• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
A medical worker administers a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to a patient Nov. 17, 2021. (CNS photo/Stephane Mahe, Reuters)

Health care workers denied religious exemption on vaccine win settlement

August 11, 2022
By Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Coronavirus, Feature, News, World News

CHICAGO (CNS) — Liberty Counsel, a Christian legal group, announced that a settlement it called historic has been reached with an Illinois hospital system over denying its employees a religious exemption to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

The NorthShore University HealthSystem has agreed to pay out more than $10.3 million in a “historic, first-of-its-kind class-action settlement” against a private employer, the group said.

The settlement was filed July 29 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois’ eastern division.

The Evanston-based health care system, which recently merged with Edward-Elmhurst Health, is the third largest health care delivery system in the state. It has nine hospitals and more than 300 local offices offering various clinical services; the merged system now stretches across six northeast Illinois counties.

The court must approve the settlement, the Chicago-based Liberty Counsel said in a statement.

“Employees of NorthShore who were denied religious exemptions will receive notice of the settlement,” it said, “and will have an opportunity to comment, object, request to opt out or submit a claim form for payment out of the settlement fund, all in accordance with deadlines that will be set by the court.”

More than 500 current and former health care workers “were unlawfully discriminated against and denied religious exemptions from the COVID shot mandate,” the Liberty Counsel added. “Employers that unlawfully forced their employees to get the COVID jabs just got a massive wake-up call.”

Those who have raised religious objections to being forced to get the COVID-19 vaccine say it is because an abortion-derived cell line was used during the research and/or development of the vaccines. The vaccines themselves do not contain aborted fetal cells.

The three vaccines approved for use in the U.S. — Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen –- all rely on abortion-derived cell lines, the first two in testing and the third throughout the development, testing and production stages.

In a December 2020 document, the U.S. Catholic bishops reiterated Catholic teaching on morally compromised vaccines, noting their use can be justified amid urgent health crises, a lack of available alternatives and their remote connection with the abortions from which their cell lines originated.

The bishops’ document echoed the guidance issued by the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation, which said in a note on the issue Dec. 21, 2020, that “all vaccinations recognized as clinically safe and effective can be used in good conscience with the certain knowledge that the use of such vaccines does not constitute formal cooperation with the abortion.”

In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control recommended use of the two-shot Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines over the Janssen one-shot vaccine because of concerns raised about side effects seen in some individuals who have received the latter shot.

In response to the settlement, the NorthShore health system said that along with changing how it considers religious exemptions, it will allow unvaccinated workers who were let go after they claimed a religious exemption to return.

“We continue to support systemwide, evidence-based vaccination requirements for everyone who works at NorthShore–Edward-Elmhurst Health and thank our team members for helping to keep our communities safe,” the system said in a statement.

“The settlement reflects implementation of a new systemwide vaccine policy which will include accommodation for team members with approved exemptions, including former employees who are rehired,” it added.

Read More Coronavirus News

Some U.S. dioceses are lifting restrictions on Communion cup

Pandemic, inflation, communications shakeup alter USCCB budget picture

NCEA reports quicker academic recovery from pandemic for Catholic schools

Pope: Parishes are essential places for growing in faith, community

Catholic group honors Fauci, wife for their life’s work in health care

Dominican Sisters’ COVID-19 art exhibit memorializes pandemic deaths

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Catholic News Service

Catholic News Service is a leading agency for religious news. Its mission is to report fully, fairly and freely on the involvement of the church in the world today.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Priest who offered up cancer for clerical abuse victims says he was healed at Lourdes
  • All are welcome: Finding a home at Mount St. Joseph
  • Tuition at Catholic high schools in Baltimore archdiocese significantly lower than other area private schools
  • Movie Review: ‘Knock at the Cabin’
  • After Biden comments, U.S. bishops say they have ‘united position’ on abortion

| Latest Local News |

Annapolis parish marks historic milestone

Sister Alice Klein, O.S.F., dies at 91

RADIO INTERVIEW: Black Catholic Nuns

| Latest World News |

Russia poses ‘biggest threat to religious freedom in Ukraine,’ says archbishop

Pope, church leaders draw attention to victims of violence

Gregory: World needs African Americans’ ‘strength of character’; it ‘resides within the souls of our people’

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Russia poses ‘biggest threat to religious freedom in Ukraine,’ says archbishop
  • Pope, church leaders draw attention to victims of violence
  • Gregory: World needs African Americans’ ‘strength of character’; it ‘resides within the souls of our people’
  • Annapolis parish marks historic milestone
  • Sister Alice Klein, O.S.F., dies at 91
  • Pope saddened by ‘huge loss of life’ after earthquakes in Turkey and Syria
  • RADIO INTERVIEW: Black Catholic Nuns
  • Catholic lawmaker calls for ‘frank and sober’ security conversation after Chinese balloon shot down
  • Arms trade is a ‘plague,’ pope says on flight back from Africa

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2023 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED