Conscience, Virtue, and Moral Concerns About COVID Vaccines

Conscience claims enjoy great prominence in the modern era. For example, in 2020 the Little Sisters of the Poor sought and attained legal exemptions from the Affordable Care Act's contraception mandate for employers. For Catholics especially, access to such conscience-based exemptions is vital to their ability to freely practice their faith. Recently, many Catholics have found their consciences rattled by another mandate: the COVID vaccines. Their concerns stem from the fact that all currently approved vaccines in the United States were developed or tested using abortion-derived cell lines. However, in obeying one's conscience, it is vital to make sure that it has been well-formed. How can Catholics ensure that they are being good stewards of their conscience? And how can they think through their moral concerns about the COVID vaccines?