Catholic 'Informed Conscience'

Originally posted by Nemesio
Let's be clear here. The cathechism reads:

1790 -- A human being must always obey the certain judgment of
his conscience. [b]If he were deliberaltely to act against it, he would
condemn himself. Yet it happens that moral conscience remains in
ignorance and makes erroneous judgments about acts to be
performed or already committed.

Th ...[text shortened]... lso by violating the teaching of the Church.

This seems a major problem to me.

Nemesio

[/b]

The word used in the Latin text for "certain" is certo - which appears to be a stronger word than, say, indubius (without doubt). The word certo implies not just surety, but also truthfulness and faithfulness.

In this light, the statement implies that the conscience in question (in n. 1790) is an informed one. (C.f. http://www.wf-f.org/Sheridan-6-4-04.html)

Even with the weaker form of certo simply meaning sure, the dissenting Catholic is guilty of not keeping his conscience informed. There is a nice article by John O'Connell on the topic:

http://www.catholic.net/RCC/Periodicals/Faith/0708-96/article5.html

Originally posted by telerion
Gee, Darfius I always thought Nemesio's standards were pretty high.

Nemesio's standards are high.

Originally posted by lucifershammer
Quite simply, yes:

2370 Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on self- observation and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality.[157] These methods respec ...[text shortened]... on contraception. At least, not until I have Nemesio's response.

What does the CCC have on "spilling the seed" and "noctunal emissions" ?

" The difference, both anthropological and moral, between contraception and recourse to the rhythm of the cycle . . . involves in the final analysis two irreconcilable concepts of the human person and of human sexuality."

There is essentially no difference between the two methods of birth control except that of efficacy.

Originally posted by lucifershammer
Even with the weaker form of certo simply meaning sure, the dissenting Catholic is guilty of not keeping his conscience informed.

So, once again, the dissenting Catholic is obligated to go against his (uninformed) conscience
and submit to the will of the Church, correct? In other words, an 'informed' conscience is one
which has come to agree with the Church in all matters of Doctrine and 'uninformed' (or not
well-formed) conscience is one which disagrees with the Church.

This does not stike me as a meaningful definition of conscience. Conscience, to me, is when
a person considers a situation from all points of view and makes a personal decision. The
definition above indicates that the correct decision has already been made on many issues and,
as such, conscience is unnecessary, just the rulebook.

Nemesio

Originally posted by Nemesio
So, once again, the dissenting Catholic is obligated to go against his (uninformed) conscience
and submit to the will of the Church, correct? In other words, an 'informed' conscience is one
which has come to agree with the Church in al ...[text shortened]...
as such, conscience is unnecessary, just the rulebook.

Nemesio

A person still needs his conscience (i.e. the concrete judgment of a particular situation) even when the "rules" are available - just as a functioning govt. still needs the judiciary even if it has a Constituation and statutes of law. For instance, the First Amendment does not specifically say that Catholicism should not be the state religion; a competent body would still need to judge that the latter violates the former (and is, hence, illegal).

The point about conscience being a judgment and not a decision (at least in Catholic teaching) is what O'Connell makes in his essay (the link I posted earlier in this page).

Originally posted by Nemesio
So, once again, the dissenting Catholic is obligated to go against his (uninformed) conscience
and submit to the will of the Church, correct? In other words, an 'informed' conscience is one
which has come to agree with the Church in all matters of Doctrine and 'uninformed' (or not
well-formed) conscience is one which disagrees with the Church.

Thi ...[text shortened]... been made on many issues and,
as such, conscience is unnecessary, just the rulebook.

Nemesio

did you ever get the feeling that people already know that something is a wrongful act, before they search the "rule" book for loopholes?