Tag Archives: violating our conscience

Conscience Formation 103

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In the previous two posts, I spoke about what conscience is not (see CF 101 – below) and what conscience is (see CF 102 – below). Now I want to focus my attention on how the conscience works. In our daily lives, most of the decisions we make come very easily; they are habitual. A virtue, according to CCC 1803,  “is an firm and habitual disposition to do the good.” Not only will a person perform acts well, but also the best of who he is will come through.  On the flip side of virtue, we have vice. A vice is a bad habit that pushes us to bad/evil choices.

Virtue and vice can slightly be compared to the Jedi and Sith philosophies in the Star Wars films. The Jedis were the more virtuous of the two since most of their decisions were well thought out, they lived for others, and they always tried to choose the good in all situations. The Sith were ones of vice and often chose evil things such as killing all the Jedis or conquering the entire universe. They were always about themselves as we see clearly in Return of the Jedi and how the Emperor has no concern for Vader or Luke. Not all Jedis were virtuous such as the case of Anakin Skywalker (see Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith). Anakin Skywalker was never virtuous, struggled with his many vices, and they eventually lead him to Darth Vader.  Anakin was given chance again and again to mend his ways, but chose not to and ended up in vice rather than virtue. Many of his choices contradicted the Jedi philosophy and he could never conform his behavior to do the good.

Although most of our decisions tend to be habitual, there is an importance for us to learn how to be virtuous in all that we do (let me tell you…it’s not easy). The virtues are like “spiritual muscles” that help us grow in responsible acts without any effort at all. Our bad habits, which we must learn to identify first, have to be avoided at all cost. Our bad habits will only be overcome with the grace of God. For us Catholics, we have the great Sacrament of Reconciliation (and the other sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist) that dispense grace upon us. Learning to be virtuous and avoiding vices are part of our spiritual training at Catholic Christians and a major characteristic of forming our Christian consciences.

Most of our daily decisions are made with ease habitually, but what about those major decisions, those important decisions that take time to deliberate and could have a monumental impact on our conscience? What do we do then?

When making those major decisions we must deliberate, choose, perform, and assess. As I stated in CF 102 (see below), Blessed John Paul II said that conscience is not a decision, but a judgment made with the intellect. Our conscience is about the discovery of objective truth, not about feelings and emotions. Emotions and feelings come and go. A fundamental element of Catholic morality is to inform our consciences and to continue inform them by careful deliberation. Before we make a major decision, we must gather all the information about the decision at hand and consider all the good and bad consequences that will stem from this decision. We should keep in account the Golden Rule, love your neighbor as yourself, and understand that evil actions will not produce a good result. In deliberation, we should look towards those individuals that have mentored us in the past as well as the teachings of Jesus Christ that are safeguarded in the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. Our decisions as Catholic Christians should be in conformity with that of Jesus Christ and his Church.

After deliberation, we should then choose the best course of action that reflects Jesus Christ and person that we are as God’s creation. A key factor in the choosing step is PRAYER. Prayer allows us to communicate with God and He with us. Prayer aids us to remember that we are created in God’s image and dignity. It also slows us down to focus on him and the decision at hand. Listening to God helps us make rational decisions and not just go with our gut or what feels good at the moment. There is an old saying – God gave us one mouth and two ears. Its is so we will listen twice as much than we talk. We should that the Holy Spirit will direct us towards God’s will for our lives.

Once a choice has been established, we must now perform the action. In this step, we see the importance of responsibility coming into play. Listening to our conscience is important because if we go against our conscience, we sin. We should never react here. Temperance (self-control) is a fundamental aspect of this step. We must always be as mature as possible. Being responsible and staying the course is the most difficult part of this entire process.

The last step in our conscience formation process is to assess our actions. Our conscience is not just about deliberating, choosing, and performing the actions we will perform, but it also aids in the actions that we have already committed. When we follow the steps given above, our conscience will be clear for we know we made good choices, the virtuous choices. If we have not made the correct decision, our conscience will let us know by calling us to reconciliation and penance.

If you pray the Liturgy of Hours (official prayer of the Catholic Church), Night Prayer includes an Examination of Conscience. It’s here where we can review the day and examine our good decisions and actions that contrasted those decisions. You don’t have to pray the Liturgy of Hours to do this either. Making a simple examination a “habit” will ensure that your day was reviewed before you laid your head to rest. It will also help you to grow in holiness and to do God’s will in your life.

As Christians with God’s help, we must form our conscience, continue to form it and to follow it. The formation of our conscience is a life long process and it is not always correct. Blessed John Paul II in Veritatis splendor said, “conscience is not an infallible judgment, it can make mistakes.”

After this post, you should understand more clearly why the HHS Mandate from the Obama Administration is such an evil proclamation that violates our religious freedom (this is the BIG issue).  As Catholics, we know by our consciences that sterilization, contraceptives, and abortifacients are intrinsically evil – that means they are always wrong! How does the Obama Administration want us to violate our consciences when we clearly see these methods as evil?! This is what Cardinal-Elect Timothy Dolan meant when he said that the President has given us a year to violate our consciences. As Catholics who should be forming our consciences, we must stand up against this tyranny that is upon us. Thomas J. Olmsted, Bishop of Phoenix said in his letter to the Diocese of Phoenix, “We cannot- we will not – comply with this unjust law.”

