Jan 12, 2026 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Catholic medical professionals and ethicists had mixed reactions to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) announcement last week that it has revised the recommended childhood and adolescent vaccine schedule.

In a press release on Jan. 5, the CDC announced a revised recommended childhood immunization schedule, which reduces the number of universally recommended vaccines from 18 to 11. It retains routine recommendations for all children against measles, mumps, rubella, polio, pertussis, tetanus, diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae type b, pneumococcal disease, human papillomavirus (HPV), and varicella (chickenpox).

Vaccines for rotavirus, influenza, COVID-19, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningococcal disease, and RSV now shift to recommendations for high-risk groups or after “shared clinical decision-making” between providers and families.

According to a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) memo, the CDC “applies shared clinical decision-making recommendations when evidence indicates that individuals may benefit from vaccination based on an analysis of the individual’s characteristics, values, and preferences, the provider’s medical judgment, and the characteristics of the vaccine being considered.”

Insurance companies must continue to cover all vaccines.

The changes come after President Donald Trump directed the heads of the CDC and HHS in December 2025 to “review best practices from peer, developed nations regarding childhood vaccination recommendations and the scientific evidence underlying those practices” and to make changes accordingly.

After reviewing the vaccination practices of 20 peer nations, a scientific assessment found that “the U.S. is a global outlier among developed nations in both the number of diseases addressed in its routine childhood vaccination schedule and the total number of recommended doses but does not have higher vaccination rates than such countries.”

“Science demands continuous evaluation,” Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said in the CDC press release. “This decision commits NIH, CDC, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to gold standard science, greater transparency, and ongoing reassessment as new data emerge.”

Dr. Tim Millea, chair of the health care policy committee at the Catholic Medical Association (CMA), welcomed the changes, telling CNA that he thought the CDC approached the revisions “in a very logical way.”

“There has been a huge drop in trust surrounding vaccines since the COVID-19 pandemic,” Millea said. “The suggestions during COVID that the science was ‘settled’ rubbed a lot of us the wrong way.”

“The loudest critics of these new recommendations say this is ideology over science,” he said. “Science is a process, not an end. If we need more evidence, let’s get it,” he said, pointing out Bhattacharya’s call for “gold standard” science and “ongoing reassessment.”

Millea, a retired orthopedic surgeon, said he has confidence that Bhattacharya and Dr. Marty Makary, head of the FDA, are “not going to let ideology get ahead of science.”

The president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC), John Di Camillo, told CNA in a statement regarding the updated immunization recommendations: “The people look to public health authorities precisely for this kind of guidance, which is responsive to continually evolving research, ongoing discussions among professionals in the medical field, and ethical principles that promote the common good, respect the dignity of the human person, and limit the interference of financial and ideological conflicts.”

‘Let those closest to the children make the decisions’

Millea acknowledged that critics of the CDC’s revised recommendations say comparing the U.S. vaccine schedule to that of much smaller, more homogeneous nations such as Denmark is like “comparing apples to oranges.”

However, he pointed out that the CDC’s revised schedule is simply a recommendation, and each of the 50 U.S. states is free to do what it deems best. “It’s like 50 laboratories. Let’s see what works the best.”

Invoking the Catholic principle of subsidiarity, Millea said “let those closest to the children who are getting the vaccinations make the decisions.”

“One of the positive aspects of the pandemic is that now we can take a step back and we’re questioning, not because something may be wrong, but maybe because it could be improved upon,” Millea said.

John F. Brehany, executive vice president and director of Institutional Relations at the NCBC, told CNA that “the new schedule appears to have been designed with good intent; that is, … to have gained public trust in the absence of mandates and to have contributed to population health outcomes that meet or exceed those of the U.S.”

“The new schedule does not take a ‘one size fits all’ approach but rather structures recommendations based on the nature of the diseases, vaccines in question, and characteristics of the children or patients who may receive them,” he continued. “This approach appears to be well-founded and to provide a sound foundation for respecting the dignity and rights of every unique human person.”

This will ‘sow more confusion’

Dr. Gwyneth Spaeder, a Catholic pediatrician in North Carolina, did not welcome the changes to the immunization schedule.

While she acknowledged that the damage to trust in institutions was substantial after the COVID-19 pandemic, she thinks the issues surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine’s safety and efficacy “cannot be compared” with the decades of studies demonstrating the safety of common children’s immunizations.

“It is not the same moral calculus,” she said.

She does not believe revising the immunization schedule this way will restore trust in institutions, which she said might take “years or even generations” to rebuild.

This method will “sow more confusion,” Spaeder said. “Instead of trying to rebuild trust in transparent, evidence-based practices, we have created a situation where everyone is told different things … For this child, we think this schedule is the best, for that child, there’s a different one. That’s not how public health works.”

She also said that comparing the homogeneous, relatively tiny population of 6 million in Denmark to that of the diverse population of 340 million in the U.S. is “a false comparison.”

“Their children are at less risk from falling through the cracks and contracting these diseases we try to vaccinate against,” she said, noting the protective public health effects of Denmark’s universal health care and generous parental leave policies.

“The children who will be most harmed in the U.S. are the underserved,” Spaeder said. “That’s being lost in this conversation. We can have a lot of high-level political arguments, but I am most concerned about my patients from single-parent homes who attend day care from young ages, or who are born to mothers who don’t have adequate prenatal care.”

“They will lose out the most from not being protected from these diseases.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Baptizing one's children is as essential as providing them with food and clothing, Pope Leo XIV told parents.

"Just as they received life from you, their parents, now they receive the meaning to live it: faith," he said, referring to the 20 infants about to receive the sacrament of baptism in the Sistine Chapel Jan. 11, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

"When we know that something is essential, we immediately seek it for those we love," he said in his brief homily. "Who among us, in fact, would leave newborns without clothes or food, waiting for them to choose how to dress, and what to eat when they grow up?"

"If food and clothing are necessary for life, faith is more than necessary, because with God, life finds salvation," he said in Italian. 

Pope Leo led the baptismal prayers and poured the water over the heads of the infants of Vatican employees. He assisted some parents by cupping his hand under an infant's head to provide support, and he tenderly offered his hand to babies whose arms flailed for something to grasp. He also gently wiped away some rivulets running down a few heads.

All of the gestures during the rite "are beautiful testimonies" of God's limitless love, he said. "The water of the font is the washing in the Spirit, which purifies us from all sin; the white garment is the new robe that God the Father gives us for the eternal feast of his Kingdom; the candle lit from the Paschal candle is the light of the risen Christ, which illuminates our path."

"May baptism, which unites us in the one family of the Church, sanctify all your families at all times, giving strength and constancy to the affection that unites you," he said. 

Afterward, Pope Leo again spoke about the importance and meaning of baptism before he led the recitation of the Angelus prayer with visitors gathered in St. Peter's Square.

By baptizing the newborns, he said, they "have become our new brothers and sisters in the faith. How beautiful it is to celebrate the love of God -- who calls us by name and frees us from evil -- as one family!"

Baptism "accompanies us forever," he said. "In moments of darkness, baptism is light; in life’s conflicts, it is reconciliation; at the hour of death, it is the gateway to heaven."

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The Baptism of the Lord Jesus didn't need to be baptized.  We do.  Jesus made the water Holy to give us a share in His Divine Life in our baptism.  Let us carry His Baptism with us every day. * Nugget from Fr...

Jan 11, 2026 / 10:32 am (CNA).

Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the apostolic nuncio to the Baltic states and longtime personal secretary to Pope Benedict XVI, said he now prays not for but to the late pontiff, asking for his intercession, and expressed hope the beatification cause will open soon.

Speaking at an event hosted by the Catholic magazine Kelionė at the Lithuanian National Library on Jan. 7, Gänswein offered personal reflections on his new diplomatic mission, the celebration of Christmas in Lithuania, and his decades-long collaboration with Joseph Ratzinger.

“I come from the most beautiful part of Germany, but I have lived in Rome for most of my life,” Gänswein said. “As a bonus and thanks for all my work, I received an assignment to work in the Baltic states,” he said jovially.

Asked about differences between Christmas in Rome and in the Baltic region, the archbishop answered with characteristic humor: “I celebrated Christmas in Rome for 28 years, and in Vilnius for two. The first difference is the cold.” He added that Lithuania’s seasonal displays left a strong impression, drawing attention to “very beautiful Christmas decorations,” and saying the Christmas trees “are very beautiful, maybe even more beautiful than in St. Peter’s Square, in the Vatican.”

Gänswein also expressed gratitude that the celebration of Christ’s birth in Lithuania is not merely cultural or superficial. He said he has sensed a reverence in which “its depth is felt here,” pointing to a faith that remains attentive to the mystery at the heart of the season.

During the conversation, the nuncio returned to the influence of Benedict XVI, describing his years beside Ratzinger as a gift of divine providence.

“All the years of cooperation together have left an indelible experience,” he said. “It was not only intellectual and theological formation, but also formation of the heart, soul, and everything that we can call life.”

Gänswein recalled to the audience that his first encounter with Ratzinger came when he was still a young seminarian, reading the future pope’s articles and books while Ratzinger was a professor in Germany. “I tried to read and study all of his writings,” he said, explaining that he came to see Ratzinger not only as a theologian and academic, but as “a man full of faith and intelligence."

After his priestly ordination in 1984, Gänswein served as an assistant parish priest before continuing his studies. He later completed doctoral work and eventually arrived in Rome, where he first met Ratzinger while the cardinal was serving as prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. Gänswein said Ratzinger invited him into collaboration, an invitation he regards as mysterious and grace filled.

“What did he call me for? I don’t know,” he said, “but I see it as a great gift of Providence.” In 2003, he added, he became Ratzinger’s personal secretary.

Speaking of Benedict XVI after the late pope’s death, Gänswein made a striking remark about prayer and spiritual closeness: “And now, when Pope Benedict XVI has departed to be with the Lord, I notice that I do not pray so much for him, but to him, asking for his help.” He said there were moments, including during his service in the Baltics, when he found himself asking for Benedict’s intercession.

At the same time, he stressed the Church’s caution regarding sainthood causes. “The Church is a very wise and very prudent mother,” he said, noting that in beatification causes she is “twice wise and twice prudent,” and that time must pass to discern whether public esteem reflects genuine holiness rather than passing fame.

In a December 2025 interview with German Catholic television network K-TV, Gänswein said, “Personally, I have great hopes that this process will be opened.” The interview aired shortly before a private audience he held with Pope Leo XIV during a discreet mid-December visit to Rome.

The Kelionė gathering also featured talks from other invited speakers. Educator Vytautas Toleikis, who works as a moral education teacher at Vilnius St. Christopher Gymnasium, is the founder of the informal education group “Walkers.” He described taking students on weekly walks around Vilnius to encounter people he personally admires. He said the goal is to broaden students’ horizons through lived encounters with kindness and human warmth, adding that these meetings often surprise him as much as they do the young people.

Singer Sasha Song, who represented Lithuania at the 2009 Eurovision, shared a brief personal testimony about his struggle with addiction and the transformation he experienced after rehabilitation. He said the experience taught him to value life differently, describing his current state as one marked by gratitude and a renewed sense of happiness.

Prof. Robertas Badaras, a toxicologist with four decades of experience, reflected on how substance abuse has changed since the Soviet period. He noted that while alcohol once dominated, society now confronts an expanding array of substances, including a vast number of hallucinogens and stimulants.

Actress Justė Liaugaudė, representing the “Red Noses Clown Doctors,” spoke about offering emotional support to patients of all ages, especially those who struggle to find joy amid illness. She described how the organization’s presence has expanded in clinical settings, including, she said, being the only non-medical personnel permitted to accompany children into operating rooms — a reminder that compassion can reach where words and medicine sometimes cannot.

For Gänswein, however, the evening’s most enduring note returned to what he called the quiet, lifelong schooling he received at Benedict’s side, a formation not only of the mind, but of the whole person and the conviction that gratitude, faith, and truth are never merely ideas, but realities meant to be lived.

Why Was Jesus Baptized? This day we celebrate the baptism of Jesus, an event that formally began the public ministry of Jesus and ends the Christmas season for us today.  But it's a strange event. Why would the sinless, almighty...