What if you cannot reconcile your conscience with church teaching?

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Abira

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Hi everyone…

It’s a simple question really…what if:

You cannot reconcile your conscience with church teaching?​

and you:

know you are morally obliged to follow you conscience (at all times?)

have fully, or to the best of your ability, informed your conscience

have read book after book and tried discussing this issue around other topics

have gone away from the forums for months to think and still feel the same way, but know that the church does not teach how you feel you should act on an issue​

I’ve left the issue I’m thinking of as a blank as in a way it’s kinda not relevent to the question… but I don’t mind if anyone needs to know to answer me better or if anyone PM’s me… and also I guess a lot of people struggle to unify their own thoughts with the church’s… what do you do if you cannot do this? What happens if you never manage it and should follow your conscience?

Thanks a lot,

S
 
Primacy of conscience cannot overshadow Divinely Revealed truths. Therefore, pray and work harder to fully inform your conscience. A conscience of convenience cannot be justified.
 
As I understand Church teaching, you should follow your fully formed conscience. One of my favorite Jesuits explained it this way:
"If you have done everything within your power to understand the specific teaching, you have spent time in prayer, you have sought spiritual guidance, you have studied, you have tried to accept the teaching, you have prayed some more, you have sought the voice of the Lord…and your conscience still tells you to contradict Church teaching, well then you should follow that conscience. When you die, and stand before God to be judged, I believe he will say “You know that Church teaching that your conscience told you wasn’t right? Well it was…and you were wrong…but come on in anyway.”
 
Buffalo said it, but can I suggest you get some adult formation, that seems to help the process from what I have heard.
 
DallasCatholic said:
As I understand Church teaching, you should follow your fully formed conscience. One of my favorite Jesuits explained it this way:
"If you have done everything within your power to understand the specific teaching, you have spent time in prayer, you have sought spiritual guidance, you have studied, you have tried to accept the teaching, you have prayed some more, you have sought the voice of the Lord…and your conscience still tells you to contradict Church teaching, well then you should follow that conscience. When you die, and stand before God to be judged, I believe he will say “You know that Church teaching that your conscience told you wasn’t right? Well it was…and you were wrong…but come on in anyway.”
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Sounds nice but it is totally incorrect. If you conscience tells you you go against Church teaching them you must go with Church teaching.
 
estesbob said:
Sounds nice but it is totally incorrect. If you conscience tells you you go against Church teaching them you must go with Church teaching.
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I couldn’t agree more.

It’s called obedience.
 
Abira said:
Hi everyone…

It’s a simple question really…what if:

You cannot reconcile your conscience with church teaching?​

and you:

know you are morally obliged to follow you conscience (at all times?)

have fully, or to the best of your ability, informed your conscience

have read book after book and tried discussing this issue around other topics

have gone away from the forums for months to think and still feel the same way, but know that the church does not teach how you feel you should act on an issue​

Click to expand...
You’re obliged to follow your *well-formed *conscience. BUT, you are also required to obey the Church in areas where the church teaches clearly and authoritatively.

Where there is no clear-cut teaching, your well-formed conscience applies moral principles as best as it can. When there is a clear-cut teaching, you cannot use your conscience as an out for not obeying.

Your conscience cannot be “well-formed” when it transgresses a clear Church teaching. Therefore, you must continue to obey the church and continue to form your conscience.
 
estesbob said:
Sounds nice but it is totally incorrect. If you conscience tells you you go against Church teaching them you must go with Church teaching.
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Documentation please? I would refer to catechism #1777 - 1802 with particular emphasis on 1782 and 1800.

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

1800 A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience.
 
iamrefreshed said:
I couldn’t agree more.

It’s called obedience.
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It’s more than obedience - ‘if you love me you will keep my commands’.

How do we know which are His commands? ‘Who listens to you (the Apostles, and their successors, our Church Magisterium) listens to me, who rejects you rejects me’.

Note that it isn’t ‘who rejects you after much prayerful consideration and wrestling with their conscience is okely-dokley’ :nope:

If you know what the truth is that Christ has revealed through the Church’s teaching, and you ignore or disobey it, it ain’t the Church teaching that’s at fault.
 
Sometimes it helps to write down the issues and the factors…In my ethics class, we were taught to write qquestions that get to the heart of the matter…then answer those questions…and analyze the terms used…they give context to our positions [biases and opinions…which are truly not the result of a well formed conscience]

You can use the formal teachings and good orthodox sources to answer the questions from the church’s position…look at the areas where you converge and diverge…look at the meaninds, terms, rational…

Often times we don’t put our own position to the ‘test’ but spend our study of the church’s position in trying to find holes or contradictions, a way out etc. Often times, I have had catholics use the ‘can’t reconcile with my conscience’ phrase when they really mean they have a different opinion or they have some obsure scenario ‘for example’ case that makes them feel uncomfortable or challenges them if they would adhere to the teaching authority of the church…

That is way ‘generalities’ and non-defined issues can be hard to address…they are easier in that you won’t get into the debate…but it is hard to tell if you have really wrestled with the issue…

Seeking out a moral theologian [orthodox] to guide the formation of your conscience [vs self study] might be prudent…especially for some of the moral issues of our time…issues like Life & Death - abortion, euthanasia, artificial birth control], Sex [Promiscuity, Marriage - and the lack of, Pornography, sexual identity] come to mind…
 
1ke said:
You’re obliged to follow your *well-formed *conscience. BUT, you are also required to obey the Church in areas where the church teaches clearly and authoritatively.

Where there is no clear-cut teaching, your well-formed conscience applies moral principles as best as it can. When there is a clear-cut teaching, you cannot use your conscience as an out for not obeying.

Your conscience cannot be “well-formed” when it transgresses a clear Church teaching. Therefore, you must continue to obey the church and continue to form your conscience.
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Can you point me to documentation that supports this? I would agree that if your conscience is telling you to go against a clear teaching then it is probably not “well-formed”…however AFAIK you are still bound to follow your conscience.
 
DallasCatholic said:
Documentation please? I would refer to catechism #1777 - 1802 with particular emphasis on 1782 and 1800.

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

1800 A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience.
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[1785](javascript:openWindow(‘cr/1785.htm’)😉 In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path,54 we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. We must also examine our conscience before the Lord’s Cross. We are assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and **guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church.55 **
 
Dallas Catholic, sorry to ask but-

Afaik? What does that mean?:o
 
Abira said:
Hi everyone…

It’s a simple question really…what if:

You cannot reconcile your conscience with church teaching?
Click to expand...
I follow only my own conscience. When in a spot, I might ask some trusted friends for advice, but the decision and responsibility rests with me.
 
LilyM said:
It’s more than obedience - ‘if you love me you will keep my commands’.

How do we know which are His commands? ‘Who listens to you (the Apostles, and their successors, our Church Magisterium) listens to me, who rejects you rejects me’.

Note that it isn’t ‘who rejects you after much prayerful consideration and wrestling with their conscience is okely-dokley’ :nope:

If you know what the truth is that Christ has revealed through the Church’s teaching, and you ignore or disobey it, it ain’t the Church teaching that’s at fault.
Click to expand...
I completely agree.

I think your problem may lie in thinking the Church is something separate from Christ. It isn’t. The Church is the Body of Christ.

To obey the Church is to obey Christ. If you love him, you will keep his commandments, even if you don’t understand them.
 
Hellisreal said:
Dallas Catholic, sorry to ask but-

Afaik? What does that mean?:o
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AFAIK= AS Far As I Know

estesbob,
1785 is explaining how we should form our conscience. We should be GUIDED by the authorative teaching of the Church among other things. However after all of the guiding and forming we are still bound by 1782 and 1800.

I don’t believe that a truly “well-formed” conscience can go against clearly defined Church teaching. However, I think the catechism is clear that you must follow your “well-formed” conscience.
 
not_a_theist said:
I follow only my own conscience. When in a spot, I might ask some trusted friends for advice, but the decision and responsibility rests with me.
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Unless you are Catholic, then that really isn’t relevant at all here.
 
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