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.

The Reality of Hell

THE REALITY OF HELL  

    by Rudolph Lohse      

            The doctrine of hell is not just some dusty, theological holdover from the unenlightened Middle Ages. It has significant consequences. Without ultimate justice, people’s sense of moral obligation dissolves; social bonds are broken. People who have no fear of God soon have no fear of man.

Hell itself is a glorification of divine justice. The pain of hell consists in the recognition of perpetual separation from God, just as the joy of heaven is in union with Him forever. Contrary to what many liberal dissenters and Modernists think, hell is real and the Church continues to teach that there are “two classes” in humankind, “the saved and the damned”. Avery Cardinal Dulles, RIP, once the most renowned Catholic theologian in the United States, emphasized that theme in a major speech at Fordham University in New York. The Cardinal criticized today’s thoughtless optimism about salvation, stating “Popular piety has become saccharine and many Christians take it almost for granted that everyone, or almost everyone, will be saved.” He also noted that this prevalent misconception has led to a sharp drop in people’s frequency of confession. “More education is needed to convince people that they ought to fear God Who, as Jesus taught, can punish soul and body together in hell,” he said, citing Matthew 10:28.