On Moral Conscience

In my previous writing, I examined Pope Saint John Paul II’s August 1993 encyclical Veritatis Splendor which he wrote in response to certain theologians who were misapplying the Second Vatican Council’s statements on Catholic moral theology to advance their own teachings that were contrary to those of the Church.   One of the most egregious of these erroneous teachings sought to separate human conscience from God’s Truth and so promote the notion that man can exercise his/her conscience autonomously and independently from God’s revealed Truth.  As one ponders the full implications of man determining what is right and what is wrong, one can hear the words of the Serpent to Adam and Eve: “you will be like gods, who know good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).  The Serpent would then further develop this temptation by saying “you will determine what is good and evil.”  

In refuting these erroneous notions of those moral theologians who sought to separate human freedom and the exercise of conscience from Divine Truth, Pope Saint John Paul II examined the role and nature of conscience in human decision-making.  Typical of Pope Saint John Paul II, his discussion is based upon a firm foundation of Holy Scripture, the Second Vatican Council and other authentic Magisterium teachings.   His discussion of conscience is one aspect of his encyclical Veritatis Splendor that I found particularly intriguing and enlightening.  See https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_06081993_veritatis-splendor.html  

First, what is conscience?   The Catechism of the Catholic Church states “Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed. In all he says and does, man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right”  (paragraph 1778).  

Conscience is an integral component of the human being, an intrinsic part of him or her infused in him or her at his or her creation by God.   Gaudium et Spes (The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World) declares “In the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does not impose upon himself, but which holds him to obedience. Always summoning him to love good and avoid evil, the voice of conscience when necessary speaks to his heart: do this, shun that. For man has in his heart a law written by God; to obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged.   Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a man. There he is alone with God, Whose voice echoes in his depths.”  See paragraph 16.

Conscience is thus that interior voice advising us on the rightness or wrongness of an act committed, being committed or to be committed.  God has placed that interior voice within us to guide us in our actions.  

What if we act or fail to act in accordance with God’s Truth?   In Veritatis Splendor, Pope Saint John Paul II examines this issue with his usual profundity and moral clarity.  

 
Through moral conscience, God helps man to make the choice of right over wrong and good over evil.   Having free will, man can choose to do right or wrong, good or evil, and man can choose to ignore conscience and do wrong or do evil.  “Like the natural law itself and all practical knowledge, the judgment of conscience also has an imperative character: man must act in accordance with it,” writes Pope St. John Paul II in Veritatis Splendor.  “If man acts against this judgment or, in a case where he lacks certainty about the rightness and goodness of a determined act, still performs that act, he stands condemned by his own conscience, the proximate norm of personal morality” [emphasis in original]  (see paragraph 60).   

Man can follow his or her conscience and still make the wrong choice.   Referencing Chapter 12 of Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans, Pope Saint John Paul II writes, “Paul's admonition urges us to be watchful, warning us that in the judgments of our conscience the possibility of error is always present. Conscience is not an infallible judge; it can make mistakes. However, error of conscience can be the result of an invincible ignorance, an ignorance of which the subject is not aware and which he is unable to overcome by himself” [emphasis in original] (see paragraph 62).   Thus man can sincerely seek the Truth and still make a wrong moral choice.  This is known as erroneous conscience.  Man in sincerity mistakenly believes that an act is right or good when it is actually wrong or evil.

Often, as the Pope points out referencing the Second Vatican Council, man cannot on his own find the Truth and requires Divine assistance to do so.  “Christians have a great help for the formation of conscience in the Church and her Magisterium” writes the Pope in paragraph 64 [emphasis in original].      He then quotes the Second Vatican Council:  “In the formation of their consciences, the Christian faithful ought carefully to attend to the sacred and certain doctrine of the Church. For the Church is, by the will of Christ, the teacher of the truth.”  See Dignitatus Humanae (Declaration on Religious Freedom) paragraph 14.

In the exercise of conscience, man can act or not act in a manner that is culpably erroneous.   Quoting Gaudium et Spes, the Pope writes, "Conscience, as the ultimate concrete judgment, compromises its dignity when it is culpably erroneous, that is to say, "when man shows little concern for seeking what is true and good, and conscience gradually becomes almost blind from being accustomed to sin" (see paragraph 63 of Veritatis Splendor).   Culpably erroneous means that man willfully chooses not to seek the Truth and so acts without regard for Truth.  Man willfully neglects to inform his or her conscience and thus willfully choses to act or not act without the benefit and guidance of God’s Truth to assist him or her.  

In summation, Pope Saint John Paul II examines three ways in which man utilizes conscience in choosing right or wrong.  First, man’s conscience provides the right guidance but man willfully ignores its right guidance.  Second, man’s conscience provides the wrong guidance and man sincerely acts upon the wrong guidance of his conscience.  That is erroneous conscience.  Third, man willfully choses to neglect forming his or her conscience in light of God’s Truth and makes the wrong choice based upon his or her conscience’s inability to know right from wrong.  In this case, man is being culpably erroneous.  

The key takeaway is thus:  we should make every effort to utilize the resources that God and our Church make available in forming our consciences and seek God’s guidance in our moral actions.   The Catechism states “The Word of God is a light for our path. We must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice.  This is how moral conscience is formed” (paragraph 1802).