UNIT 3: CALLED TO THE FULLNESS OF LIFE ● The responsibility in exercising freedom entails that

a person must always bear consciously and

A. Genuine Freedom: The Pursuit of the Good unconsciously that he/she is the only one
answerable and accountable for all the actions
1. Freedom as Expression of Dignity: God’s Image and he/she committed.
Likeness in Man ● The intrinsic goodness of man is exercised through
● Freedom the aid his/her freewill and intellect.
○ anchored on man’s dignity, i.e., being ● The election toward the good is only achieved if the
made in the image and likeness of God. person is definitively bound to God and is totally
○ towards the good can only be achieved and aware of the call to be always faithful to one’s
perfected in God while being totally dignity.
aware of the call to be always faithful to ● Through this, man is able to perfect himself/herself
one’s dignity. and is capable of arriving at the promised
● True freedom salvation of Christ.
○ is a freedom only for the good. ● Freedom is our ability to be faithful to our dignity.
● Human person as the perfect and the crowning glory ● Doing God-like actions: loving, showing mercy,
of God’s creation must participate in Gods creative extending compassion, forgiving, etc.
works which are good. ● Therefore, freedom is the ability to choose the
○ Thus, man is always expected to choose good.
the good in all his/her undertakings. ● “The more we choose the good, the freer we
● Genuine freedom must be given emphasis in become.”
order to straighten man’s path toward the ● The beginning of freedom, Saint Augustine writes,
awareness of one’s fidelity to the dignity which is: ”To be free from crimes...such as murder, adultery,
was lost to sin. fornication, theft, fraud, sacrilege and so forth. When
● As man strives to become ‘like-God’, he/she is called once one is without these crimes (and every
to always be reminded that the more we become Christian should be without them), one begins to
like God, the more we become human and the lift up one's head towards freedom. But this is only
more we become humans, the more we should be the beginning of freedom, not perfect freedom..." VS,
like God. 13
○ E.g. Mother Teresa has become an icon of
holiness because she exercised the genuine 3. Freedom and Law
freedom that Christians are all called to do: ● "Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you
the works of God. shall not eat" (Gen 2:17)
● In the Book of Genesis we read: "The Lord God
2. Dignity and Freedom: The Fulfillment and commanded the man, saying, 'You may eat freely of
Manifestation of God’s Presence in Man every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the
● Man’s life is from God and God alone has the sole knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in
right to take it away. the day that you eat of it you shall die' " (Gen
● Washing man’s inequities through the blood of 2:16-17). VS, 35.
Christ makes man acceptable before God.
● By virtue of baptism, as adopted sons and a. The Imagery of Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil:
daughters of God, man’s body becomes the temple ● Revelation teaches that the power to
of the Holy Spirit. decide what is good and what is evil does
● God’s presence in man makes him/her holy, not belong to man, but to God alone.
sacred. ● Man is certainly free, inasmuch as he can
● Now freedom enters here when man treats the understand and accept God's commands.
other with outmost respect and high regard for the And he possesses an extremely far-reaching
presence of God in each person. freedom, since he can eat "of every tree of
● It is by virtue of our dignity that we are equal the garden".
before the eyes of God. ● But his freedom is not unlimited: it must halt
● Creation happened because of the unconditional, before the "tree of the knowledge of good
undying and unending love of God. and evil", for it is called to accept the moral
● Man’s response to that overflowing love is law given by God. In fact, human freedom
faithfulness. finds its authentic and complete fulfilment
● Cognition of one’s and other’s dignity must be the precisely in the acceptance of that law.
basis of a person’s genuine exercise of genuine ● God, who alone is good, knows perfectly
freedom. what is good for man, and by virtue of his
● As man navigates the ins and outs of genuine very love proposes this good to man in the
freedom, ideally, the good must always take commandments. VS, 35
precedence.
 ● God's law does not reduce, much less do is "an outstanding manifestation of the
away with human freedom; rather, it divine image" in man:
protects and promotes that freedom. ● "God willed to leave man in the power of his
● In contrast, however, some present-day own counsel, so that he would seek his
cultural tendencies have given rise to several Creator of his own accord and would freely
currents of thought in ethics which center arrive at full and blessed perfection by
upon an alleged conflict between freedom cleaving to God". VS, 38
and law. ● The exercise of dominion over the world
● These doctrines would grant to individuals or represents a great and responsible task for
social groups the right to determine what is man, one which involves his freedom in
good or evil. obedience to the Creator's command:
● Human freedom would thus be able to ● "Fill the earth and subdue it" (Gen 1:28).
"create values" and would enjoy a primacy ● In view of this, a rightful autonomy is due to
over truth, to the point that truth itself would every man, as well as to the human
be considered a creation of freedom. community. This is the autonomy of earthly
● Freedom would thus lay claim to a moral realities, which means that "created things
autonomy which would actually amount to an have their own laws and values which are to
absolute sovereignty. VS, 35 be gradually discovered, utilized and ordered
● In response to the encouragement of the by man".
Second Vatican Council, there has been a ● Not only the world, however, but also man
desire to foster dialogue with modern culture, himself has been entrusted to his own care
emphasizing the rational, and thus and responsibility. God left man "in the
universally understandable and power of his own counsel" (Sir 15:14),
communicable, character of moral norms that he might seek his Creator and freely
belonging to the sphere of the natural moral attain perfection.
law. VS, 36 ● Attaining such perfection means personally
● Some people, however, disregarding the building up that perfection in himself. Indeed,
dependence of human reason on Divine just as man in exercising his dominion over
Wisdom and the need, given the present the world shapes it in accordance with his
state of fallen nature, for Divine Revelation own intelligence and will, so too in
as an effective means for knowing moral performing morally good acts, man
truths, even those of the natural order, have strengthens, develops and consolidates
actually posited a complete sovereignty of within himself his likeness to God. VS, 39
reason in the domain of moral norms ● At the heart of the moral life we thus find the
regarding the right ordering of life in this principle of a "rightful autonomy" of man, the
world. personal subject of his actions.
● Such norms would constitute the boundaries ● The moral law has its origin in God and
for a merely "human" morality; they would be always finds its source in him: at the same
the expression of a law which man in an time, by virtue of natural reason, which
autonomous manner lays down for himself derives from divine wisdom, it is a properly
and which has its source exclusively in human law. VS, 40.
human reason. ● The rightful autonomy of the practical
● In no way could God be considered the reason means that man possesses in
Author of this law, except in the sense himself his own law, received from the
that human reason exercises its Creator. Nevertheless, the autonomy of
autonomy in setting down laws by virtue reason cannot mean that reason itself
of a primordial and total mandate given to creates values and moral norms.
man by God. ● Were this autonomy to imply a denial of the
● These trends of thought have led to a denial, participation of the practical reason in the
in opposition to Sacred Scripture (cf. Mt wisdom of the divine Creator and Lawgiver,
15:3-6) and the Church's constant teaching, or were it to suggest a freedom which
of the fact that the natural moral law has God creates moral norms, on the basis of
as its author, and that man, by the use of historical contingencies or the diversity of
reason, participates in the eternal law, which societies and cultures, this sort of alleged
it is not for him to establish. autonomy would contradict the Church's
teaching on the truth about man.
b. God left man in the power of his own counsel" (Sir ● It would be the death of true freedom: "But
15:14) of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
● The Second Vatican Council explains the you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat
meaning of that "genuine freedom" which of it you shall die" (Gen 2:17).
 ● Man's genuine moral autonomy in no way ● Over the years this has been instilled into people’s
means the rejection but rather the head and the intuitive understanding of this kind of
acceptance of the moral law, of God's injustice has been suppressed. They can be
command: "The Lord God gave this eliminated by enterprises that are managed and run
command to the man..." (Gen 2:16). by their participants.