Conscience Formation 101

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I am by no means a moral theologian (The Scriptures is my thing), but with the current state of affairs we Catholics are facing, I feel it’s my mission to at least take a shot at explaining some of teachings of the Catholic Church on Conscience Formation.  Over the past two weeks, you have heard the Bishops of the United States speak of us “violating our conscience” since the Obama Administration decided that all religious institutions, specifically Catholic institutions, have to offer sterilizations, contraceptives, and abortifacients in all healthcare plans. This is in complete violation of our religious freedoms and the First Amendment.

With all that being said, I can say that there are colleagues from Franciscan that can teach and write on moral theology ten times better than me as well as friends of mine outside of Franciscan, so I am hoping that they will add to what I have said in the comment section of these next few posts so my readers will attain the most complete understanding of Conscience Formation. For the next few posts, I would like to focus on a few points: What Conscience is Not, What Conscience Is, How Conscience Works, What Leads To An Erroneous Conscience and How To Avoid One.

In today’s day and age, there is plethora of wrong ideas about what the term conscience truly means. If you were to Google search an online dictionary, more than likely you would find this as the definition of conscience: “the awareness of a moral or ethical aspect to ones’ conduct together with the urge to prefer right over wrong.” Many, like the above definition, are in complete contradiction with the Christian idea of conscience.

For today’ post, let’s focus on what Conscience is NOT. Conscience is not…the majority opinion, a feeling, a superego, a gut-instinct, “Jiminy Cricket” and a myth. Let’s take each of these one at a time.

Conscience as majority opinion is simply doing what the crowd is doing. It must be just fine if everyone is doing it. With the majority opinion, personal responsibility is lost to what the group is doing. The right behavior is directed by whatever opinion is popular with the group. Pope Benedict XVI says, “Truth is not determined by a majority vote.” Moral decisions should not be decided by how many people or legislators vote on a given point.

Conscience as a feeling is a very popular idea today. In the 1960’s, there was a saying, “if it feels good, do it.” Since the 1980’s, there is also another saying generated from a popular athletic company – “just do it.” This view of conscience states that the individual is the epicenter of his or her morality and they only answer to themselves. Conscience as a feeling is deeply rooted in Moral Relativism. Moral Relativism is the idea that what you think is right…is right. Nobody can tell you that you are wrong. There is no objective truth in Moral Relativism! This has been a battle that Pope Benedict XVI has taken on with the secularists of the world. Furthermore, “feelings” are just that – feelings. Feelings come and go with every passing second. According to Peter Kreeft, conscience “is first of all a knowing, an awareness of the truth about good and evil.”

Conscience as superego comes from Sigmund Freud who thought that the superego conscience were rules we followed as a child that are still in our mind and we hold on to them with our subconscious. All the rules from our parents, teachers, coaches, and employers are still left over in our minds. According to Freud, the rules we followed as children were to seek love from authoritative figures. He also said we never fully understood the rules – we just walked through motions. When we would break these rules, we would feel guilty. This guilt comes from psychological conditioning and not that we have contradicted God’s love for us.  In complete opposition to this viewpoint, the Christian conscience is an answer from God’s call. The Christian’s conscience is personal and self-chosen. Conscience is based on our reason.

Conscience as gut-instinct is about how you feel at the moment. This is could be a good place to start with conscience, but it is very limited and we must seek a more mature and Christian understanding of conscience. As Christians, we must use our reason to make decisions and also hope in God’s love throughout our entire life. “The education of the conscience is a lifelong task” (CCC 1784).

Conscience as Jiminy Cricket is often portrayed in movies or television shows as the angel and demon that stands on our shoulders. It’s the “internal voice” that we listen to do either good or evil. Our guardian angels do not whisper in our ears and tell us what to do. God does not speak to us through our Smart Phones either.  God might “speak” to us in a small way, but we must train ourselves to hear it, as we would train for a competition. A coach can only teach us so much before we can take it and make it own. God respects our freedom and allows us to use our free will to make the decision. 

Conscience as myth is the complete denial that a personal conscience even exists. These doubters see conscience as a way that organized religion keeps people under control by using guilt. (This is a favorite of the people who have either left the church or have a poor understanding of conscience. These individuals use the term – “catholic guilt.” Let’s be honest – guilt is guilt! There is no such thing as “catholic guilt.” I despise that saying by people. When I do something wrong and feel guilty, it’s not “catholic guilt” that is making me feel this way, it’s my own sin. It’s mine and I need to repent of it.) When the conscience is seen as a myth, individuals think they can do whatever they want without any sort of personal responsibility to hold them accountable. They usually push others aside for their own desires. Morality dies when the conscience is denied.

Conscience Formation 102, 103, and 104 will be posted  soon. Check back in a couple of days or even better, subscribe to the blog and you will be notified when the next post is up and ready.