Soul Food Series Lecture - Is Conscience Enough?

by Paul Furey

New Ulm - The Soul Food Series for adult education at St. Mary in New Ulm concluded on April 21 with Bishop John C. Nienstedt teaching on the place of conscience in the Christian life. Over 250 people attended Making Moral Decisions - Is Conscience Enough?

Bishop Nienstedt began by pointing out how the complexity in our modern society has led many to embrace a certain moral relativism where each individual is capable of determining his or her own morality, of creating one’s own conscience. The Bishop’s response was clear, "Yes, by all means follow your conscience, but make sure your conscience is correct before you act upon it."

He then went on to distinguish three dimensions of conscience: namely, moral instinct, moral wisdom (science), and moral judgment. The first concerns our basic and immediate grasp of right and wrong. The second, moral science, is more objective and sheds light upon our minds, as it were, from the outside. This moral wisdom comes to us through formal examining of moral principles and experience and is guided by the Church’s magisterium, tradition, scriptures, sound reason, and prayer. The third dimension is moral judgment, which is where the person chooses to act in a concrete situation in response to a perceived good. Such decisions actually fashion the kind of person he or she is going to be. "Unfortunately," the Bishop explained, "there are many in the Church and outside the Church as well who would have us pit the authority of conscience, in the order of moral science, over and against the authority of the Church...a very dangerous tendency because it leads to a false belief that conscience does not need outside resources to form it and inform it with the truth. When such an objective norm is lacking, then each individual becomes his or her own subjective truth...Such a position is totally and radically incompatible with our belief in Christ who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life."

Making Moral Decisions - Is Conscience Enough? is available in video, $19.95; or audio cassette, $4.00 from the Diocesan Media Resource Center, (507) 233-5330.

Paul Furey is Director of Religious Education at St. Mary, New Ulm.