Opus Dei University Damns Medical Freedom

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ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - Opus Dei's prestigious Pontifical University of the Holy Cross is rejecting the right of faculty, staff and students to follow their conscience and refuse to submit to an abortion-tainted vaccine or undergo flawed invasive testing. 

Personnel who refuse to display their health papers will be immediately thrown off the premises, Santa Croce's vice rector Fr. Davide Cito threatens in a strongly worded memo to all teaching staff.  

"The violation will be reported to the personnel management for consequent measures," the Sept. 16 memo warns, providing no religious exemption for conscientious objectors to the jab. 

Despite the vaccine mandate, the university's statement insists that it will also require the use of face masks and social distancing of at least one meter. Anyone with a body temperature higher than 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit (37.5 centigrade) will be prohibited from entering the premises.

The university claims to be implementing Italy's Green Pass, which requires a person to be double-jabbed, testing negative for COVID-19 in the last 48 hours, or in possession of a medical certificate proving they have been healed from the virus in the last six months. 

The university has categorically refused to pay for the tests, which are priced between 20 and 60 euros and are unaffordable to most students, especially to those coming from non-Western countries. 

Though the university benefits from renting its halls for conferences, it will also require "guests and occasional users, including participants in conferences, congresses, seminars, study days, etc. organized within the university spaces," to show health papers.

Slew of Schools Violating Human Rights

The Pontifical University of the Holy Cross says its policy document has been prepared in agreement with the other pontifical universities. Yet the policy violates the Nuremberg Code, Italian Constitution and a recent Council of Europe resolution.  

The European resolution 2361 (2021) orders governments to ensure "citizens are informed that the vaccination is NOT mandatory and that no one is politically, socially or otherwise pressured to get themselves vaccinated if they do not wish to do so themselves."

Further, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has ruled "vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and that, therefore, it must be voluntary."

The Opus Dei University delayed imposing the Green Pass, noting that it is "studying the matter with our consultants" and will make a decision "in the coming days."

The Pontifical Gregorian University, Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), Pontifical Lateran University, Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, Pontifical Salesian University (Salesianum), began enforcing those medical restrictions Sept. 1.

A source told Church Militant that Holy Cross Pontifical University is located on Vatican territory and hence would not need to impose a decree from the Italian government. 

However, in his Sept. 7 audience, Pope Francis expressly stated he would "adopt all appropriate measures to prevent, control and combat the ongoing public health emergency." 

Days later, Cdl. Giuseppe Bertello, president of the Governorate of Vatican City State, issued an order banning those without health papers to the Vatican City State and to the Holy See's extra-territorial sovereign areas referred to in Articles 15 and 16 of the Lateran Treaty. 

A Rome-based historian citing Eusebius pointed out to Church Militant the irony of Holy Cross' diktat: "The university is next to Stadio di Domiziano (Piazza Navona) where emperors like Domitian massacred Christians for not complying with the decree to burn incense to the Roman gods."

For the sake of convenience and not to burn bridges with the Italian government, he noted, "they are willing to bend over backwards and do anything. So, tomorrow if the government insists that everyone must pay homage to Gaia, they will sheepishly follow."

Pattern of Heterodoxy

Observers, meanwhile, are noting Opus Dei's heterodox trajectory as it refuses to discipline a leading bishop who is endorsing same-sex unions while suspending a faithful priest for criticizing Pope Francis' support of sodomite relationships. 

Joseph Maria Bonnemain, the new Catholic bishop of Chur, Switzerland, known as "the darling of the progressives" insists "there is room for all opinions and trends in Opus Dei."

Bonnemain is in favor of dropping mandatory celibacy for priests and is open to the ordination of women. "I have quite a few friends, including priests, who are homosexual," he reveals, explaining how adoption rights for homosexual couples are "critical."

Days before the Swiss referendum voting in favor of same-sex "marriage," 73-year-old Bonnemain said he did not object to same-sex unions but would support a semantic change in renaming the "Bible-based partnership between man and woman" as "'love forever' or 'organic marriage.'"

Opus Dei suspended African priest Fr. Jesusmary Missigbètò for calling out Pope Francis' support of same-sex civil unions. The society asked him to leave the Opus Dei residence and forbade him from celebrating public Masses, preaching and hearing confessions.

Inquiry Ignored

Church Militant contacted the university's rector, Fr. Luis Navarro, vice rector Fr. Davide Cito and academic vice rector Cristina Reyes to ask if the Green Pass would discriminate against unvaccinated individuals or those who cannot afford to pay for testing every 48 hours. 
 
Church Militant's email also inquired if all faculty and students have willingly complied with the new mandate or if there were faculty who would be resigning, going on leave or protesting the draconian regulation.
 
The message also asked whether Opus Dei would take financial responsibility for those who may suffer serious adverse effects or death "since you are coercing people into getting vaccinated." 

Church Militant also inquired if the university was "on the wrong side of history and on the side of the establishment and Big Pharma, given that hundreds of thousands of ordinary people all over Italy have been protesting the Green Pass for weeks." 

University authorities did not respond to our request for comment.

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