No surprise here that the National Catholic Reporter has an article against following your conscience. After all it relates to conscience clauses for abortion and contraception. If your conscience tells you that contraception is moral – fine and dandy. If your conscience tells you that homosexual activity is moral – keep on truckin’. If your conscience tells you that you can dissent from Church teaching – hey, Conscience is king! If your conscience tells you that prescribing the pill is wrong – what in the world do you think you are doing? How dare you appeal to conscience!
Yes the magazine the has used conscience like a trump card to negate the truth of Church teaching now wants to have it both ways. Just because they have published statements like "…authority that denies the authority of conscience makes itself an oppressor as well" doesn’t mean they actually believe it. You can dissent all you want just as long as your dissent lines up with theirs. Follow your conscience just as long as it doesn’t match up with Church teaching. If you are a theologian that loses their teaching faculties for dissenting on contraception you are a victim of a witch hunt , a martyr, a hero to emulate. If you are a pharmacist who believes that contraception and abortion are morally wrong you are an oppressor, a denier of others rights, a traumatizer of young women.
If your someone like Sen. Santorum and invoke a slippery slope argument you will be attacked and slippery slope will be put into scare quotes. If your the NCReporter it is then okay to say that the results of conscience clauses in relation to abortion and contraception will result in a denial to read a Harry Potter novel. Oh the horror.
They will only accept a conscience clause as long as they are the ones that have the claws into your conscience. Conscience is king except when it isn’t.
[Via Speculative Catholic (one of my favorite new blogs)]
13 comments
Very astute observation. Of course, I’ve never found reason or consistency to be hallmarks of leftist thought.
Conscience is King when it is properly informed. We actually do have a moral obligation to follow our conscience. The problem is people don’t know what it means to inform your conscience…
Jeff,
Might I suggest you re-package the above post as a letter to the editor for publcation in the NCReporter? I think it would be a great help to open the eyes of their readers who lack any real understanding of conscience.
Their view seems to be that dissent is proper against the Church but not against the State. Consistent, anyway. Wrong, but consistent.
Their view seems to be that dissent is proper against the Church but not against the State.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t that also the view of one Martin Luther?
As I recall, Luther wasn’t terribly sympathetic when the German peasants revolted against the princes.
Obviously the concept of the responsibility to develop an “informed conscience” is foreign to them.
I just thought I’d post a link for those interested on issues of conscience in the workplace.
http://www.consciencelaws.org
It’s a project which advocates for the protection of conscience of professionals. For those few who have well formed consciences that is.
It’s an ecumenical project but started by a Catholic. A great resource pass on to pro-life physicians, teachers, pharmacists, etc…
Cacciaguida,
Remember, the issue here (on this thread) is “conscience” not dissent per se!
In that they ARE inconsistent!
Might I suggest you re-package the above post as a letter to the editor for publcation in the NCReporter?
I doubt it would ever see the light of day…
I guess NCR think that we have a properly formed conscience only when it agrees with them…. Oh, wait. Isn’t that what they keep accusing TheVatican of?
This isn’t surprising from NCR. I got an ad in the mail from them, asking me to subscribe, and part of it boldly proclaimed that they are (to borrow Fox’s phrase) fair and balanced. They present ALL the arguments on both sides of things.
But the problem is that the Church does not have tolerance for heresies (or at least She ought not have tolerance for them)! The Church isn’t supposed to be a place for everyone to hash out their differences and make concessions – this is relativism at its worst!
I think their slogan is more like this:
You can dissent from Church teaching, but by darn you had better do what I tell you!
Just in case there was doubt
The National Catholic Reporter holds steadfastly to its authentic Catholic identity. Nothing to worry about.
Hat Tip: Curt Jester
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