Thanks for your question. I'm sorry it took me so long but about 3/4 of my answer was lost as I typed and I am only just now up to starting again! To answer your question, No. I would never suggest a person who has not gotten vaccinated for Covid-19 is guilty of sin. That is something only they and God can say. I have said that to refrain from getting vaccinated is irresponsible and I have affirmed that unless one has a legitimate medical excuse or religious exemption (one is a Christian Scientist, for instance), getting vaccinated is a moral imperative. I did not mention sin, nor could I know whether in any given case sin is involved without more very specific and individualized information from the person themselves. I do believe that refusing to be vaccinated, especially given the once-again-surging numbers of infections and the more virulent nature of the Delta variant, is wrong and wrong-headed, but whether another person commits sin in their refusal is not a judgment any one of us can make.
But of course, determining whether something is "sinful" or not is not the way those with well-formed and informed consciences make decisions. Instead, we discern the values and disvalues present in the situation, preference those values and disvalues and act accordingly. Some things are worthy of being chosen, some are not. The values I discerned in choosing to be vaccinated included 1) my own health and the danger of death should I become infected, 2) my own capacity to infect others with this virus (i.e., others' health and wellbeing), 3) my limited but real need to get out and about (i.e., the well being of my vocation, my life and that of others), 4) my ministry in the parish, 5) preventing the virus from mutating further i.e., preventing a greater evil), 6) providing a good example to those who were squeamish about getting vaccinated, and 7) being able to preach only what I truly practiced (i.e., charity, truth, consistency, integrity).
I also discerned certain disvalues : 1) the possibility of an anaphylactic reaction (i.e., serious illness and possible death), 2) the possibility the vaccine would not work as well as the percentages indicating it could/would, 3) the chance of other unknown or unexpected side effects, 4) the issue of the remote use of fetal stem cells in some vaccines (Pfizer or Moderna are not implicated here, by the way), and 5) the danger that I would fall prey to a complacency regarding my own absolute safety and that of others (vaccinations don't ever give absolute immunity). So long as I was mindful, it seemed like a fairly easy choice to make; the benefits of vaccination far outweighed the risks. In short, I chose life for myself and others.
Sin might well have entered into the equation if I had looked at the first set of conditions or values, apprised them of being worthy of being chosen, and then simply rejected them out of hand. If I had deemed these goods worthy of choice for myself and others and then just not followed through on getting vaccinated, that would have been a sin -- conceivably a serious one. If I had failed to think through my choice on serious grounds it might have risen to the level of sin; if I had listened to websites or news reports giving bad information and failed to check the facts for myself, sin might have entered the picture.
Still, the judgment of sinful or not sinful is not one you could make in my regard, nor I in yours. I personally believe getting vaccinated is a moral imperative, as I wrote in the original piece. I believe that those who refuse to get vaccinated except on legitimate medical or religious grounds (being a Christian Science Church member is the only one I can think of here) are acting immorally. I can understand some being truly fearful to be vaccinated but I believe they need to find assistance with their fear and take the jabs, otherwise they may be guilty of sin. Again, however, I cannot know that and would never call someone who refused to get the vaccine a "sinner" because of their failure in this regard. I am sure I said nothing different in the first article I wrote.
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