The Working File

After quoting from John Paul II’s Evangelium Vitae, Carl Olson at the Ignatius Press Blog lays out the true Catholic teaching about the primacy of conscience, and its limits, in Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog: “I am a pro-adultery Catholic because my Catholic faith tells me I can be.”:

That’s heavy stuff. And it is backed up by the Catechism, which doesn’t uphold the skewed notion of “the primacy of conscience”:

Ignorance of Christ and his Gospel, bad example given by others, enslavement to one’s passions, assertion of a mistaken notion of autonomy of conscience, rejection of the Church’s authority and her teaching, lack of conversion and of charity: these can be at the source of errors of judgment in moral conduct.

If – on the contrary – the ignorance is invincible, or the moral subject is not responsible for his erroneous

judgment, the evil committed by the person cannot be imputed to him. It remains no less an evil, a privation, a disorder. One must therefore work to correct the errors of moral conscience.

A good and pure conscience is enlightened by true faith, for charity proceeds at the same time “from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith.” (pars 1792-94; emphasis added)

Joseph Ratzinger has written quite a bit on conscience, including the book, On Conscience. In that work he remarks:

It is, of couse, undisputed that one must follow a certain conscience, or at least not act against it. But whether the judgment of conscience, or what one takes to be such, is always right—indeed, whether it is infallible—is another question. For if this were the case, it would mean that there is no truth—at least not in moral and religious matters, which is to say, in the areas that constitute the very pillars of our existence. Thus there could be, at best, the subject’s own truth, which would be reduced to the subject’s sincerity. No door or window would lead from the subject into the broader world of being and human solidarity. (p 12)

I am so indebted to the internet, and for dozens if not hundreds of Catholic writers, for making this sort of material easily found and accessible. This confirms what any Catholic with sense has to know, has to understand, even if we weren’t previously aware of the specifics. Yes, our conscience has a primary role in our lives, but it cannot take precedence over all else. To do so would be to put ourselves first, over everything, including love for others and the authority of the Church — and ultimately over God. You don’t need a catechism to know that, just some humility and common sense.