Following One's UnConscience

"Conscience" gets bandied about by progressive Catholics nearly as much as "love" does, and more often than not, their understanding of it is flawed and incomplete. As Inigo Montoya said, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

From The Sour Patch Kids blog: Whose Conscience Is It, Anyway?

For a long time, the Catholic Church’s teaching on conscience has both enlightened and troubled me. I’m heartened by article 1782 that states I have “the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions,” and that I have this right especially in “religious matters.” This teaching is one of the reasons that I’ve stayed with Catholicism for so long. My conscience is loud–especially when it disagrees with authority.

Yet, it seems as though it’s too easy for authority to always have the last word. When I speak up in conscience to say something the Church doesn’t like, it can tell me that my conscience has been malformed if I reject the Church’s teachings (1792) or that my conscience is malformed due to a “habit of committing sin” (1791). Because I consistently disagree with many Church teachings on certain issues, it’s all too easy for someone to invalidate my conscience by citing my “habit” of “sins”(i.e.: dissenting opinions) of this nature.

I’ve been reading St. Augustine’s Confessions, and I found the first line in Book Two, Chapter 4, in which Augustine writes of a “law that is written in men’s hearts [that] cannot be erased however sinful they are,” to be enlightening. This is in minor contradiction of the official teaching of the Catechism, which does cite sin as being capable of malforming a conscience. And yet, it’s St. Augustine’s profession that rings true in my heart–perhaps in that same place where my conscience lives.

Progressive Catholics have a reading disability - let's call it Emotive-Rational Responsiveness Seizures, or ERRS - where they simply are incapable of accepting sections of the Catechism or Christ's 'harder' teachings because they conflict with their feelings and emotions. Confusion over conscience ranks as the top cause of ERRS, and the above blogpost provides examples of multiple symptoms.

"My conscience is loud - especially when it disagrees with authority." Here is a classic symptom, sometimes described as "faithful dissent". This is deep denial, because faithful dissent is a fallacy, not a reality. This victim has fooled herself into believing that she is listening to her conscience, when she's actually ignoring it.

"Yet, it seems as though it’s too easy for authority to always have the last word." Well, duh! For an authority to be legitimate, it has to have the last word. ERRS victims consider Magesterial teaching to be just another opinion, especially when the teaching concerns sinful behaviors that the ERRS victim is engaged in.

"Because I consistently disagree with many Church teachings on certain issues, it’s all too easy for someone to invalidate my conscience..." Here's the classic defensive posture that ERRS victims tend to assume. Because the conscience is being pricked, the victim responds with strong statements like 'invalidating my conscience'. In addition, the victim plays the pity card - the Big Bad Church isn't validating my feelings - instead of realizing that the Church exists to help lead her to salvation.

"This is in minor contradiction of the official teaching of the Catechism, which does cite sin as being capable of malforming a conscience." Okay, there's a lot going on here. The ERRS victim is displaying multiple symptoms in the space on one sentence - this could be classified as Responsiveness Schizophrenia rather than mere Seizures. First, the word 'minor' - this is a type of distraction, to downplay the seriousness of the contradiction. As faithful Catholics know, contradictions to official teachings are rarely minor, even more so when it concerns the conscience. Second, the word 'official' - this is to imply that there might be unofficial teaching somewhere out there. Third, the phrase 'of the Catechism' - this is done to pit the catechism against another source (in this case, St Augustine), as well as to imply that the catechism is somehow different than Church teaching. Fourth, the phrase 'which does cite sin as being capable of malforming a conscience' - the way this is worded, the victim does not believe that this is true. Not in her case, anyway, which is supported by the last sentence in the third paragraph.

There is more to her post, but these three paragraphs provide enough material in order to prescribe treatment. This particular ERRS victim has a very poorly formed conscience. The cure: an aggressive infusion of grace, especially via the Sacrament of Confession; solid spiritual direction; intense catechesis and immediate termination of contact with any Call-to-Action members, forever.
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The trap is forgetting that conscience is a guide, not the Gospel. It is the moral "law that is written in men's hearts", not the false "law" of Following My Conscience. Augustine is saying that no matter how mired in sin we may be, God's law remains etched upon our hearts - but a life of sin will becloud the conscience, making it easier to remain in sin, and much more difficult to break free. There is no 'minor contradiction' between St Augustine's words and the Church's teachings at all. The contradiction is between the blogger's feelings and the fact that sin does creates a malformed conscience.

It would be more honest if such people would come out and say: "I'm gonna do what I wanna do, regardless of what the Church teaches, so there!" instead of saying: "I'm gonna do what I wanna do, and the Church has to change its teaching to accommodate my feelings." Unfortunately, there are some in the Church who agree with them.

Somewhere along the way, the concept of "acting out of free will" has been twisted into "acting according to one's conscience", as if to say sinning is okay. Nothing could be farther from the truth. While it would be much easier for the Church to say: "Okay, fine, ignore your conscience. Go to Hell. See if I care", the Church would be abdicating her mission given by Christ, which is to teach, guide and save souls. Especially the ones of those who err in their judgment.