The Imposed Conscience

Saint Thomas Aquinas (c. 1481-82) by Sandro Botticelli

THE IMPOSED CONSCIENCE

“If I’m obliged to bring religion into after-dinner toasts.... I shall drink to conscience first, and to the Pope afterwards.” That’s by Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman. It’s good that giants of the Church make such bold statements. They protect lesser mortals from being denounced when the latter think and say likewise.

Despite reversals trained at Vatican II, it nonetheless liberated a spirit that can’t be confined again. It’s the genie out of the bottle, the toothpaste out of the tube, the runner that got through enemy lines. It’s out and free. It’s the primacy of conscience.

Vatican II says that “we are bound to follow our conscience faithfully in all our activity and no one is `to be forced to act in a manner contrary to one’s conscience.’” Conscience is “the most secret core and sanctuary of a person...alone with God whose voice echoes in the depths of the person.” (McBrien, “Catholicism”)

It’s not only the voice that whispers what’s right, what’s wrong; it also includes the entire process of thinking what’s right or not, of deciding to do this and not that, of even choosing who’s arguing right or wrong. No longer can any institution’s prescribed conscience “substitute itself for the individual conscience.”

...Now, a fashionable phrase is “formed/informed conscience.” The Church has long been accustomed to lead in this formation, such that up to now, a formed conscience is one that conforms to the “teachings of the Church,” really an imposed conscience.

...But the Church must face it. “Teachings of the Church” are not the normative criterion, the last word for a formed conscience. By all means, heed the principles taught by the Church, but an individual’s prudential judgment takes over in day-to-day applications of the principles, in light of specific and overall context. One size does not fit all.

The hierarchic mindset to insist that the “teachings of the Church” are ipso facto the word of God has to be tempered. The mindset is still sowed earnestly: “Papal Twitter messages, as with everything written by the Pope, will be part of the Church’s teachings, but not infallible.” (Inquirer, 12/14/12)

...Thank God for the temperate voice of Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle: “[B]ishops have to be clear in their own theological positions. They should be able to present their case and not just simply use authority, not simply say, ‘This is the teaching of the Church, therefore you should follow.’” (Inquirer, 11/27/12)

Sifting the “teachings of the Church” for “musts” and “mays” is only fair, instead of making all of them seem to be “musts.” Is Church solicitude about concern or control a means to obedience?

With the recovery of conscience, will people err, abuse, neglect its formation? Yes, decidedly, even with the best efforts of many. But that’s the road to adulthood—rocky. The Church cannot play man-to-man from beginning to end. Either she loosens her grip or gets shaken off.

However, there are fundamentalist-inclined Catholics, educated and learned who wholeheartedly submit to and accept “instructed consciences” when it comes to all the teachings of the Church. “Where the Church pushes the cart,” there also do “we push ours.” To each his own.

http://opinion.inquirer.net/43545/toast-to-conscience

TRUTH CANNOT BE FORCED

Philippine Daily Inquirer

11:13 pm | Sunday, January 6th, 2013

Re Asuncion David Maramba’s “Toast to conscience” (Inquirer, 12/28/12).

Thank you for another blow in defense of conscience.

“Dignitatis Humanae” also teaches that “...all human beings are bound to search for the truth, especially with regard to God and His Church, and as they come to know it they are bound to adhere to the truth and pay homage to it.” Pope John Paul II, in “Crossing the Threshold of Hope,” states in the chapter “What is the Use of Believing,” that human freedom must be taken very seriously.

Man cannot be forced to accept the truth. He can be drawn toward the truth only by his own nature, that is, by his own freedom, which commits him to search sincerely for the truth and, when he finds it, to adhere to it both in his convictions and in his behavior. (“Crossing the Threshold of Hope”)

His Holiness further states that this has always been the teaching of the Church...and is reflected in the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas and John Cardinal Newman! Amen.

Poch Robles, strobles@pldtdsl.net

http://opinion.inquirer.net/44323/truth-cannot-be-forced

CONSCIENCE...THE VOICE OF GOD LIVING IN US

Fr. James Keenan, S.J., visiting professor of Theology at the Loyola School of Theology (LST) lectured to a full house of the Cardinal Sin Center, LST on July 11, 2003. It was the second in his series of lectures, which were held every Friday in July....

Peter Lombard and Thomas Aquinas debated about whether one should follow one’s conscience or follow the Church’s. Peter Lombard says one is not bound to follow one’s conscience if it goes against the dictates of the Church. More than a century later, Thomas Aquinas went against Lombard’s position, saying we should accept excommunication rather than go against our conscience. Fr. Keenan agrees with Aquinas. He says that going against our conscience is going against the voice of God. However, Fr. Keenan stresses the point that: “If the church teaches one thing and we believe something else, we are obliged to know what exactly the church teaches and whether we still have grounds for disagreement. Then we ought to know exactly what the disagreement is and how serious it is, and...why we are convinced that our way of acting is the more obliging way of loving God and our neighbor than what the church teaches.” In other words, we can’t just say, we disagree with the Church and do what we want. We have to be fully informed about what we are disagreeing with. Applied to other moral issues, we are obliged to find out what is right, to find out everything we can about the issue so our conscience is as fully informed as possible. Otherwise our conscience would be ignorant and therefore erroneous.

Source: “Conscience...the Voice of God Living in Us,” in Magis: Official Publication of the Magis Deo Community, Volume XV, Number 7 (August 2003), pages 6-7.

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I, the Lord, alone probe the mind and test the heart, giving to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their deeds.—Jeremiah 17:10