The Moral Conscience

Chapter 4; CCC 1776-1802

What is Conscience?
 Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby
the human person recognizes the moral
quality of a concrete act that he is going to
perform, is in the process of performing, or has
already performed. (CCC1778)
 Conscience judges whether a particular act is
right or wrong.
 Conscience is the label given to that part of
our being, centered in the intellect and will,
that makes personal contact with transcendent
truth; it is the medium between objective truth
and out individual lives.
Conscience in the words of
Pope Pius XII:
 The conscience is as it were the most secret
and intimate cell man has. It is there that he
takes refuge with spiritual faculties in absolute
solitude: alone with himself, or better, alone
with God – whose voice makes itself heard in
the conscience – and with himself… The
conscience, therefore… is a sanctuary, at
whose threshold all must stop… a jealously
guarded shrine, whose secret God himself
wishes to be preserved under the seal of the
most sacred silence.
The purpose of conscience

 Conscience is capable of judging moral

and immoral situations – concrete acts.
 The purpose of conscience is to evaluate
whether or not a particular act is good or
evil, and to advise accordingly.
 Conscience is the law of the mind.
 Conscience enables on to assume
responsibility for the acts performed.
Exercising Conscience
 A person must be present to himself in order
to follow the voice of is conscience.
 One is capable of being present to himself
through reflection, self-examination and
introspection.
 The dignity of the human person implies the
necessity of having a proper moral
conscience.
 Man has the right to act in conscience and in
freedom so as personally to make moral
decisions; therefore, he must not be forced to
act contrary to his conscience.
Conscience and Truth

 Conscience is rooted in the truth.

 Because truth is prior to conscience, it
must respect truth.
 Error in judgment enters in when
fundamental truths are ignored.
 Because truth is absolute, conscience,
with the use of right reason, can lead to
the truth about good and evil.
The formation of conscience
 Every human being has the obligation to
correctly form his conscience. This is because
a proper conscience is necessary to make
correct judgments.
 It is also necessary because negative
influences and temptations to sin lead one
away from the authority in moral matters
(Magisterium) and to prefer one’s own
judgment.
 In the formation of conscience the Word of
God is the light of our path. Assisted by the
gifts of Holy Spirit, we must examine our
conscience before our Lord’s Cross.
Education of the Conscience
 It is a lifelong task.
 Children do not have knowledge of good and
evil when they are born. They come to know it
through education, experience, and reason.
 The child uses this knowledge along with the
natural law that God has planted in his heart to
build his conscience, his ability to decide
whether an act is right or wrong.
 The grace of Baptism aids in the proper
formation of conscience because the Holy
Spirit assists the person in finding the internal
law given in this sacrament.
Means to forming one’s conscience

 Acceptance of the moral teaching of the

Church
 Knowledge of Christian life and doctrine
 Prayer and meditation
 Personal examination
 Spiritual direction
Divisions of Conscience
(Determined by Time)
 Antecedent conscience: precedes action
– before acting one deliberates and
concludes that an action of good or evil.
 Concomitant conscience: accompanies
the action as it takes place – If a person
judges the act sin concomitantly, he
must stop the act to the extent possible
 Consequent conscience: follows the act.
Divisions of Conscience
(Determined by Formation)
 True Conscience – determining correctly
the true principles that some act is good
or evil.
 Erroneous Conscience – determines
false principles considered as true that
something is lawful that is actually
unlawful.
Consciences adversely
affected by the will
 Scrupulous Conscience – judging an act
to be evil when it is not.
 Lax Conscience – formulates moral
judgments on insufficient grounds
(judging mortal sins as venial sins and
venial sins as no sins at all).
 Spiritual direction and the sacraments of
the Eucharist and Reconciliation are
needed to overcome these problems.
Acting in accord with
right conscience
 We are obligated to follow our
consciences, even in error, because our
freedom to choose must be respected.
 When man’s conscience is doubtful, he
must always seek to do good and avoid
evil and to know the truth about the
moral law.
Some rules to follow in acting rightly

 Evil means never justify good ends.

 Low for God and neighbor overrides any
other consideration.
 We should act toward others as we
would like them to act toward us.
Analogy of the navigator and pilot

 Navigator: analogous to the intellect.

The navigator gets the lay of the land,
figures out what ought to be done, and
tells the pilot what to do.
 Pilot: analogous to the will. The pilot
aligns himself with the navigator and
makes the airplane go where it is
supposed to go.
Mapping out the Conscience

 True and false (intellect)

 Good and bad (will)
 Vincible and invincible ignorance
 Malum (evil) and culpa (evil for which
one is culpable)
The Flight Plan
 True and good conscience: navigator gets it right and
the pilot follows through-good act results
 True but bad conscience: navigator gets it right but the
pilot fails to communicate- sin occurs because you
know something to be evil and choose to do it (malum
and culpa)
 False yet good conscience: navigator gets it wrong,
and the pilot follows through on the wrong info-
invincible ignorance results in malum; vincible
ignorance results in culpa
 False and bad conscience: navigator gets it wrong and
the pilot chooses to act contrary to the info given –
good act may result but one would be culpable for act.
Making Judgments
 We must distinguish between an act that is evil
and an evil act for which someone is culpable.
 We can judge an act to be evil (that is what
conscience is for), but we cannot judge
whether a particular individual is culpable for
having committed an evil act. That is God’s
business.
 We can however accuse ourselves of
culpability since we know the disposition of our
souls and whether we have followed our
consciences.