I could be wrong, but that’s the way it seems.
The Church has always emphasized conscience, however Her pastors in the past did a better job at emphasizing one very key aspect of conscience - its formation.
Make no mistake that the Church Herself still emphasizes the formation of conscience just as well as She ever did. In fact, thanks to the modern tendancy for people to miss this point, the Church has emphasized the formation of conscience, one might make a fair arguement, even more strongly than in the past; its simply been needed more than in the past where such a thing was obvious to people.
Unfortunately, many priests and catechists have
not conveyed this teaching to the faithful on Her behalf. While I can say from some experience that this problem - based on the quality of the young priests and seminarians that I am seeing - will more than likely be eliminated in the relatively immediate future, nevertheless it has been a problem for three decades now, and so its impact has been had.
We are all bound to follow our consciences, for that is how we will be judged. If I believe that eating a cheese sandwhich is wrong and I do it anyways, I have still made a choice for evil, even though the act itself was perfectly acceptable. Similarly, if I believe truly and sincerely that the use of artificial contraception in marriage is not wrong, even though I might do something which is objectively evil, I have still not made a choice for evil and have, in my heart, tried to do what was right - and this is how I will be judged.
Yet artificial contraception
is wrong, even if I sincerely believe otherwise. And so it is not enough to say that we all do what we believe is right. Rather, we must do what we believe is right after having sought the truth about what is right in a given situation. We must properly form our consciences, that is, conform our consciences to truth - conform them to God. And we will be held accountable for the degree to which we strive to do this.
As Catholics we know that the way we conform our consciences to God is by conforming them to His teachings as given us by Holy Mother Church, for She is His mouthpiece on earth. Ultimately, forming our consciences is as simple as obeying the Church’s teachings.
This is why those who fail to submit to the Church in some way are admonished and are not said to be properly following their consciences. They may be following their consciences, but they have not properly formed their consciences.
Now
of course it is critical to acknowledge that one need not give the submission of faith to ech word that proceeds forth from the mouth of the Supreme Pontiff. Popes can err, and more than likely even the sainted ones - such as Leo , whom we honor today - did. And so to on occassion question the words of those who are not yet enshrined on the Roman Calendar, such as Paul VI or John Paul II or Benedict XVI, is perfectly reasonable.
The error made by many, however, is to assume that simply because a Pope, or the Church through some other means, is not speaking with the full power of the infallible magisterium, we need not submit in
any way. Truth be told, we owe - to use the phrase given us by the Second Vatican Council - religious submission to all teachings of the Church. And even in matters not pertaining to faith and morals, we owe obedience to those lawfully placed over us in the Church, excepting
only cases wherin we are called to sin.
And when it comes to the Church Herself, this is not even a consideration, for as Pope Pius VI taught, it is not possible for the Church to bind the faithful to sin. Thus any official discipline of the Church must be given full submission of obedience without any reservations. Any difficulties we see in these commands our on the part of our own difficulties in understanding, for it is impossible that the Church is doing wrong in these matters.
I believe, latinmasslover, that the reason that Catholics of the more traditional mindset seem to come under criticism for this more often that those of the liberal mindset is because traditional Catholics are not lacking in the catechesis to understand these points. In short, they ought to already know that they owe the Church these things, and so while the disobedience of liberals is gravely wrong and must need be corrected, the disobedience of the traditionalists is without any excuse whatsoever, for as it is written, “To whom much is given much is expected,” and again, “If I had not spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.”
. In the Old *and *New Law, love for God comes *first, before *our neighbor. I read his books, listen to his tapes (want more of his stuff, in fact) but I don’t take every word out of his mouth as Gospel. For future reference, so this doesn’t get thrown out later, I’m jealous of no one who defends the greatness of the New Rite, and if you did in fact confuse me with latinmass, you’re falsely accusing him/her, which is sinful and requires confession. Still assuming there was a mix-up, being anry at somebody doesn’t imply jealousy. It’s a righteous anger concerning the Faith Christ left us with. Nothing wrong with that.