The most prominent American Catholics are optimistic after the ratification of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Human Health and Services (HHS) after an arduous confirmation process in which he was questioned on several key issues For the Catholic Church.
Kennedy, a professor, has faced an intense scrutiny of both parties for his opinions about vaccines, abortion and public health policy since President Donald Trump nominated him to serve as HHS head.
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This position supervises 10 agencies, including food and medication administration (FDA) and disease control centers (CDC).
Kennedy was confirmed Thursday by a vote of 52 to 48, which was divided according to the party lines, with the exception of the Kentucky senator, Mitch McConnell, the only Republican who voted against.
Vaccines and Medical Ethics: The posture of Catholics
Since his nomination and during the confirmation hearings, Kennedy was the one who received the greatest criticisms of Democratic senators for his opinions about vaccines. But some Catholics have praised their commitment to vaccine safety.
The sister Deidre Byrne, who in August 2021 was denied a religious exemption to the vaccination mandate against COVID-19 for health workers, he told CNA-Ewtn News in English-that “speaking as a doctor and Religious, ”was“ excited ”by Kennedy’s confirmation.
“Medically, I agree with the concerns (from Kennedy),” said the religious email, known as the sister Dede. He referred to vaccines and “the lack of adequate investigation, and then forcing, for example, the Vaccine against COVID-19, which had no scientific basis to support it and (ha) injured thousands.”
Byrne thanked Kennedy for his promise to study the safety of abortive pills such as Mifepristona, who were partially deregulated under the administration of Joe Biden.
“Now they are giving this abortive online pill without the evaluation of a doctor or an ultrasound,” he said. He said that it is something “extremely dangerous and a bad praxis.”
“So I thank God for President Trump and thank God that (Kennedy) has been confirmed to direct the HHS,” Byrne concluded.
A representative of the largest Catholic group of health workers, the Catholic Medical Association (CMA), told CNA that they hope to collaborate with Kennedy and the Trump administration.
The president of the Board of Directors of the CMA, Tim Millea, said that the organization “is committed to the fundamental principles of medical care: the inherent dignity of each human life from conception to natural death, the biological reality of two sexes and the protection of rights of consciousness and religious freedom for health professionals. ”
“We are eager to see the attention of Secretary Kennedy to correct HHS policies that have been in direct conflict with optimal and rational medical care methods in recent years. It is time to return to medicine practiced as it should be and not directed by ideology, ”he added.
Kennedy’s change of opinion about abortion
Despite Kennedy’s last support for abortion, many Catholics are now celebrating their confirmation after he promised to carry out the Trump administration agenda as head of the HHS.
“There was much to appreciate in the testimony of RFK Jr. during the confirmation process,” said Students For Life Action President Kristan Hawkins. He indicated that a prominent point “was the fact that he and President Trump see abortion as a tragedy and that they are analyzing the real and mortal impacts of the abuse of the power of the agency to force the commercialization of chemical abortive pills.”
“I agree with President Trump that each abortion is a tragedy,” Kennedy said during an audience with the Senate Finance Committee. “I agree with him that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2 million abortions a year, I agree with him that states must control abortion.”
“I will serve at the president, (and) I will implement his policies,” he said, revealing that Trump had expressed his desire that Kennedy put an end to late abortions, promulgated protections for conscientious exemptions and put an end to the Federal financing for abortions in the US and abroad.
During the audience, Kennedy also opposed the use of fetal tissue for stem cell research, and told Senator Maria Cantwell, Washington’s Democrat: “I will protect the research with stem cells, and today the research with stem cells can be do in umbilical laces ”. “Fetal tissue is not needed,” he added.
Kennedy has promised to combat the food health crisis
An important point of reference of Kennedy’s vision of health is the fight to reduce the consumption of highly processed foods, chemicals, additives and seed oils.
Michael Thomas, co -founder of the Catholic Movement for the Earth, told CNA that he looks forward to the public health reforms proposed by Kennedy and the benefits they could have for small farms.
“The Catholic Movement for Earth is excited about the rhetoric we have seen from RFK around US health and the prohibition of administration and harmful processes,” he said. “However, it is not enough to limit the bad, we must support the good.”
According to Thomas, there is enough hope with Kennedy’s confirmation. He gave as an example the idea of replacing seed oils with beef tallow in the fryers throughout the United States. Thomas said that a new market could be created for small American farms to provide the alternative.
“As an organization that is in the first line of defense of small farms and American farms, we are excited to work in the restoration of local and regenerative agriculture with this administration and we are eager to see and we hope to participate in development in the development From that policy course, ”he added.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in CNA.
Low Elhabbal
Madalaine Elhabbal is a CNA journalist based in the Washington DC office in EWTN. He has published articles in Catholicvote and has also worked as a foreign language assistant in France. She is a graduate of Benedictine College.