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, 32.
Saint John Paul II (+2005) recognizes that there is a tension involved with “conscience” namely that “the individual conscience is accorded the status of a supreme tribunal of moral judgment which hands down categorical and infallible decisions about good and evil” and yet this presupposes that our “moral judgment is true” (which further presupposes that there is such a thing as truth, let alone moral truth, and that we can know the same).
There are three Saints especially held up by Mother Church when considering conscience, namely Thomas More (+1535), Alphonsus Liguori (1787), and John Henry Newman (1890). More uses the word “conscience” more than one hundred times in twenty-four letters he wrote during the tortured imprisonment in the Tower of London before his execution. Ligouri in his Theologia Moralis presents the meaning of conscience and examines the indecisive, probable, doubtful and uncertain conscience. Newman’s Letter to the Duke of Norfolk is cited in the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1778: “Conscience is a law of the mind; yet [Christians] would not grant that it is nothing more; I mean that it was not a dictate, nor conveyed the notion of responsibility, of duty, of a threat and a promise. . . . [Conscience] is a messenger of him, who, both in nature and in grace, speaks to us behind a veil, and teaches and rules us by his representatives. Conscience is the aboriginal Vicar of Christ.”
In order to have true moral judgments our conscience needs to be well formed. The classic Cardinal Virtues (Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, Justice), known even by virtuous pagans (e.g. Aristotle (+322BC) Nicomachean Ethics 1097b22-1098a20, 30-1; Plato (+347BC) Republic 426-435). The moral virtues (humility, generosity, chastity, brotherly love, temperance, patience, and diligence) opposite the vices (or capital sins: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, and sloth) also help us to have a well formed conscience. Saint Gregory the Great (+604) in his Moralia in Job greatly expands on the classical understanding of the virtues and vices. Our moral judgements will be even more precise and true with the help of divine revelation especially with the Beatitudes (cf. Matthew 5:3-12) and the Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17; Deuteronomy 5:5-21) and the saving Cross of Christ.
We can know the truth, naturally (through reason) and supernaturally (thanks to grace and faith and revelation) as we read in John 8:32: “you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” The Lord has revealed that He Himself is the “way, the truth, and the life” (cf. John 14:6).
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr