Dated 03/23/2023
A letter to all the treasurers and directors of Western Washington Catholic charities and to the Tribunal for the Archdiocese of Seattle
Angela.Kison@seattlearch.org, Executive Assistant to the Archbishop
Megan.Slivinski@seattlearch.org, Chief Financial Officer, Administration and Finance
steve.homiack@seattlearch.org, Director of Parish Support & Annual Campaigns
joe.cotton@seattlearch.org, Director of Pastoral Care and Outreach
chris.koehler@seattlearch.org, Director of Immigrant & Refugee Ministry
kate.deweese@seattlearch.org, Editor, Northwest Catholic
john.sullivan@seattlearch.org, Assistant Superintendent - Financial Services, Office for Catholic Schools
carolyn.foster@seattlearch.org, Administrative Coordinator, Called to Serve as Christ campaign
tim.hunt@seattlearch.org, Director for Planning and Mission Effectiveness
April.collier@seattlearch.org, Interim Executive Director, Vice President-St. Joseph Foundation, Crozier Society, Planned Giving
catherine.joyce@seattlearch.org, Operations Manager - Annual Catholic Appeal
carolyn.roeber@seattlearch.org, Director of the Tribunal, Judge
tonyb@seattlearch.org, Parish Priest and Judicial Vicar
scottb@seattlearch.org, Director of Parish Financial Services
Dear all,
I recently received a postcard from CCSWW informing me that I was "Missed" in the recent Appeal for the Poor. As a Catholic native of Western Washington, I have spent a lifetime giving of my time and my treasure to many Seattle Archdiocesan charities and churches. I was part of the "10%" that did everything in my parish - served as president of the SVDP (and board of directors for SVDP King County), active member of KoC, parish school volunteer with over one thousand donated hours, and 25 years as an accompanist for Holy Family Kirkland, Saint Jude, Saint Madeleine Sophie, Holy Innocents, and Saint Teresa Calcutta. I have dedicated my time, talent, and treasure to the Church of Western Washington since 1978, when I started as an altar server.
When I received that postcard from Catholic Community Services, I realized that the same passion and conviction I exhibited my entire life for this faith community has lapsed. It now occurs to me that it is time to do something meaningful. With that in mind, I believe that I have a tremendous idea that can help out all the wonderful ministries of the Archdiocese of Seattle, and I feel it is wrong for me to sit silently and keep this information to myself. I know your charities have hit hard times. I believe the idea that I detail at the bottom of this email will have a profound financial impact on all of your charitable ministries and churches, and I thank you in advance for taking the time to read this email in its entirety. To get to the solution, I'm afraid I need to provide a bit of a backstory. In exchange for my nearly fifty years of service, I ask that you please read this letter to the end.
In December of 2020, the Vatican released in the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith a Note on the morality of using some anti-Covid-19 vaccines. This document, as with all the documents from the CDF, is an instruction to bishops worldwide on how to align with the Universal Church teachings. If you haven't read this CDF, please take the time to read it. In this CDF, the Vatican clarified that it was, "Morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process". In other words, it was not a sin to receive the vaccines; it was morally acceptable. However, the document goes on to state: "At the same time, practical reason makes evident that vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and that, therefore, it must be voluntary." (emphasis added by me)
Yet, despite this clear mandate from the Vatican, the Archdiocese of Seattle decided no religious exemptions would be offered in our state for vaccinations (link). The result of this decision was that some number (unknown to me) of Archdiocesan employees were fired or forced out of their jobs, hundreds of Archdiocesan volunteers were prevented from volunteering in their parishes or schools, and thousands of Catholics and faithful across the state - firefighters, nurses, social workers - were fired, with no support or help coming from the chancery. As I outlined in my open letter to Archbishop Etienne dated 9/5/21 (link, please take the time to read), depriving one of their livelihood removes the voluntary nature that our Doctrine of Faith makes clear must be supported. It is no longer a choice to vaccinate when your job is on the line. This is a clear case of coercion, whether at the hands of Archbishop Etienne or Governor Inslee - vaccinate or be fired. The archbishop received hundreds of letters like mine, pleading for him to align with the Church. In case it were not sufficiently clear enough in the CDF, the National Catholic Bioethics Center spells out in no uncertain terms how Archbishop Etienne fell outside the bounds of the CDF:
"The influence of external pressures either to vaccinate or to refuse vaccination must not take away the voluntary character of this decision. The Church and the NCBC hold that it is unacceptable to put pressure or to mandate that a person violate a well-formed judgment of conscience. " (link).
