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Just after Vatican City ordered enough doses of the coronavirus vaccine for all of its employees and their families, two cardinals who work closely with Pope Francis tested positive for the virus. Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the 57-year-old papal almoner who once climbed down a manhole to restore electricity to a building where homeless people were living, was taken to the hospital with symptoms of pneumonia. Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, 78, the president of the governorate of Vatican City State, also tested positive.

This week on “Inside the Vatican,” host Colleen Dulle and Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell discuss the cardinals’ condition and the Vatican’s Covid prevention measures, along with the pope’s annual Christmas address to the Roman Curia in which he denounced conflicts in the church and a new document from the Congregation from the Doctrine of the Faith that says it is morally permissible for Catholics to take the new Covid-19 vaccines.

Colleen and Gerry break down the C.D.F.’s argument on why a vaccine derived from cell lines from an aborted fetus is acceptable for Catholics to receive.

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Each week, Colleen Dulle goes behind the headlines of the biggest Vatican news stories with America’s Rome correspondent Gerard O’Connell. They'll break down complicated news stories that have a whole lot of history behind them in an understandable, engaging way. Colleen and Gerard will give you the inside scoop on what people inside the Vatican are thinking, saying—and planning.

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