Citing state law, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier warned the state’s bishops that a refusal by Catholic schools to grant religious exemptions to vaccine mandates is “troubling and may disqualify them from state scholarships and vouchers.”
“As a Catholic, I am confident that the teachings of the Catholic Church do not require Catholic schools to compel students to take vaccines derived from the tissue of aborted children against the sincerely-held religious objections of their parents,” the attorney general wrote in his July 31 letter.
Uthmeier cited several Church documents, including the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s 2020 note on the morality of COIVD vaccines. He concluded, “Please provide a response in writing no later than August 7, 2026.”