The NCBC website has much more detailed information (which you should certainly see for yourself), including providing a Vaccine Exemption Template Letter. So, let me ask - how can one rectify the fact that the National Catholic Bioethics Center provides an exemption letter template while the Bishop of Seattle simultaneously maintains that there are no religious exemptions?
Doctrines of Faith are not recommendations. They are not left to interpretation. They are not to be implemented differently from one diocese to the next. They are an Instrument, in the hands of the Pope since 1542 to, “promote and protect the doctrine on faith and customs throughout the Catholic world, to encourage studies in order to increase the understanding of the faith, to support the Bishops in carrying out the task for which they are constituted as authentic teachers and doctors of the faith and for which they are required to guard and promote the integrity of the same faith” (emphasis added by me, link to the Vatican). Doctrines of Faith are written explicitly, and we have an obligation to follow them explicitly. Bishops have much authority within their diocese for many matters, and rightly so. But on matters of Faith and Morals as outlined in the Doctrine of Faith, there must be one and only one singular outcome for the integrity and universality of our One Catholic Faith. For Archbishop Etienne’s understanding of the CDF to be correct and aligned with the Roman Curia, then we must also take the position that all the other bishops across the US and the world and the NCBC all understand it wrong. There is One Church and there is only One Truth. For seventeen hundred years, it has been no other way.
I am sure the archbishop is worn from hearing everyone’s opinion. I anticipate that there is a split of people telling him he did the right thing or the wrong thing. But here’s the thing: it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks. Not what the archbishop thinks, nor what I think, or you, or a million other people. This is the Catholic Church, not an elected office or a philosophical consortium. All that matters is that when the Doctrine of Faith tells us how to act in regards to Faith and Morals, we follow it with precision and obedience. We don’t guess, assume, interpret, improve, theorize, speculate, or conflate it with anything else that might have been said, even by the Pope himself. We demonstrate obedience and we follow it. The archbishop has been inundated with feedback precisely because he failed to follow the Doctrine. He himself opened the door to the onslaught of opinions. Do you think the Bishop of Spokane is getting a similar level of correspondence? Archbishop Etienne read the CDF which states that it was morally licit to receive a vaccination, and he (and sadly a few others across the country) conflated that with other things that the Pope had said outside of the doctrine (for instance, calling vaccination an “act of love”) and reached the erroneous conclusion that it was somehow an obligation. There is a clear distinction between what the Pope is quoted as saying and what is in our Doctrine of Faith. The Pope can (and has) said many contradictory things in public. In contrast, “documents of (the) Congregation expressly approved by the Pope participate in the ordinary magisterium of the successor of Peter.” When he gives a quote to a reporter, it’s worth listening to. In contrast, as it states in Canon Law 749.1, when the Pope speaks on matters of faith and morals the teaching must be explicitly followed.
I belabor this point because it is so very important. In the Vatican Council found in the Papal Encyclicals, Session 3, Chapter 4, it reads: “Hence all faithful Christians are forbidden to defend as the legitimate conclusions of science those opinions which are known to be contrary to the doctrine of faith,particularly if they have been condemned by the church; and furthermore they are absolutely bound to hold them to be errors which wear the deceptive appearance of truth.” (link, emphasis not added by me). This same document tells us: "The doctrine of faith, which God has revealed, has not been proposed as a philosophical discovery to be improved upon by human talent”. Canon Law, the Vatican Council, and the Doctrine itself all align in their instruction for bishops to follow the Doctrine without addition, interpretation, or philosophical discovery. It must be carried out as explicitly as written.
