Florida Catholics slap down state AG by rejecting religious vaccine exemptions

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier wrote to the state’s Catholic bishops demanding that Catholic schools grant religious vaccine exemptions, claiming no legitimate Catholic basis to refuse them and labeling the schools’ refusal as “morally reprehensible.” Catholic dioceses responded that Florida law permits religious exemptions but they themselves reject such exemptions, allowing only medically verified ones because they view vaccination as consistent with Catholic teaching and see no theological objection.