1. What is Law?

Law is a rule of conduct, just and obligatory, formulated by legitimate power or competent authority,
and of common observance and benefit.

Law is a mass of obligatory rules established for the purpose of governing the relations of persons in
society.

2. Define the following Laws:

A. Natural Law – divine inspiration in man of the sense of justice, fairness, and righteousness, not by
divine revelation or formal promulgation, but by internal dictates of reason alone. This also regarded as
the reasonable basis of state law.

B. Divine Law – is the law of religion and faith which concerns itself with the concept of sin and
salvation. It is formally promulgated by God and revealed or divulged to mankind by means of direct
revelation.

- Under the Old Testament, divine law is embodied in the Ten Commandments. It is believed by
Christians that these laws were formally given by God through Moses, the great Hebrew prophet and
leader.

- Divine Law differs according to what one believes to have been established and communicated to
mankind by revelation. This, to the Mohammedans, divine law is embodied in the Muslim Quoran.

- The sanction of divine law lies in the assurance of certain rewards and punishments in the present life
or in the life to come.

C. Civil Law – the system of law concerned with private relations between members of a community
rather than criminal, military, or religious affairs.

Civil Law regulates the relationship between individuals; involves private interests; civil procedures
apple. Example: Family law

D. Ecclesiastical Law – An ordinance issued by legitimate authority in the Catholic Church. The legislators
for the entire Church are the Roman Pontiff alone, or the Pope through the Roman Curia, or an
ecumenical council together with the Pope; the bishops for their individual dioceses, or conferences of
bishops for the territories under their jurisdiction; and the major superiors of institutes of perfection for
their members, according to the respective constitutions.

E. Human Law – Human Law is the interpretation of natural law in different contexts
These might include such things as do not drive above 70mph on a motorway, do not kidnap people,
always wear a helmet when riding a bike, do not hack into someone’s bank account. Secondary precepts
are not generated by our reason but rather they are imposed by governments, groups, clubs, societies
etc.

3. What is conscience?

It is a personal sense of the moral content of one’s own conduct, intentions, or character with regard to
a feeling of obligation to do right or be good. Conscience, usually informed by acculturation and
instruction, is thus generally understood to give intuitively authoritative judgments regarding the moral
quality of single actions.

4. Define the following:

A. Antecedent and Consequent conscience

ANTECENDENT CONSCIENCE is the judgment of a person deciding on a moral matter prior to acting on it.
Antecedent conscience either commands or forbids, counsels or permits the performance of an act.

CONSEQUENT CONSCIENCE is the judgment of the mind on the morality of an action already performed.
The conscience either approves what has been done, giving peace to the mind and spiritual joy, or
disapproves of what was done, thus causing remorse and a sense of guilt.

B. Perplexed Conscience

PERPLEXED CONSCIENCE is an erroneous conscience when the mind sees sin both in the performance
and in the omission of some human act to be done here and now.

C. Scrupulous Conscience

SCRUPULOUS CONSCIENCE is an erroneous conscience when the mind is unduly swayed by fear and
judges that something is wrong that in fact is lawful.

D. Certain Conscience

CERTAIN CONSCIENCE is a state of mind when it has no prudent fear of being wrong about its judgment
on some moral issue and firmly decides that some action is right or wrong.

E. Lax Conscience
LAX CONSCIENCE - An erroneous conscience when the mind decides on insufficient grounds that a sinful
act is permissible or that something gravely wrong is not serious

F. Doubtful Conscience

DOUBTFUL CONSCIENCE - A state of mind when it cannot certainly decide for or against a course of
action and leaves the person unsure about the morality of what one is to do, or what one may have
done. One sign of a doubtful conscience is that it gives rise to a positive judgment with a prudent fear of
being wrong, or more commonly to a negative judgment in which the person does not know whether an
act is lawful or not.

G. Erroneous Conscience

ERRONEOUS CONSCIENCE - is when a person knowingly, or unknowingly, makes a mistake in judgement

by doing the wrong thing which they, consciously, believed was the right thing to do.

H. Right and Good Conscience

RIGHT AND GOOD CONSCIENCE - The exercise of a right of conscience does not require a demonstration
of the truth of beliefs that are the basis of a right-of-conscience claim, as requiring the truth of a belief
to be demonstrated would trivialize the right itself.

The primary conditions necessary for the legitimate exercise of a right of conscience consist of: (1) the
lack of harm posed to others by the exercise of a right of conscience; and (2) strength and sincerity of
beliefs that are the basis for a claim of conscience.

The first of these conditions represents a straightforward balancing of the rights of individuals through
recognition that autonomy rights must be restricted when significant harm is posed to others. Thus, for
example, a right to freedom of speech does not include a right to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater.
Similarly, seeking an exemption from mandatory vaccination is restricted in circumstances of epidemic
disease, where failure to be vaccinated could pose a threat of harm to others.

5. How does conscience be formed?

It takes time to form our consciences so that we can make well-reasoned judgments about particular,
real-life situations. The Church teaches that it is important to work continually on conscience formation
so we can be prepared to make decisions whenever the opportunity arises. Some specific ideas to form
your conscience are:

1) Begin by being open to the truth and what is right.

2) Study Sacred Scripture and the teaching of the Church.
3) Examine the facts and background information about various choices and be discerning in where we
gather information.
4) Prayerfully reflect to discern the will of God

Additionally, it is important to consider how our community of faith can help us form good consciences
through some of these steps:

1) Seek the prudent advice and good example of trusted leaders and others to support and enlighten
our conscience.
2) Learn about the authoritative teaching of the Church.
3) Pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit to help us develop our conscience.
4) Regularly partake in an examination of conscience to hear God’s voice in your life.