CH. 4

The Moral Conscience

Introduction

• The concept of conscience is fundamental to Catholic theology because a person, in all his actions, ought to conform his conscience to the will of God.

• Even popular wisdom often equates one’s values with his conscience.

• Thus the most negative judgment passed on a person’s character is “That person has no conscience.

Intro continued…

• Conscience receives the highest respect in the Christian tradition. The fathers of the Church call it “the spark of the Holy Spirit”, “The sacredness of man”, and “the sanctuary of God”.

• It is considered sacred because in it God speaks to us.

• A society is said to be just when its laws defend the freedom of right conscience of each of its citizens, within due limits.

1. What is Conscience?

• Conscience is not a feeling, nor a theoretical judgment on whether something is good or evil, but a practical judgment: It judges whether a particular act is right or wrong from an ethical point of view.

• Conscience is capable of judging moral and immoral situations, so it is capable of judging concrete acts.

1. continued…

• It’s purpose is to evaluate whether or not a particular act is good or evil, and to advise accordingly.

• Since it is a judgment of reason, it must be made with the intellect. Thus a person is held responsible for what he does since he knows the good and evil involved.

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• Baptism gives special light to the conscience. The new Christian receives special graces that help him understand and live the moral demands of Christian life.

• This is seen with regard to two of these graces discussed in Ch. 5 which are:– The ability to interpret the natural law – The ability to know and fulfill the requirements that the

“Life in Christ” demands.

2. Conscience and Truth

• Conscience is rooted in truth – the truth about mankind, law, and what is good and evil. Because truth is prior to conscience, conscience must respect truth.

• When fundamental truths are ignored, there is error in practical judgments. That is, the conscience will make false judgments when it fails to acknowledge the truth about things.

Therefore….

2. Continued….

Conscience ought to freely embrace truth, since truth is a permanent light which never fades away. As long has the ability or use of reason, he can discern the truth and the difference between good and evil.

Conscience is an inextinguishable light that is given to us by God as part of our human nature. Thus there is an obligation to follow our judgment when truth is present.

3. The Formation of Conscience

• Because a sound conscience is necessary in order to make correct moral judgments, every human has the obligation to correctly form his conscience.

• The word conscience is derived from Latin, meaning “with knowledge”.

• Children are born without knowledge of good and evil. They are acquired through education and built upon by reason, which elaborates on them by the natural law, and about all, by instructions in the truths of faith, grace of the Holy Spirit, and Christian reflection.

3. Continued…

• The formation of the conscience is a continuing lifelong process.

• A child’s reason takes it knowledge from different sources such as parents and teachers, personal experience, and theoretical reflection.

• The child builds upon this throughout his life, but most importantly, because of the strength of the Spirit that was given to him at Baptism.

4. Means to the formation of conscience.

There are five specific means to forming a right conscience. They are:

1. Acceptance of moral teaching

2. Knowledge of the Christian life and doctrine

3. Prayer and meditation

4. Personal examination

5. Spiritual direction

1. Acceptance of moral teaching

• A child needs to be docile to the moral lessons being communicated to him by his parents and teachers in the same way a Catholic adult needs to be attentive to the moral teachings of the Magisterium.

• It is considered a sin if one refuses or ignores to accept the truth.

2. Knowledge

• Every Catholic has an obligation to seek the truth in moral matters from the teaching of the Church.

• Right moral conscience = moral criteria of Christian moral life

3. Prayer and meditation

• Prayer, in all its forms, consists of a c conversation with God in which he communicates his will, which should be the basis of our practical judgments.

• Personal prayer brings us closer to God and develops a relationship with Jesus called the interior life.

4. Personal Examination

• The best means of internalizing ones conscience.

• Moral rightness can be accomplished through a serious examination of conscience.

5. Spiritual Direction

• Just as a student gains deeper insight by consulting with a professor, the person who sees a spiritual director can reach a higher degree of moral rectitude.

• This is most easily done by speaking with our confessor during the sacrament of Penance.

5. DIVISIONS OF CONSCIENCE

A judgment of conscience can be:- antecedent: which precedes action. Before acting, one deliberates and concludes than an action is good or evil.

- concomitant: which accompanies the action as it takes place. If someone deems an action sinful, he must cease that action to the extent possible.

Cont….

- consequent: which follows the act.

- True conscience: which deduces correctly from true principles that some act is lawful.

- Erroneous conscience: which decided from false principles considered as true that something is lawful which in fact is unlawful.

When a person does not know what the moral law requires, his ignorance is either vincible or invincible.

Cont…

• Vincible: is the ignorance of truth that can be overcome by ordinary diligence.

• Invincible: is ignorance that cannot be overcome by ordinary diligence. One who acts this way does not sin if he has taken the necessary and reasonable steps to learn what is permitted and prohibited.

2 more…

• Scrupulous conscience is one that, for little or no reason, judges an action to be morally evil when in fact it is not.

• Lax conscience formulates moral judgments on insufficient grounds. It judges mortal sins as venial and venial sins as no sin at all.

THEREFORE:

In order to act “in good conscience” one must first seek to know what is truly good.

6. Acting always with right Conscience.

• One is obligated to follow conscience. When he is in error, his personal freedom to choose must be acknowledged.

• Conduct that is modeled on right principles is needed to overcome ignorance, since it is wrong to make judgments without knowledge of the law or precepts.

• A person may never act when his conscience is in doubt. In a case of doubtful conscience, one is required to required to determine the good or evil of a particular choice before acting.

6. cont…

• One might not be able to think before acting. Therefore he must do what he thinks is right. To act right he needs to be conscious of the following:– Evil means never justify good ends– Love for God and neighbor overrides any

other consideration– We should act toward others as we would like

them to act towards us.

7. The Bibles appeal to our conscience.

Read

8. Arguments for the existence of Conscience.

• Sense experience: “The animal senses, but does not sense itself ”.

• Rational Discernment: When people are tempted to act hastily, they are warned of the need to reflect so that they can be conscious of what they should know or do.

• Moral Reflection: read

9. Conscience and Law

• There can be confrontations between conscience and law.– If more value is put on law, there is little room

for conscience to judge – If more value is put on conscience, there is a

risk of falling into moral subjectivism, where the conscience of the individual becomes the only moral judge.

9. cont…

• Conscience serves as an immediate norm of moral action, so that the judgment of conscience is the immediate criterion for moral actions. But at the same time, conscience does not create law, rather it finds law and takes it as a guide.

• Consequently, a continual confrontation between conscience and law is not the best way to understand the morality of our actions.

• The value of right conscience prevails over an unjust law.

Therefore:

The ultimate reason for this conflict is frequently rooted in a chance in the law of modern society. Instead of defining law as an ordinance of reason – which is never in

conflict with conscience – law is often seen as the arbitrary will of government or

authority. Obedience to the law then becomes slavery.

10. Distortion and Degradation of personal Conscience

• Conscience, as the judgment of an act, is not exempt from the possibility of error.

• In practice, a decisive way for the Christian to form his conscience is to follow the moral teachings of the Magisterium.

Conclusion

As a way of life, the words of St. Paul are worth noting: “Brethren, I have lived before God in all good conscience up to this day”.

The greatest happiness, according to classical thought, is to have a “clear

conscience”.