Ordinary Conscience Cannot Exempt from the Church's Moral law

         Ordinary Conscience Cannot Exempt from the Church's Moral Law

by Rudolph Lohse

       

         The classic definition of “conscience” in the Catholic Church is that of Thomas Aquinas, for whom “conscience is the mind of man passing moral judgments.” It is the voice of reason, separated from feeling, emotion and desire. Conscience is imbedded in the intellect which apprehends and interprets the moral law. It is not an immediate internal illumination of each person for himself without reference to an objective norm found outside of man and independent of his subjective persuasion. It requires development and careful training for knowing the laws of God. We have an obligation to educate it.

         Today, many “Catholics in Name Only” (CHINO) use an appeal to conscience to try to justify their aberrant behavior, in violation of the moral law as taught by our Church. A typical statement, often counseled to the laity by misguided priests is: “The Church says that if a teaching is not designated as a dogma, and if two or three moral theologians hold a contrary opinion, a Catholic is not conscience-bound to follow the teaching of the Magisterium.” These priests insinuate that sin only happens when people have failed to follow their conscience. So if, personally, you do not think that an objective sin is really a sin, these priests claim that it is not a sin for you. Such comments completely misrepresent Church teaching, because they are gross and irresponsible oversimplifications. This is a serious error, which misleads people into thinking they are avoiding sin, when in fact they remain quite guilty of their immoral actions.