Florida’s attorney general gave the bishops until August 7 to accept vaccine exemptions their own doctrine calls dishonest. Nearly nine in ten of the state’s Catholic school students sit downstream.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/50187606

The threat arrives in plain language. “Failure to comply could jeopardize eligibility for state educational scholarship programs,” Uthmeier wrote, aiming at the funding stream that carried roughly 88 percent of Florida’s more than 94,000 Catholic school students last year. He gave the bishops until August 7 to respond — ten days before most Florida schools open for the new year.

Within hours, the attorney general announced the letter on X. “Ironically, they won’t offer religious exemptions as prescribed by state law,” he wrote. “This is troubling and may disqualify them from state scholarships and vouchers.”