My dear parishioners,
Peace! Under headings of Judgment, Formation, Choice in Accord, Erroneous Judgment and In Brief, the Catechism of the Catholic Church addresses “conscience” in twenty-nine passages. Here we consider CCC, 1782.
Two rights are asserted in the Catechism, the right to act in conscience and the other to act in freedom. In this way our moral decisions are our own. We are responsible for the good we do (or fail to do) and the evil we avoid (or commit or desire). While “conscientious objection” often brings to mind the likes of Sergeant Alvin C. York (+1964) and Blessed Franz Jagerstatter (+1943) it should not be restricted to military engagements. The Little Sisters of the Poor in our own day (Zubik v. Burwell) have acted in light of their conscience rights in the face of governmental over reach (16 May, 2016) not unlike the martyr Saint Thomas More (+1535) in his defense of papal primacy and the dignity of Marriage against Henry VIII. We are made in the image of God who has freely created (cf. Genesis 1:27) and redeemed us (cf. Galatians 2:13-14). The freedom and responsibility we have to act are from God and are to be used accordingly, to His glory (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:31; Galatians 5:1; 1 Peter 2:16).
The Catechism cites the Declaration Dignitatis Humanae, on Religious Freedom (7 December, 1965), of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) when addressing conscience to the effect that none should be forced to act contrary to conscience. Nor must any be prevented from acting according to “conscience, especially in religious matters” (cf. DH, 3.2).
The “establishment” clause of the firs amendment of the Constitution also protects our free exercise of religion. The religious matters of which the Council Fathers and Saint John Paul II in particular, are not limited to “freedom of worship” in the four walls of our churches but also in the way we live our lives, our public associations. In Evangeli Gaudium, 183, the current Holy Father reminds us that religion cannot “be relegated to the inner sanctum of personal life, without influence on societal and national life.”
There are “hot button” issues in our day and age, and ignoring them will not make them go away: health care; institutional religious freedom, same-sex ‘marriage’ and other gender ‘issues.’ A well formed conscience will move a doctor or a pharmacist to safeguard and defend life, not to prescribe abortifacients or to attempt conception in a petri dish. Mutilations of the human body are no less abhorrent to the well formed conscience. Communist regimes in China and Vietnam (among others) have sought to influence Mother Church by restricting her freedom in the naming of Bishops and other leaders; to own property, to build and maintain church buildings or conduct schools (e.g. Saudi Arabia). All of which has be documented by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom 2016 Annual Report. We should cherish our religious liberty and defend it.
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr