A Little Known Truth About Catholicism: She respects FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE
Most practicing Catholics seem unaware of the fact that Catholics do have the right to take exception to a teaching of the Church…they are unaware of the Church’s own teaching regarding freedom of conscience in the determination of culpability regarding actions taken in opposition to her teaching.
In the current Catholic Catechism, one reads:
#1782 Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions. He must not be forced to act contrary to his conscience. Nor must he be prevented from acting according to his conscience, especially in religious matters.
Holy Mother Church knows how easily we can practice self deception, so she adds a wise caveat:
#1783 Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful. It formulates judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator. The education of conscience is indispensable for human beings who are subjected to negative influences and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment and to reject authoritative teachings.
Truly our conscience is not formed in a vacuum and we are constantly bombarded by the “teachings” of the world. And, as loyal Catholics, we must be as well informed about the Church’s formal teaching. But, in the end, all things considered, if the individual believes in his heart of hearts that a given act is not a sin in a particular instance, for him/herself.he MUST obey conscience! The decision of conscience obviously is confined to the individual person and does not apply to others.
Take for example: A very devout Catholic woman divorces a battering spouse and, after trying to live singly and celibate, unexpectedly finds herself in love with a wonderful man. She talks to her parish priest about it. He simply tells her what the Church’s official position is and she leaves crestfallen. She earnestly prays for guidance, and after a considerable time elapses, decides that marrying the second man “outside the Church” would not be wrong, and she does it. She continues going to Mass regularly, but denies herself Holy Communion because the Church says she has committed a sin. But is it all that clear…cut and dried, as it were. I maintain, as a Contrarian Catholic, that she should not refrain from Communion because in her own conscience, marrying and cohabiting with the second man who is totally loving and supportive of her, is absolutely not wrong…in fact, the best thing she ever did.
That is the way I understand instructions 1782 and 1783 in the Catechism. I would respectfully consider any opinion in opposition to this understanding.
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3 comments:
Based upon what you've listed it would seem that #1783 is the more critical tenet, since it states that "Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened ..." That being the case then we must use our conscience as a framework for weighing our actions and inactions in all that we do or dont do. I totally agree with the idea and I hope and pray that more people embrace this concept.
However, a question does arise, in the case of a person whose moral judgement is contrary to the social norms, or for that matter if they lack moral judgement, if such a thing is possible? For example if a person in their conscience, doesn't believe that stealing someone's car is a sin, then as I interpret this concept their actions wouldn't be judged as sinful, although clearly punishible under the law. Is this what is intended, or is there some standard to the concept of moral judgement?
I have the same question as Greg,namely,What about people with "misguided" consciences? or "altered" and others who are unaware that their consciences are not "true". Who legislates what a "true" conscience is. Is the Catholic conscience any truer than other "Christian" consciences,or Budhist or Islamic or any other? Is "conscience" merely the old standby of "Do good-Avoid evil?
So the point then is that anyone can be violate the church's individual teachings as long as they are following their conscience. So technically there is no defineable standard against which to measure a conscience. This brings up the notion of "judge not lest ye be judged" even more into focus, for who among us can say what is in another conscience. I believe many of us get "frustrated" by people's apparent lack of conscience, as though ours are perfect. I guess we all suffer to some degree from the prodigal son syndrome where we can't understand how people that are soooo bad can be forgiven.
Your statement about confession is well taken; however, I know the church has had a steep decline in people attending. I wonder if that is due to people following their conscience and as such feeling that they don't need to receive this sacrement, or if it is dreading facing all their faults and telling another about them. In some ways telling God who already knows about them is relatively easy. Yes, the priest is supposed to be understanding; however, frequently humans are far less understanding than our loving God. This is definitely food for thought.
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