Hindsight is 20/20, and those who are both honest and seek the truth must now accept that the vaccines “wore the deceptive appearance of truth”, as the Vatican Council warns us. While they helped lessen the effect of Covid-19 symptoms for some, they certainly did not "vaccinate" (definition: to produce immunity to a particular infectious disease or pathogen), nor did they have any meaningful impact on the spread of the virus. The vaccinated still contracted the virus and spread it to others. Many who were coerced to vaccinate now live with deep regret and with acute medical conditions from the vaccine. Many others who were unjustly treated or even fired from their jobs have never financially recovered. Forcing vaccination was a self-inflicted wound, one which should have been avoided. I challenge the Archdiocesan Tribunal: defend the decision of the Archbishop using Church Teaching - prove me wrong. The vast majority of other bishops across the country and the world followed the CDF, while Seattle (and a handful of other dioceses) did not. This decision by our archbishop went against our faith, and it cost our community dearly, not least of which were the priests, who were forced to choose between a disordered ruling from a local bishop and the Doctrine of the Catholic Church.
So, here's my plan for how to save our tremendous faith-based charities across Western Washington: The Archbishop of Seattle must now publicly apologize to the faithful and own his mistake, and then must fairly compensate and reconcile with all Archdiocesan employees who were ill-treated while they defended their Faith by opposing the vaccine. It's really that simple. Archbishop Etienne needs to admit that, despite perhaps his best intentions, he was wrong, and make up for it. In this season of Lent, there is no better time. I personally know of hundreds of people who stopped giving to the Church of Western Washington because of this one issue. You all know people who have walked away from their faith in the past 18 months. I can't imagine a better way to shepherd a flock than to regain the trust of the faithful. I believe that this simple act will drastically improve finances for our churches and charities by six, seven, or even eight figures.
Alternatively, if the Archbishop chooses to ignore this request, then might I suggest a much less lucrative money saving measure: Stop wasting postage on the hundreds of people who suddenly stopped supporting your charities and churches.
I send this mail not out of self-righteousness or indignation, but because I love the Catholic Church. In my heart and after much discernment, I truly believe I am acting out my Catholic faith to the best of my ability. Jesus tells us to worship in spirit and truth. Either the actions of Archbishop Etienne must be defended using Church Teaching, or they must be reconciled. There is only one truth. Either Etienne is correct, or the other bishops across the US and the world are correct.
I cannot stress enough, there is only one truth, and there cannot be multiple interpretations for a Doctrine of Faith. There never has been and God willing, there never will be.
You are receiving this mail because you have a fiduciary duty and responsibility to your respective ministries and to the people they serve. You dedicated your lives to support and help those most in need. If funding is adversely impacted because of an injustice, if even one needy person cannot be helped because resources are unnecessarily scarce, would you not be moved to action? Isn’t it worth seeking the truth? And, if using Church Teaching it was determined that the actions of the bishop were in fact made in full harmony with the Doctrine of Faith, wouldn’t your ministries directly benefit from sharing this information to people like me? It is my sincere hope that you seek the truth and as necessary apply the required counsel and leadership to bring about such an action by our bishop, on behalf of the poor and needy that depend on your actions.
I pray the archbishop can find it in his heart to do the right thing. As necessary, I will include an ever expanding circle of recipients in a public letter in hopes to reach a sufficient resolution within our faith community that needs healing. I await a response from the archbishop or the tribunal, but I certainly welcome all civil discourse. I trust we all continue to vigilantly seek Truth.
With the utmost of respect for the jobs you do and the charities you serve,
Blessings to you,
Lou Lucarelli