My dear parishioners,
Peace! Under headings of Judgment, Formation, Choice in Accord, Erroneous Judgment and In Brief, the Catechism of the Catholic Church addresses “conscience” in twenty-nine passages. Here we consider CCC, 1778b.
Saint John Paul II (+2005) cites Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman, CO (+1890) in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992) when treating “conscience.” Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman was received into full communion with the Catholic Church on 9 October,1845, in Littlemore at the hands of Blessed Dominic Barberi, CP (+1849). Blessed John Henry spent his first years as a Catholic Priest (1846-1848) at Maryvale in Birmingham before moving the Oratory downtown.
The citation on conscience is from Newman’s 27 December, 1874 Letter to the Duke of Norfolk, and describes conscience variously.
When Newman writes that conscience is a law of the mind he may well be alluding to Romans 7:22-23 where Saint Paul, inspired by God wrote: “For in my inner being I delight in God’s Law. I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me.” Saint Paul and Blessed John Henry recognize the harmony between God’s Law and the law of the mind. These help us to recognize and judge what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong.
Newman points out that conscience is a messenger of God. God’s message is that we should do what is good and avoid what is evil. If (when) we do evil we should repent lest we die in our sins (cf. John 8:24). Moral relativists would deny that there is any difference between good and evil, right and wrong. But the Lord Jesus died for our sins (cf. Romans 4:25; 1 Corinthians 15:3; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18)
In his letter Newman calls conscience the aboriginal Vicar of Christ. The Duke of Norfolk was among one of the recusant families who refused to attend services of the Anglican Communion during the anti-Catholic penal laws in England (1593-1829). The irony arises in that the Duke of Norfolk had asked Cardinal Newman to make a toast at dinner, expecting a toast to the Holy Father, the Pope, the Vicar of Christ on Earth. When Cardinal Newman toasted conscience first it was because it had been his conscience which had moved him to embrace the Catholic faith in the first place.
For Newman conscience speaks to us via both nature and grace. When conscience speaks to us according to nature, Newman’s reference is to the Natural Law, which we can know, thanks to the natural light reason, albeit with some admixture of error. Here Newman anticipates Pius XII’s Humani Generis, 3. When conscience speaks to us according to grace, Newman’s reference includes faith, revelation, and the teaching of the Church. The Decalogue given to Moses on Mount Sinai is God’s holy Law revealed (cf. Exodus 20:1-17; Deuteronomy 5:1-21).
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr