Blase's Blog

There seems to be some differences about the place of conscience in the Catholic Church. And there ought to be. Some Catholics thought that conscience was only for Protestants and they certainly could have received this impression from various Popes.

The Vatican Council of 1962-1965 was a liberating moment for millions of Catholics. Here is the statement on conscience:

The human person sees and recognizes the demands of the divine law through conscience. All are bound to follow their conscience faithfully in every sphere of activity. Therefore the individual must not be forced to act against conscience nor be prevented from acting according to conscience, especially in religious matters.
Declaration on Religious Liberty. Second Vatican Council, 1965.

It was conscience that led me to defy a gag order from the Church regarding U.S. military intervention in Guatemala. It was conscience that led Theresa to leave her convent post in southern Chile and become a Social Worker in Los Angeles.

Thanks to this clear understanding of conscience Theresa and I have been married for thirty-five years. We would like to be the change that we desire. We are grateful for following our conscience, having children and becoming grandparents.

The removal of conscience as the ultimate norm of action is one definition of a cult. And sadly, many people have a cultish relationship to their faith. It is at this transition moment in history that we must urge people to listen to their inner voice and to remove all cultish and mindless behavior from their spiritual formation.

The key to an enlightened conscience is critical thinking. I thank my father for his instruction on this matter. As a prominent attorney and later Judge of the Superior Court his critical mind was always in gear even as he sat at Mass on Sunday and listened to the sermon. On one occasion, the priest was ranting and raving and gesticulating about some esoteric issue, Dad wrote a note on a church envelope and handed it me. I must have been ten years old at the time. His note said, "The Father has gone hopelessly insane."

I laughed but I never forgot his point. A critical mind will develop a healthy spirituality. An unquestioning mind will create a robot.

It is critical thinking and an active conscience that has led millions of people to work for the abolition of the war system together with the development of an international system of justice and peace.