoter of the injections from the start, opined that “a generalized fear was created when superficial explanations of how the vaccines worked spoke of injections of the virus into the body. There were also claims there was nothing but water in the vials; some people even stated publicly that microchips were being implanted in people.” 

“All this,” he said, “created confusion and panic.”

Particularly during the height of COVID-19 related restrictions, Francis regularly pushed the “moral obligation” of taking an abortion-tainted jab as being an “act of love.” As early as late summer 2020, he suggested that “everyone” must take the COVID-19 vaccine. “I believe that, ethically, everyone should take the vaccine,” he said. The pope added “it must be done.”

In January 2021, Francis and Pope Benedict XVI were among the first to receive the abortion-tainted injections, with Pfizer supplying the Holy See with its injections. Both men subsequently received boosters of the injection in the months following. 

Commenting on this, Francis told Ragona: “When the first supplies arrived at the Vatican, I scheduled my vaccination immediately; later I got the boosters as well, and, thanks be to God, I lave not caught the virus.” 

The pope noted with pleasure the initiative which he undertook with papal almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, to invite the financially needy along with “transgender” individuals to receive their injections at the Vatican. 

Pfizer’s production of abortion pills, along with its production of a COVID-19 injection involving tests using the HEK 293 cell line, is derived from kidney tissue taken from a healthy baby who was aborted in the Netherlands in the 1970s. Seemingly undeterred by the ethical question, Francis secretly met twice with Pfizer CEO Francis Bourla during 2021, with Bourla also speaking at a Vatican-hosted health conference. 

The Vatican also mandated COVID jabs for Vatican employees and visitors, removing the option to test “negative” for the virus, and allowing only proof of recovery from the virus as an alternative to the injection. An additional mandate resulted in three Swiss Guards losing their jobs in 2021 after refusing to take the abortion-tainted injection.

COVID injections mandates finally ended in June 2022, though it was extended for the Swiss Guards. As late as January 2023, COVID shots were still required for reporters wishing to join the Pope on papal journeys – a mandate which expired by that April.

Highlighting the intimate link to abortion which the injections have, Cardinal Burke stated in May 2020 that “[i]t is never morally justified to develop a vaccine through the use of cell lines of aborted fetuses” and that the thought of it being injected into one’s body is “rightly abhorrent.” He noted also that vaccination may not be imposed “in a totalitarian manner” on citizens.

Similar vocal criticism of the injections has also been repeatedly issued by prelates such as Bishop Athanasius Schneider. Indeed, in a seminal intervention of December 12, 2020, Bishop Athanasius Schneider – along with co-signers Cardinal Janis Pujats, Bishop Joseph Strickland, and Archbishops Tomash Peta and Jan Pawel Lenga – expressed their strong conviction that any use of a vaccine tainted with the “unspeakable crime” of abortion, under any circumstances, “cannot be acceptable for Catholics.”

Since that time, numerous studies and many thousands of scientists and leading health professionals, including Nobel Prize winners, and medics have testified to the unprecedented level of injuries and deaths, following and resulting from the COVID injections. The latest conservative estimate is that over 17 million worldwide died from receiving the injections making this the worst man-caused medical catastrophe in history.

As of February 23, 2024, the U.S. Federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) reports 37,231 deaths, 214,906 hospitalizations, 21,524 heart attacks, and 28,214 myocarditis and pericarditis case, among other ailments. An April 2022 study out of Israel indicates that COVID infection itself cannot fully account for the myocarditis numbers, despite common insistence to the contrary. 

VAERS reports are technically unconfirmed, as anyone can submit one, but U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers have recognized a “high verification rate of reports of myocarditis to VAERS after mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccination,” leading to the conclusion that “under-reporting is more likely” than overreporting. A 2010 report submitted to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS’s) Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) warned that VAERS caught “fewer than 1% of vaccine adverse events.”