During the Spring Plenary Assembly of the U.S. bishops a few weeks ago, the bishops voted to draft a document on the Eucharist in the life of the Church. This document will include a section on “Eucharistic Consistency”, basically discussing Catholics’ responsibilities to live their lives “in accordance with the truth, goodness and beauty of the Eucharist we celebrate.“

Within hours of that vote, 60 Catholic members of Congress released a “Statement of Principles” attempting to show how their pro-choice stance could be in accordance with their Catholic faith. Among their many misleading or inaccurate claims was a claim regarding the primacy of conscience. Many other Catholics have since published articles making the same error. I would like to address these errors in understanding conscience and discuss what our conscience actually is and its role in our lives.

The Claims:

The Statement of Principles says, “We seek the Church’s guidance and assistance but believe also in the primacy of conscience. In recognizing the Church’s role in providing moral leadership, we acknowledge and accept the tension that comes with being in disagreement with the Church in some areas.” This same way of thinking has been reiterated numerous times by catholic writers. One such example from the Atlantic, “The Real Threat to American Catholicism”, states that any clergy member who denies communion “as a means of correcting their errors would be claiming the right to overrule their conscience.”

The theory behind “primacy of conscience” is that a person’s conscience is their final authority on morals. Therefore, the person has to follow their conscience even if it contradicts Church teaching. As we will learn, this concept is a lack of understanding of the Church’s teaching on conscience, its role in our lives, and the duty to form our consciences correctly.

What is Conscience:

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, our “conscience is a judgment of reason”¹ which we use to evaluate the morality of certain acts. Our conscience helps us to hear God’s voice and guides us in how we ought to live. Pope St. Paul VI says that “in the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does not impose upon himself, but which holds him to obedience…There he is alone with God, Whose voice echoes in his depths” and “reveals that law which is fulfilled by love of God and neighbor.”² It is our conscience that speaks to us to avoid evil and love doing good.

Since our conscience is given to us by God to guide our actions, the Church teaches that we have a duty to obey it, because “according to it he will be judged.”³ The Catechism says that if we deliberately act against our conscience, we would condemn ourselves.⁴ Therefore, a person has a duty to “be sufficiently present to himself in order to hear and follow the voice of his conscience.”⁵ It is all the more necessary today to eliminate all the worldly distractions that keep us from hearing our conscience and reflecting on our actions.

If we were to stop here, it would seem like the claims of those advocating for “primacy of conscience” would be correct. But, the church teaches us more regarding our conscience.

Formation of Conscience:

First and foremost, our “conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened.”⁶ All of us have a “personal responsibility to align our consciences with the truth.”⁷ Without proper formation, our conscience can make “an erroneous judgment that departs from [reason and the divine law].”⁸ This is very important to remember: if we fail to form our conscience, it will no longer lead us to moral truth, but rather to error.

At first glance, this seems contradictory. We are supposed to listen to our conscience, yet our conscience can lead us to error. This is exactly where those that preach “primacy of conscience” misunderstand. 

If we fail to form our conscience adequately and our conscience leads us to error, we are “culpable for the evil [we] commit.”⁹ St. Paul VI tells us that this can occur when one “cares but little for truth and goodness, or for a conscience which by degrees grows practically sightless as a result of habitual sin.”¹⁰ This is why it is extremely important that we always ensure that our conscience is “conformed to the divine law itself, and should be submissive toward the Church’s teaching office, which authentically interprets that law in the light of the Gospel.”¹¹

It is possible, however, that our conscience can err through no fault of our own. If “the ignorance is invincible, or the moral subject is not responsible for his erroneous judgment”¹² then we are not culpable for the evil we commit. Nevertheless, that act “remains no less an evil, a privation, a disorder [and] one must therefore work to correct the errors of moral conscience.”¹³ So, even in this case, we have a duty to reform our conscience and correct our errors. 

How to Correctly Form Your Conscience:

As noted previously, it is very important that we form our conscience correctly, in order to avoid any moral evil. The USCCB gives us a few tips on how to do this, drawing from the Catechism: 

1. stay close to God in prayer
2. constantly grow in knowledge of moral truth,
3. reflect on how other holy men and women have responded to the same challenges,
4. build a community with other people who are also trying to know, love, and serve the Lord

These steps are vital in the correct formation of our conscience.

So, let us now apply these teachings to the theory of “primacy of conscience” that the 60 congressional members use. Are they correct? The answer is a clear no. While I do not presume to know their hearts and will not pronounce judgement on them, objectively speaking, they are in error.

Our conscience ”must not be confused with a vague subjective feeling or with personal opinion.”¹⁴ Reviewing their stance on abortion in light of the Church’s teachings and God’s revealed truth, we can objectively see their error. This would seem to be a failure of proper formation of conscience and they have a duty to reform their conscience correctly.

In closing, what’s one of the surest ways to know your conscience is in error? By examining your conscience and comparing it to the Church’s teaching. If they are in opposition, as the members of congress admit, your conscience is in error. 

May God bless you and your families. 

Pax Christi

1. CCC 1778
2. Gaudium et Spes 16
3. Gaudium et Spes 16
4. CCC 1790
5. CCC 1779
6. CCC 1783
7. https://www.usccb.org/committees/pro-life-activities/understanding-conscience
8. CCC 1786
9. CCC 1791
10. Gaudium et Spes 16
11. Gaudium et Spes 50
12. CCC 1793
13. CCC 1793
14. PCF, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality: Guidelines for Education Within the Family, December 8, 1995, #95