Secrets of the Catholic Faith Newsletter

Secrets of the Catholic Faith Newsletter

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Secrets of the Catholic Faith Newsletter
Secrets of the Catholic Faith Newsletter
A Primer on Conscience

A Primer on Conscience

Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic's avatar
Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic
Jun 05, 2023
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Secrets of the Catholic Faith Newsletter
Secrets of the Catholic Faith Newsletter
A Primer on Conscience
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Catholics have always been taught that we must follow our conscience, but an unfortunate reality of modern culture is that many Catholics today have a poorly formed conscience.    How well is your conscience formed?  Well, let’s find out.

“Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed.”  In other words, when we consider what we learned about natural law last week, your conscience is that still small voice inside you that warns you when something is wrong or tells you when something is right.  After diligent reflection, when we are certain something is the right thing to do, we must follow our conscience.

Many people in the world today like to claim that conscience is a formation of thought from a person’s culture or religious belief system.  This couldn’t be further from the truth, as conscience is not of human origin.  Each human person has in his heart a law inscribed by God (natural law).  The conscience is the most secret inner core of man, and it’s a part of the soul’s faculty of intellect.  We aren’t aware of our conscience from the brain, a mere human organ, but from the movement of the soul.  No neurologist nor scientist can tell us what part of the brain governs the conscience, because the brain is incapable, as an organ, to judge the difference between good and evil.

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