Can Catholics think for themselves or are they required blind obedience?

[Arkansan]

It’s a standard principle of Catholic moral theology that an erroneous conscience always binds but does not always excuse (whether or not it excuses depends on whether the error is inculpable). So one whose conscience erroneously tells him not to obey the Pope (or any other authority) is subjectively forbidden from doing so. On the other hand, failing to accept the teaching authority of the Church does not excuse one from being subject to it.

IOW, the first thing a person with an erroneous conscience needs to do is correct the error. In the present case, that means acknowledging the teaching authority of the Church. This should be obvious when you think about it, whether or not the Church is trustworthy is logically prior to whether or not any particular doctrine should be believed.

 

[Edward_H]

False choice.

In a sense the answer is both.

We’re not free to make up our own truths about what is good or bad…murder is bad, abortion is bad, adultery bad, embryonic stem cell therapy = bad. The average lay person doesn’t have the time and training to sort through sticky moral and ethical principles. We rely on the Church through the work of many thousands of brilliant scholars.

We are expected, however, to exhaustingly think for ourselves in terms of how we live those truths day to day, using up all our intellectual capacity (and all our will power, and all our virtues, our body, everything) that God gave us to “know the truth, do the good”. A happily self-emptying and giving life for God.

So we don’t “think for ourselves” and make up our own versions of truth…that would lead to anarchy and certainly disunity among the people of God. And the Catholic Church is one and universal and holy and apostolic, so there must be one interpretation of revelation and natural law.

So the answer is a far more demanding Yes.

Takes a lot of our thinking to APPLY the truth.

 

[neophyte]

Are most people Catholics because they choose to be or is it rather an “organisation” that bosses you around and tells you what to think and not think?

I became Catholic because Jeses promised that his Church would never teach false doctrine. Therefore, my submission to the teaching of the Church is not blind.

 

[adgloriam]

After this consideration, I concluded that I am still not going to be giving money to homeless

The Popes statement applies to all countries, like those without social security or food stamps or any structure whatsoever to feed the poor. In Europe, you are generally instructed not to give Alms on the street, but to tell the person to get organized and ask for help at the states social services (these state social services do work in close collaboration with “Caritas” and other church charities.)

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Yes, we are instructed when visiting certain cities in Europe not to give to beggars we encounter at the tourist sites because sometimes it is a scam to try to rob us.
Even the priests who travel with us are careful about this.

In USA you need to mostly be careful you are not making yourself a target for a crime or a scam, as this happens a lot and the criminals and scammers will sometimes target people visiting a Catholic Church, because the Church will let homeless people onto the property whereas many Protestant churches would order them to leave. One just has to be careful.

 

[Gorgias]

But even priests seem to disagree with each other about some things don’t they?

Yes, they do. If one priest says “X”, and the other says “not X”, then clearly, at least one is wrong, isn’t he?

(Incidentally, the whole thing about “infallibility” doesn’t apply to priests: they do not teach infallibly simply by virtue of wearing the collar…)

what I’m trying to say is was the Catholic Church made for Jesus or was Jesus made for the Church?

Neither. Jesus founded the Church; the Church was made for us.

 

[fhansen]

Catholics must think for themselves, or else their faith is a sham. What happens is that we come to agree with the Church, and this is called the “sensus fidelium”, the sense of the faithful. It takes time, and is a work of the Holy Spirit.

 

[fhansen]

Here’s the Catechism on this. Two points are made,1) the human conscience is “sovereign” so to speak, and 2) the human conscience is yet in need of formation.

1782 Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions. "He must not be forced to act contrary to his conscience. Nor must he be prevented from acting according to his conscience, especially in religious matters."53

1783 Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful. It formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator. The education of conscience is indispensable for human beings who are subjected to negative influences and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment and to reject authoritative teachings.

This is a matter of the will, whether or not we’re going to seek truth in order to inform our consciences beyond whatever we start with. As we come to find something lacking in the world and its values, as we develop a hunger and thirst for truth and righteousness, as we become jaded by sin/evil, as we come to see our need for the God that we might only vaguely believe in, we then become more malleable, more open to the truth. This doesn’t mean that we’ll automatically agree with the Church on all points, but I believe we’ll all eventually end up there.

 

[Edwyn]

The doctrines of the Catholic Church are not there to stifle us, but rather to make us free and safe morally and intellectually.

Catholic doctrine and discipline may be walls; but they are the walls of a playground. Christianity is the only frame which has preserved the pleasure of Paganism. We might fancy some children playing on the flat grassy top of some tall island in the sea. So long as there was a wall round the cliff’s edge they could fling themselves into every frantic game and make the place the noisiest of nurseries. But the walls were knocked down, leaving the naked peril of the precipice. They did not fall over; but when their friends returned to them they were all huddled in terror in the centre of the island; and their song had ceased.
G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy