Moral Theology - Class 3

Our instructor began the lecture on Conscience in Catholic Tradition by asking the question, “Is conscience an inner voice that tells me what to do”? Then he went on to describe images of conscience using Biblical images of the heart, such as “Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Psalm 51) and “Do not harden your hearts” (Psalm 95). The traditional image of sanctuary is where we are alone with God, where we encounter God, and where this relationship with God has meaning for us. In the theological sense of conscience it is our sanctuary, where we are alone and safe. Conscience awakens us to notice the law of God written on our hearts and it summons us to love others as God has loved us.

The reason for religion is that it is where we set the course of our lives directly toward God. We will be judged by our conscience. The knowledge of conscience is knowledge with heart; an understanding rooted in a heart felt sense of value that includes a self defining sense of significance. A well formed conscience is a gift. Morals, however, can be applied from the top down, “what are the rules and how should they be applied”, or they can be applied from the bottom up, “what are the rules and how do they apply in this situation”.

We discussed the idea of cooperation with evil. This is the inability to suppress an evil and the attempt to minimize the harm that is done. One example is the use of a condom when one person in a relationship has aids and wishes to protect the other person in the relationship. Another example is the distribution of needles to drug users in an attempt to reduce the spread of aids. Conscience, is often said to frequently err from invincible ignorance. Conscience can be sincere or insincere, certain or doubtful, and true or erroneous. It can be (1) sincere and true, or (2) insincere and true, or (3) sincere and erroneous, or (4) insincere and erroneous.

Our goal, of course, is to for our conscience to be a sincere and true. People should inform a doubtful conscience, in that we should assist the formation of sincere and true conscience in others. However, when people sincerely strive to form their conscience, their conscience retains it's dignity even if it errs. Nevetheless, God will hold people accountable for their conscience. Conscience can be misled by scrupulosity, which is an obsessive concern with one's own sins and compulsive performance of religious devotion.

You may have the freedom to choose, but you live with others, so choose well. Other people have to live with us too. God calls us to make the world just, because our character is also part of holiness. We do this by starting with the heart. It is a deliberate process of formation and a continuous cultivation of character by avoiding the occasions of sin and the seeking of occasions for grace.

We experience conscience in various ways; by the ablility of conscience, we can commit ourselves freely to relationships and engagements that influence who we become, by the process of conscience, we can consider how we choose to commit ourselves, and by the decision of conscience, we experience a conviction to establish and sustain our commitments. There is, of course, the age old question of “What are the boundaries of right and wrong?” Examples of the two extremes might be the freedom and exercise of religion (right), and something that might harm others (wrong).

Informed consciences arrive at very different conclusions, which explains why what we teach in our schools can be so divisive. There was a short discussion about collective conscience archetypes that float around communities and influence decisions, sometimes referred to as moral systems. A students question prompted another short discussion that as infants we experienced dark rooms, delayed feedings, wet diapers, and feelings of loneliness, etc. We needed to forget these things in order to survive as adults. Among all of the things that we have forgotten as infants is that in the moment of our creation we met our creator.

Church teaching and conscience includes an interpretation of the gospel and instruction in discipleship, which is directed toward our hearts. We are asked to approach it with a willingness to be taught, not to view it as extraneous to our conscience but as a willingness to see it within, and to give it more authority than the strength of the argument used to present it. We are to give God our heart; neither the church nor our own wishes ought to serve as God for us. Our Bishops are not oracles, so how much weight does church teaching have on conscience? The Church’s position is that we should be enlightened by Christian wisdom and give close attention to the teaching of the church.

The accepted position is that, “In the formation of their conscience the Christian faithful ought carefully to attend to the sacred and certain doctrine of the church”. This does not mean however, that we are to surrender our heart and mind to a text. Church teaching is only one voice among others, and we should not be closed to other weighty considerations. If a teaching does not lead us to love and inspire us to virtue, it has not swayed us.