Dear Friends in Christ:

There is no mandate regarding student COVID-19 vaccinations being enforced at this time in our Catholic parochial schools. With prudent public safety protocols, we have been able to limit the spread of this virus in our communities.

The State Administration’s plan to add the COVID-19 vaccination to the list of mandatory vaccinations for students to enter public or private schools in the state, as currently proposed, would be contingent on full FDA approval of the vaccine for children and would need to allow for both a medical and personal belief exemption. Personal or medical exemptions included in the regulations for the COVID-19 vaccination will be honored at Catholic parochial schools in the Diocese of Sacramento.

BALTIMORE— The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) gathered for the 2021 Fall General Assembly in Baltimore this week. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the bishops’ June 2020 spring meeting was canceled, and the November 2020 fall meeting and June 2021 spring meeting were held in a virtual format. This was the first in-person meeting of the full body of bishops since November 2019.

The meeting agenda included more than a dozen action items that were up for a vote:

In photo above, Luke Anderson looks at a photo of his sister, Sophia, with Misael, a child they met at the garbage dump in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Luke T. Anderson was 11 and his sister, Sophia Anderson, was 14 when they first visited Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in 2014 on a family vacation with their parents, Camille and Scott, all members of Holy Spirit Parish in Fairfield.

They were excited to have fun at the beaches and experience the local customs. But they soon noticed the extreme poverty of the kids, especially in villages surrounding the resorts. 

The family was staying at a hotel owned by local philanthropists who were offering a promotion. Visitors could get discounts on drinks and food if they took the time to visit the small village a half hour away, where some 200 families lived in a garbage dump.