My dear parishioners,
Peace! In other bulletins (4 December, 2016-11 June, 2017) we have considered the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on “conscience.” We then turned to Saint John Paul II’s encyclical letter Veritatis splendor (6 August, 1993) which addresses fundamental moral issues, including “conscience” more than one hundred times. These reflections were begun earlier (6 April, 2018-30 May, 2018). Here we now consider a passage from Veritatis splendor, 34.
Saint John Paul II (+2005) invokes as an “outstanding defender of the rights of conscience” the Cardinal Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman, CO (+1890). Specifically citing A letter addressed to the Duke of Norfolkto the effect that “Conscience has rights because it has duties” (VS, 34).
While not cited here by the Holy Father, Newman also invokes conscience as the “aboriginal vicar of Christ.” Newman, for his part, followed his well-formed conscience into full communion with the Catholic Church after much serious consideration as he relates in his Apologia pro Vita Sua. Newman addresses “conscience” more than forty times in the Apologia. Saint Thomas Aquinas, OP (+1274) teaches about conscience in his Summa Theologiae I Q. 79, A. 13; I-II Q. 19, A. 5-6. Thomas Jefferson (+1826) both in the Commonwealth of Virginia and in the Continental Congress of 1776 defended religious liberty, a conscience right, ultimately enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States (1791). The more than seven hundred pages collected by Daniel L Dreisbach and Mark David Hall from the founding fathers comprising a volume entitled The Sacred Rights of Conscience(Liberty Fund, 2009) show depth and rigor. Saint Paul VI (+1978), for his part, promulgated the Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis Humanae of the Second Vatican Council on 7 December, 1965, which addresses conscience. For his part, the late Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago, Francis Eugene George, OMI (+2015) insisted that “Conscience and the rights and duties of conscience demand a lot of reflection.” How much reflection and deep thinking are we willing to undertake concerning matters of conscience?
What are the rights of conscience? Is it a right of conscience to act or not act? Is it a right of conscience to know (cum alio scientia), applying knowledge to an individual case? Is it a right of conscience to direct action? It is a right of conscience to perceive and acknowledge the imperatives of the divine law (DH, 3.3).
What are the duties of conscience? Is it a duty of conscience to witness as in Ecclesiastes 7:23? Is it a duty of conscience to judge what should be done or not done, to incite or encourage or forbid? Is it a duty of conscience to excuse, accuse or torment? To know the way we are to serve God, to seek the truth especially in what concerns God and His Church, and to embrace the truth” once known and “to hold fast to it” are perennial duties of conscience (cf. DH, 1.2-3).
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr