The document discusses the concept of conscience, defining it as an inner voice that guides people to do good and avoid evil. It notes there are different types of conscience, including true conscience, erroneous conscience, certain conscience, and doubtful conscience. The document emphasizes that conscience must be properly formed through principles like seeking to have an unerring conscience and following one's conscience while avoiding erroneous conscience. It provides examples of "reflex principles" that can help guide actions when one's conscience is doubtful or perplexed. Overall, the document aims to explain the meaning and proper formation of conscience.
The document discusses the concept of conscience, defining it as an inner voice that guides people to do good and avoid evil. It notes there are different types of conscience, including true conscience, erroneous conscience, certain conscience, and doubtful conscience. The document emphasizes that conscience must be properly formed through principles like seeking to have an unerring conscience and following one's conscience while avoiding erroneous conscience. It provides examples of "reflex principles" that can help guide actions when one's conscience is doubtful or perplexed. Overall, the document aims to explain the meaning and proper formation of conscience.
The document discusses the concept of conscience, defining it as an inner voice that guides people to do good and avoid evil. It notes there are different types of conscience, including true conscience, erroneous conscience, certain conscience, and doubtful conscience. The document emphasizes that conscience must be properly formed through principles like seeking to have an unerring conscience and following one's conscience while avoiding erroneous conscience. It provides examples of "reflex principles" that can help guide actions when one's conscience is doubtful or perplexed. Overall, the document aims to explain the meaning and proper formation of conscience.
1. To be able to define the meaning of Conscience.
2. To be able to understand the principle of the
different types of conscience
3. To be able to live and follow one’s own
conscience. Conscience is often described as an “inner voice” which tells us what is right and wrong
Vatican II, in its “Pastoral Constitution of the
Church in the Modern World” (#16), depicts conscience as the principle or sense that summons us to love good and avoid evil It is the most secret core and sanctuary of an individual where we can be alone with God whose voice becomes the master of our acts.
Conscience reveals the law which is fulfilled by our
love of God and our neighbor. Richard McBrien, defines conscience not only as a feeling or judgment but also as the radical experience of ourselves as moral agents that Christian conscience is the representation of ourselves as new creatures in Christ enlived by the Holy Spirit. Because we lack complete knowledge about ourselves, the decision of conscience are necessarily incomplete and partial. Conscience must be properly formed because it is the final, subjective norm of moral action by which individuals are guided to come up with decision.
It does not guarantee correctness of the decision or
judgment; it only allows us to be true to ourselves. Furthermore we have to remember that God judges each of us based on what is in our hearts on the very motivation in doing a certain act. The Moral Conscience
Moral law as the objective norm of morality cannot
achieve its purpose and guide human activity toward God’s plan unless the law is known by people and recognized in its obligatory character. Conscience is the faculty which manifests this moral obligation in a concrete situation. Vatican II declares that in the depths of our conscience, we detect a law which we don’t impose upon ourselves, but which holds us to obedience. “Do this, shun that.” In our hearts, we detect a law written by God. To obey is the very dignity of man/woman .
We will be judge according to how we have
followed our conscience. Conscience is where we are alone with God whose voice echoes in its depths (GS, 16) Categories of Conscience
There are four categories of Conscience:
1. True Conscience –
when it deduces correctly from the principle that
the act is lawful, or it conforms to what is objectively right. 2. False or Erroneous Conscience –
When it decides from the false principles
considered as true that something is unlawful. The conscience errs because of false principles or incorrect reasoning. Erroneous conscience can be further classified as: a. Scrupulous conscience −
one that for little or no reason judges an act to be
morally evil when it is not, or exaggerates the gravity of sin, or sees sin where it does not exist. b. Perplexed conscience −
judges wrongly that sin is committed both in the
performance or omission of an act. One fears that sin is committed whether it was actually done or not. c. Lax conscience −
judges on insufficient ground that there is no sin in
the fact, or that the sin is not as grave as it in fact, or it is insensitive to a moral obligation in a particular area. d. Pharisaical conscience −
minimizes grave sins but maximizes small ones.
3. Certain Conscience −
when without any prudent fear or error, it decides
that the act is either lawful or unlawful; or if a person has no doubt about the correctness of his/her judgment.
A conscience can be certain but at the same time
erroneous. A certain conscience is not necessarily right; it excludes all fears of error about acting rightly. 4. Doubtful conscience −
when it fails to pass a moral judgment in the character
of the act due to a fear or error; or if the person is unsure about the correctness of his/her judgment. Formation and Development of Conscience
There are certain principles that form or govern
conscience:
1. A person is obliged to form a right with an unerring
conscience 2. Everyone is obliged to follow his/her conscience. 3. An individual is not permitted to follow erroneous conscience. 4. If a person with perplexed conscience finds it impossible to ask for an advice, he/she should choose what seems to be lesser evil. He/She should follow the reflex principles. Reflex Principles- are rules of prudence which do not solve doubts concerning the existence of a law, moral principle, or fact by intrinsic or extrinsic evidence. Instead they only indicate where, in cases of unresolvable doubts, the greater right is usually to be found and the lesser evil is to be feared, and which side, therefore, is to be favored as long as the doubt persist. The following are the Reflex Principles: a. In doubt, the condition of the possessor is the better. b. In doubt, favor the accused; or (which one comes to the same): crime is not to be presumed, but to be proved. c. In doubt, presumption stands on the side of the superior. d. In doubt, stand for the validity of the act(e.g., the validity of the matrimonial bond[cf.CCC#1060] or the validity of an examination or an appointment to an office. e. In doubt, amplify the favorable and restrict the unfavorable. f. In doubt, presumption stands for the usual and the ordinary (or follow the daily and ordinary experience). g. In doubt, favor the customary and hitherto approved. h. A doubtful law does not obliged (i.e., presumption stands for liberty).
5. Only the certain conscience is a correct guide to
moral behavior. INTEGRATION: 1 Peter 3:16 “Having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame”.
How do you use your conscience in
choosing an alternative course of action, and in making a decision? ASSESSMENT: Give your own answers on each situations. 1. A good friend of yours offer you prohibited drugs. He tries to convince you by saying that his experience with drugs is quite fun. Give four reasons for taking the drugs and four reasons for not taking them. Then, decide whether you will take the drugs or not. 2. You are a soldier and your country is at war with a nation that is heading towards communism. You respect the law and deeply believe in the values of your own country. One day, your group is ordered to attack and totally destroy a barrio. The barrio is suspected of hiding a band of terrorists, but is also known to be populated by old people and small children. Should you attack? Give four reasons why you should attack and four reasons why you should not attack. Then, decide whether you will attack or not. REFERENCES: o Cf. Marcelino Zalba. Theologiae Moralis Compendium 1; 1958. no.316 oWilliam E. May. An Introductiom to Moral Theology. (Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, 1994), 206. oCatechism of the Catholic Church