Catholic Conscience and Identity

by Fr. Roger J. Landry - November 30, 2007

This Sunday we celebrated that Christ is king of the universe, a truth that Christians now recognize and everyone will acknowledge one day. This reality, however, has more than eschatological significance. For Christians to honor Christ as king means to allow him to reign in their lives, to be Lord of their time, their families, their possessions, and their choices.

For Christ to rule in a person's moral life, the believer obviously must first be able to discern what the Lord is asking in a given moment. The way one perceives the Good Shepherd's voice in particular situations is through a properly-formed conscience.

Earlier this month, the bishops of the United States took up the subject of a well-functioning conscience in their 41 page document, "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility." We print their summary of the document on page 13 of this edition.

"We bishops do not intend to tell Catholics for whom or against whom to vote," they state at the outset. "Our purpose is to help Catholics form their consciences in accordance with God's truth. We recognize that the responsibility to make choices in political life rests with each individual in light of a properly formed conscience."

The bishops begin by teaching clearly what conscience is not and what it is. "Conscience is not something that allows us to justify doing whatever we want, nor is it a mere 'feeling' about what we should or should not do. Rather, conscience is the voice of God resounding in the human heart, revealing the truth to us and calling us to do what is good while shunning what is evil. Conscience always requires serious attempts to make sound moral judgments based on the truths of our faith."

Those moral judgments based on the truths of our faith involve a few elements. The bishops say that the first is a "desire to embrace goodness and truth" through the study what God has taught us through Sacred Scripture and his Church. This allows us to know with clarity the moral principles that affect our decisions and the relative weight each one should be given. The second step is a thorough examination of the "facts and background information" for a particular choice we need to make, so that, with the help of the virtue of prudence, we may apply the moral principles effectively and correctly. The third is "prayerful reflection," in which we seek to discern God's will in the circumstances, make the moral choice and act on it.

The bishops mention several principles that must guide a properly formed conscience with respect to political responsibility.

The first is that the allegiance of the Catholic voter to Christ and to the Church he founded must trump loyalty to a particular party or political persuasion. "As Catholics," they write, "we should be guided more by our moral convictions than by our attachment to a political party or interest group. When necessary, our participation should help transform the party to which we belong; we should not let the party transform us in such a way that we neglect or deny fundamental moral truths."

The second principle they enunciate is just as fundamental: "A good end does not justify an immoral means" and "not all possible courses of action are morally acceptable." We must seek good ends through good means. Some means, they reiterate, are always wrong. "There are some things we must never do, as individuals or as a society, because they are always incompatible with love of God and neighbor. … These are called 'intrinsically evil' actions. They must always be rejected and opposed and must never be supported or condoned. A prime example is the intentional taking of innocent human life, as in abortion and euthanasia."

They then turn to a third principle about which there is unnecessary confusion among Catholic voters today. "The direct and intentional destruction of innocent human life from the moment of conception until natural death," they declare, "is always wrong and is not just one issue among many. It must always be opposed." To say this, however, is not to say that "other serious threats to human life and dignity" can be dismissed or ignored. There is a two-fold application of this double principle: "A Catholic cannot vote for a candidate who takes a position in favor of an intrinsic evil, such as abortion or racism, if the voter's intent is to support that position. In such cases a Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in grave evil. At the same time, a voter should not use a candidate's opposition to an intrinsic evil to justify indifference or inattentiveness to other important moral issues involving human life and dignity."

This leads, finally, to a fourth principle critical for a well-formed Catholic conscience. "There may be times when a Catholic who rejects a candidate's unacceptable position may decide to vote for that candidate for other morally grave reasons. Voting in this way would be permissible only for truly grave moral reasons."

The bishops do not specify what these grave moral reasons would be. In the case of a pro-abortion candidate, Archbishop Chaput of Denver says that these reasons would have to be sufficient to justify one's action before an aborted child or Christ in the next life. We could also think of another image. They would have to be sufficiently grave to persuade an African-American or a Jew to vote for the same candidate in the same election if he were, respectively, also firmly racist or anti-Semitic. Catholics need to be at least as much against abortion in their practical political decisions as African Americans are against racism and Jews against anti-Semitism.

This does not mean, the bishops add, that Catholics are "single-issue voters," but that "a candidate's position on a single issue that involves an intrinsic evil, such as support for legal abortion or the promotion of racism, may legitimately lead a voter to disqualify a candidate from receiving support."

Voting is an important moral action. It is far more than a choice between apples and oranges; on occasion, it can be a choice between Christ and Barabbas and, as the bishops state, "may affect the individual's salvation."

By the principles they describe in this document, the bishops have helped formed the consciences of the faithful so that, as they exercise their rights in our democratic republic, they will do so consistent with their responsibilities within the divinely-instituted spiritual monarchy established by Christ the King.

Father Roger J. Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford, MA and Executive Editor of The Anchor, the weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River.