Bishop Henry is Undermining the Very System He's Trying to Defend

My latest Calgary Herald column looks at Calgary Bishop Fred Henry and his intransigence over allowing the HPV vaccine to be administered in Calgary Catholic schools:

Calgary Bishop Fred Henry seems convinced that he’s in a battle to save Catholic education, but his quixotic quest may instead prove to be destructive to his cause.
As someone who has declared himself to be mandated to speak authoritatively on moral issues, Henry is doing his utmost to ensure his views are regarded as irrational. In the process, he is undermining the cause for publicly funded Catholic education.
Henry is digging in his heels on his opposition to the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine, amid increasing pressure on Calgary Catholic schools to allow the vaccine to be administered alongside the other vaccines given to children.
Last week, a coalition of public health experts and concerned parents went public with their campaign to convince Catholic school trustees, and Henry himself, to reconsider their stance.
In Alberta, Grade 5 students receive a hepatitis B vaccine, plus the HPV vaccine. Grade 9 students get a meningitis vaccine and a diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis-polio booster shot. Parents still have the final say as to whether their children are vaccinated.
Offering vaccines in school has proven to be an efficient way of ensuring high immunization rates. One would be hard-pressed to find examples in our health-care system where efficiency and effectiveness are hallmarks, but the immunization of children would certainly seem to fit the bill.
The HPV vaccine was added to the immunization schedule in 2008. It’s estimated that over 70 per cent of Canadians will have at least one HPV infection in their lifetime. Certain types of HPV infections are responsible for virtually all cases of cervical cancer, which claims over 400 lives each year in this country.
HPV is transmitted sexually. To Henry, that makes this a moral issue, and he is stridently opposed to the vaccine being administered in Catholic schools.
Most other Catholic schools boards have decided to allow the vaccine, including Edmonton’s. In Calgary, Catholic school trustees have simply deferred to Henry — he says “no,” so they say “no.”
It certainly calls into question the point of electing these trustees, or even having them in the first place. If, for all intents and purposes, Henry is calling the shots, why not formalize that?
Henry, though, isn’t content to just have Calgary’s trustees under his thumb — he’s trying to intimidate Edmonton Catholic trustees into reversing their position, suggesting they’re “offside” in their interpretation of doctrine.
It’s worth noting the discrepancy in vaccination rates between the two jurisdictions — in Edmonton, it’s approximately 70 per cent, while in Calgary the number is less than 20 per cent.
But Henry is not concerned about vaccination rates, or apparently even about rates of HPV infection and cervical cancer.
In an interview last week, Henry declared his only concern is the church’s teachings on sexuality, and if people ignore those teachings then “there are consequences and they have to acknowledge that.”
It’s much like arguing that to teach young people to drive safely, we must remove seatbelts and airbags so they will fear the consequences of ignoring their lessons.
Such a stance ignores the circumstances beyond the individual’s control. With HPV, even if a woman saves herself for marriage, her husband could be carrying the virus. Young women can also be exposed to HPV through unwanted sexual contact.
Rather than viewing the vaccine as protection, Henry seems to view it instead as a licence to promiscuity.
The evidence supports the vaccine’s safety and efficacy — it also shows that the vaccine does not lead to promiscuity. In fact, the vaccine makes young women more acutely aware of the risks involved in having sex.
Henry’s stance is not only at odds with the evidence, it is at odds with common sense.
The more he touts that position, the more he reminds the rest of us that this irrationality is being foisted upon the duly elected representatives entrusted with administering a publicly funded school district.
Henry may indeed be spoiling for a fight on this, but perhaps he should be careful what he wishes for.