A Get Out of Jail Free Card...Not

The Pew Forum released a report today reminding Catholics, albeit unintentionally, of the damage caused by the misguided notion of "primacy of conscience."

"A newly released study from the Pew Forum shows that many self-described American Catholics ignore Church teachings on both theological and social issues." (http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=89626) According to the report, "the Pew Forum found that 48% of Catholics respondents favor legal abortion (16% in all cases, 32% in most cases), while only 18% agree that abortion should always be illegal. A substantial majority of the Catholics polled-- 58%-- said that society should accept homosexuality. On theological issues, only 16% of American Catholics believe that the Church is the one true means of salvation."

This shouldn't surprise anyone given the morally relativistic culture we live in. Your truth is your truth, and my truth is mine, and we agree not to pass judgment on one another. What better fertile ground for the concept of primacy of conscience to blossom?

Australian Archbishop George Pell best defined primacy of conscience as "secular relativism with a religious face." Dissenting Catholics embrace primacy of conscience as their "get out of jail free card", because it allows them to justify their refusal to accept Church teachings: "After all, I'm just following the conscience that God gave me. I'm making the choice I feel is right. How can I be held responsible for a bad choice if I only followed my heart, my conscience?"


Well, guess what? You will be held responsible.


The problem with primacy of conscience is that it assumes the conscience in question is mature and well-formed. In many cases this is not true. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches the following in regards to the formation of our consciences:


“In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path, we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. We must also examine our conscience before the Lord's Cross. We are assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church” (Catechism, 1785).


Refusing to be 'guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church' is to willfully reject the proper formation of our consciences. Our consciences stagnate, leaving us in a state of ignorance for which we are responsible:

"A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. If he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn himself. Yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgments about acts to be performed or already committed. This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man 'takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin.' In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits." (Catechism 1790, 1791)

Pray. Pray for those who willfully scorn the Church's teachings and for those who mistakenly believe that our consciences alone can distinguish between right and wrong. Otherwise, there will be many smiling souls who will be surprised to learn that the path they are treading leads not to the Beatific Vision, but to the place where Dante warns, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." (Inferno, Canto Three)


Donald Tremblay