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Pope Francis: Holy Father... Until Catholic Anti-Vaxxers Need A Free Exercise Suit

Honestly, Your Holiness, it's time to start excommunicating people trying to pull this.

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Like most of the United States Supreme Court, I’m Catholic. And like that Supreme Court majority, I’m not above breaking with the Church on key moral issues because I disagree. The difference between me and, say, Clarence Thomas, is that I recognize that I’m making a conscious decision to be a bad Catholic — if ultimately a better person — and wouldn’t turn around and pretend, even to myself, like I’m doing the Lord’s work when I act on some other cherry-picked bit of dogma. If you don’t love the Church at its “death penalty is an egregious sin,” then you don’t deserve it at its “life begins at conception.”

Unlike a whole host of other religious faiths, Catholics have a guy. And however Justice Thomas or I choose to deal with this faith, we recognize that there is, on some level, a necessary and sufficient issue to the papacy. To wit, the Pope’s guidance is necessary to define sin, but may not be sufficient for you to follow. In other words, you may not accept every tenet of the religion the Pope lays down, but you don’t get down to lay down tenets the Pope isn’t vibing. If that’s what you’re hoping to do, take your 95 theses and go home because “Catholic” isn’t your thing anymore.

Washington State just fired football coach Nick Rolovich and a bunch of his assistants for refusing to get the vaccine required of all state employees. This issue has bubbled since before the season, with Rolovich remaining stupidly defiant as the state let him keep coaching all the way up to the October 18 deadline in hopes of finding a resolution. Given that he was fired for refusing to comply with state law, the university fired him for cause, voiding all the golden parachutes football coaches work into their contracts.

So now Rolovich is gonna sue.

His attorney, Brian Fahling, announced the upcoming suit in a press release:

“It is a tragic and damning commentary on our culture, and more specifically, on Chun, that Coach Rolovich has been derided, demonized, and ultimately fired from his job, merely for being devout in his Catholic faith,” the release said.

No, he fucking wasn’t. He may be suing on his sincerely held belief that he should get $3.6 million from the state of Washington, but it’s certainly not because of his Catholic faith. You know how I know this isn’t about “being devout in his Catholic faith”?

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This guy.

The Pope noted that social and political love is built up through “small, individual gestures capable of transforming and improving societies.”

“Getting vaccinated is a simple yet profound way to care for one another, especially the most vulnerable,” he said.

Pope Francis then prayed to God that “each one of us can make his or her own small gesture of love.”

Again, a Catholic can refuse the Pope’s call here and say they don’t want to get vaccinated, but if they do so, they can’t act like rejecting the vaccine has anything to do with their faith. Other than their willingness to make a mockery of it just to cover for their own selfishness.

Rolovich’s implicit stance is that Pope Francis is not devout in HIS Catholic faith, and if you’re willing to believe that I’ve got a bet to make with you about what bears are doing in that forest.

Unfortunately, this is the whole cynical game when it comes to these vaccines. Religious faith is a varied tapestry, but right now there’s no major religion even hinting at the idea that vaccines are evil. Christian Scientists largely reject medication and even THEY’VE gone on record that getting the vaccine isn’t evil!

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Yet we get press releases all the time from Liberty Counsel about their latest effort to help people concoct a “religious” reason to opt out of vaccine mandates. Nonetheless, “sincerely held beliefs” do not automatically constitute “religious” beliefs. We’ve already litigated this fact for both vaccine and mask mandates. Honestly, anti-vaxxers are yelling Amens like they just showed up for Christmas service for the first time in 10 years.

But, again, even if some faiths provide everyone the freedom to worship in their own way, Catholics have a guy. At least “a” guy since the end of the Avignon Antipapacy. And that guy makes these disingenuous “religious exemption” claims a lot harder to sell for Catholics.

Former Washington State football coach Nick Rolovich’s attorney plans to take legal action against school [Yahoo Sports]

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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