You’re on the DEV Site — NOT the LIVE Site
Archdiocese of San Francisco
This is not a piece about the ethics of aborted-fetal-cell-derived vaccines. You’ve no doubt read enough of those. It’s not a piece about COVID-19 vaccines or vaccines in general. Again, those too, are ubiquitous. This is not even a piece intended primarily for Catholic readers. This is about something that every rational person of good will.
Today, the Newsom Administration announced the state’s requirement for masking in schools will expire on Friday, March 11, allowing students, regardless of vaccination status, to be without a face mask at school beginning Monday, March 14.
The Department of Catholic Schools is in year two of a professional advancement program for Catholic educators designed to help teachers gain the skills they need to help students from a spectrum of backgrounds thrive academically.
For more than a century and a half, Catholic schools have been the largest educational system in the United States that is not owned and run by the government. Today Catholic elementary and secondary schools enroll more than 1.6 million students; in undergraduate and postgraduate programs offered by 226 Catholic colleges and universities there are another 850,000 students earning degrees and gaining vocational expertise.
There will be no COVID-19 vaccine mandate for Catholic school students this school year, Archdiocesan Catholic Schools Superintendent Pamela Lyons announced in a letter to parents this week. The letter came in response to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement earlier this month that he would add COVID-19 vaccines to those required for school children.