So does the church require non-questioning obedience? No room at all for doubts or second thoughts?
The Church requires the following:
Can. 750 §1. A person must believe with divine and Catholic faith all those things contained in the word of God, written or handed on, that is, in the one deposit of faith entrusted to the Church, and at the same time proposed as divinely revealed either by the solemn magisterium of the Church or by its ordinary and universal magisterium which is manifested by the common adherence of the Christian faithful under the leadership of the sacred magisterium; therefore all are bound to avoid any doctrines whatsoever contrary to them.
§2. Each and every thing which is proposed definitively by the magisterium of the Church concerning the doctrine of faith and morals, that is, each and every thing which is required to safeguard reverently and to expound faithfully the same deposit of faith, is also to be firmly embraced and retained; therefore, one who rejects those propositions which are to be held definitively is opposed to the doctrine of the Catholic Church.
Can. 752 Although not an assent of faith, a religious submission of the intellect and will must be given to a doctrine which the Supreme Pontiff or the college of bishops declares concerning faith or morals when they exercise the authentic magisterium, even if they do not intend to proclaim it by definitive act; therefore, the Christian faithful are to take care to avoid those things which do not agree with it.
If one’s conscience is not formed to agree with the teachings of the Church, then one needs to continue the formation of his/her conscience.
Can. 227 The lay Christian faithful have the right to have recognized that freedom which all citizens have in the affairs of the earthly city. When using that same freedom, however, they are to take care that their actions are imbued with the spirit of the gospel and
are to heed the doctrine set forth by the magisterium of the Church. In matters of opinion, moreover, they are to avoid setting forth their own opinion as the doctrine of the Church.
If that person has a private doubt or question, that’s one thing. But that person, even a lay person, should not ever try to foist his/her personal understanding as being the teaching of the Church or to say that he/she is right and the Church is wrong. Not on matters of doctrine.
But keep in mind that there is a difference between assent and/or submission of the will in matters of doctrine and those areas of application of that doctrine in a technical sense.
For example, a lay Catholic would not be free to question the doctrine about the need to feed the poor. However, a lay Catholic would be perfectly free to exercise prudential judgment in
how that mandate is carried out. Be it through private charities, through inidividual initiative, or however. (This example is very over-simplified, as there are matters of social doctrine that provide us other guidance…)
Or, as another example, the Church has a doctrine that human life begins at the moment of fertilization and this life is sacred and inviolable. Therefore, doctrinally, all Catholics must assent to be against abortion. But how to rid the country of abortion is, to a degree, prudential.
