Page 9, 17th October 2003

17th October 2003

Page 9

Page 9, 17th October 2003 — Cardinal Newman and the uses of `conscience'
Close

Report an error

Noticed an error on this page?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it.

Tags

Organisations: European Union

Share


Related articles

Debating Newman

Page 13 from 30th April 2010

In This Time Of Crisis I Feel Deep Gratitude To Newman...

Page 13 from 25th June 2010

Newman, Conscience And The Pope: A Debate With Consequences

Page 13 from 28th May 2010

Education Secretary John Patten Warned By Cardinal Basil...

Page 1 from 26th June 1992

Conscience And The Magisterium

Page 9 from 9th May 2003

Cardinal Newman and the uses of `conscience'

From Mr Jan Allen Sir, There is an ongoing debate that keeps surfacing from time to time about the exact status of a catholic conscience in its relation to Catholic teaching. It is quite common nowadays to hear some church members say that they must "follow their conscience", rather than obey Church rules.
Newman is often quoted as saying that conscience must come first; but he also said (in his Apologia) that, after his conversion to Catholicism, he ceased to have personal opinions on theology and morals when they had been defined by the Church. And he was a brilliant controversialist.
The first principle of a catholic conscience is that the Faith must override the natural sense of right and wrong when they are in conflict. Let me give a personal example: in the early 1960s, when contraception was being hotly debated, I held the opinion that the controlled and responsible use of it by couples genuinely seeking God's will was OK (so did Cardinal Heenan). Then in 1968, when Humanae Vitae appeared and was obviously the mind of the Church — despite the murmurings of some barrackroom lawyers and theologians I had to consider my natural reasoning on the subject to be inadequate and to adjust my conscience according to the transcendental principle of Church infallibility. It was not so much a matter of agreeing or disagreeing with the argumentation in Pope Paul's encyclical, but of submitting to the authority of the Church, the essential mark of a real Catholic.
I would hasten to add that I differ from a lot of the higher clergy on things that are not de fide, such as capital punishment and entry in the European Union.
Yours faithfully, JIM ALLEN Torquay, Devon




blog comments powered by Disqus