Jeffrey Ade
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Always good to hear things that help us know when we stand firm we are doing the right thing following our conscience!
chris griffin
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Three occasions when conscience can NEVER be followed
1. The first is that conscience only binds when we use it to come God…
“All are bound to follow their conscience faithfully in every sphere of activity so that they may come to God, who is their last end. Vatican II, Declaration on Religious Liberty (Dignitatis Humanae), no. 2
"Conscience is not an independent and exclusive capacity to decide …More
Three occasions when conscience can NEVER be followed
1. The first is that conscience only binds when we use it to come God…
“All are bound to follow their conscience faithfully in every sphere of activity so that they may come to God, who is their last end. Vatican II, Declaration on Religious Liberty (Dignitatis Humanae), no. 2
"Conscience is not an independent and exclusive capacity to decide what is good and what is evil. Rather there is profoundly imprinted upon it a principle of obedience vis-à-vis the objective norm which establishes and conditions the correspondence of its decisions with the commands and prohibitions which are at the basis of human behavior”. VERITATIS SPLENDOR 60
“Personal conscience and reason should not be set in opposition to the moral law or the Magisterium of the Church” (CCC 2039).
2. The second is that we cannot follow a “seared” conscience…
“through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared with a hot iron” 1 Timothy 4:2
Unto the pure all things [are] pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving [is] nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. Titus 1:15
When conscience, this bright lamp of the soul (cf. Mt 6:22-23), calls "evil good and good evil" (Is 5:20), it is already on the path to the most alarming corruption and the darkest moral blindness. EV 24
3. the third is that conscience can never be followed to commit intrinsic evil (Thou Shall Not Murder)…
But the negative moral precepts, those prohibiting certain concrete actions or kinds of behaviour as intrinsically evil, do not allow for any legitimate exception. They do not leave room, in any morally acceptable way, for the "creativity" of any contrary determination whatsoever. VERITATIS SPLENDOR 67
Each of us can see the seriousness of what is involved, not only for individuals but also for the whole of society, with the reaffirmation of the universality and immutability of the moral commandments, particularly those which prohibit always and without exception intrinsically evil acts. VS 115
Before the moral norm which prohibits the direct taking of the life of an innocent human being there are no privileges or exceptions for anyone. Ev 57
The negative precepts of the natural law are universally valid. They oblige each and every individual, always and in every circumstance. It is a matter of prohibitions which forbid a given action semper et pro semper, without exception VERITATIS SPLENDOR #52
The sacredness of life gives rise to its inviolability, written from the beginning in man's heart, in his conscience. EV 40
1. The first is that conscience only binds when we use it to come God…
“All are bound to follow their conscience faithfully in every sphere of activity so that they may come to God, who is their last end. Vatican II, Declaration on Religious Liberty (Dignitatis Humanae), no. 2
"Conscience is not an independent and exclusive capacity to decide what is good and what is evil. Rather there is profoundly imprinted upon it a principle of obedience vis-à-vis the objective norm which establishes and conditions the correspondence of its decisions with the commands and prohibitions which are at the basis of human behavior”. VERITATIS SPLENDOR 60
“Personal conscience and reason should not be set in opposition to the moral law or the Magisterium of the Church” (CCC 2039).
2. The second is that we cannot follow a “seared” conscience…
“through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared with a hot iron” 1 Timothy 4:2
Unto the pure all things [are] pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving [is] nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. Titus 1:15
When conscience, this bright lamp of the soul (cf. Mt 6:22-23), calls "evil good and good evil" (Is 5:20), it is already on the path to the most alarming corruption and the darkest moral blindness. EV 24
3. the third is that conscience can never be followed to commit intrinsic evil (Thou Shall Not Murder)…
But the negative moral precepts, those prohibiting certain concrete actions or kinds of behaviour as intrinsically evil, do not allow for any legitimate exception. They do not leave room, in any morally acceptable way, for the "creativity" of any contrary determination whatsoever. VERITATIS SPLENDOR 67
Each of us can see the seriousness of what is involved, not only for individuals but also for the whole of society, with the reaffirmation of the universality and immutability of the moral commandments, particularly those which prohibit always and without exception intrinsically evil acts. VS 115
Before the moral norm which prohibits the direct taking of the life of an innocent human being there are no privileges or exceptions for anyone. Ev 57
The negative precepts of the natural law are universally valid. They oblige each and every individual, always and in every circumstance. It is a matter of prohibitions which forbid a given action semper et pro semper, without exception VERITATIS SPLENDOR #52
The sacredness of life gives rise to its inviolability, written from the beginning in man's heart, in his conscience. EV 40