● Human freedom and God's law meet and are ● These are changes that have taken place just through
called to intersect, in the sense of man's free exposing power to the sunlight and seeing it
obedience to God and of God's completely evaporate.
gratuitous benevolence towards man. ● You should not assume that it is legitimate because its
● Hence obedience to God is not, as some been like that, that is not a justification. You have to
would believe, a heteronomy, as if the moral ask, if it is legitimate, when you do, you generally find
life were subject to the will of something that it can’t be justified.
all-powerful, absolute, extraneous to man
and intolerant of his freedom. VS, 41 1. Sense of Law According to Aquinas
● By forbidding man to "eat of the tree of the ● Law is not limited to:
knowledge of good and evil", God makes it ○ A legislative or judicial domain
clear that man does not originally possess ○ Commands, obligations, moral imperatives
such "knowledge" as something properly his ○ Controlling what other people are free to do.
own, but only participates in it by the light of ● Law is a Teacher
natural reason and of Divine Revelation, ○ It is about a rational or reasonable
which manifest to him the requirements and principle of order by which things are
the promptings of eternal wisdom. directed to their ends. In this way, law is a
teacher.
● Law is a Ruler
○ A measure of human acts
○ A guide in drawing straight lines.
○ The straightness and length of the rule is
also the measure of the line you’ve drawn.
○ The law guides us in our actions to make
B. Law: Abiding in Truth sure that they are upright and ordered to
the common good.
Anarchism ○ It also gives us a way to judge our actions. It
● According to Noam Chomsky (1928-present), measures them, whether we have
Anarchism is a kind of a tendency in human conformed our actions to the standard of the
thought and action which tries to detect law.
structures of authority, domination, and hierarchy
and to challenge them, ask them to demonstrate 2. Definition of Law According to Aquinas
their legitimacy, recognizing that they are not self - reason for the common good from him who
justifying. They have the burden of justification. has care of the community, which is
● Anarchism is the effort to discover such systems. promulgated or made known. - ST lallae, Q,
And when they can’t justify themselves, they have to 90, a.4
be dismantled and in order to move towards greater Two Elements:
freedom, justice, opportunity, individual creativity, ● Law is an ordination of reason
cooperative activity, and so on. ○ law involves some kind of ordering and
● This is true across all the spectrum of human life from specifically an ordering according to reason.
patriarchal families to imperial systems and ○ Law is not a command of the will of the
everything in between. superior.
● Whenever you find structure of domination, hierarchy, ○ Law is an expression of his (superior) reason
somebody giving order, somebody taking them, you consisting in a kind of reasoned plan or
have to ask: is that legitimate? ordering of things towards the common
● e.g. Expansion of women’s rights. How did it happen? good.
As soon as these structures of oppression were ● Law is an Ordering to the Common Good
identified, they kind of disappeared, not instantly, as ○ Common good is the end that law aims at
there are still plenty of resistance. and serves.
● Wage labor, or wage slavery were people are forced ○ Common good is a good of radically different
into a system where they have to sell themselves to kind because it is an end and it can be
survive. If you work for a wage you are selling shared by many without loss or
yourself, you lose your freedom, dignity, diminishment, e.g. truth, justice. Goods that
independence, your worth as a person. can be shared by many, it is higher and
nobler.
 ○ It is not a private property of none of them ○ This eternal law, this plan of God is
and yet it is genuinely good for each of them implanted in rational creatures in a special
because it is a common good. way, Aquinas calls this the natural law.
○ The common good is the explanation of why ○ Thus, we are capable of understanding the
a law exists and what it is doing world around us, grasping with our minds,
○ law is an ordering based on reason for the what is good for us to do and moving
sake of and directing the community towards ourselves to do it according to this rational
the common good. desire called, will.
○ Common good can be found in the right ○ Human beings have a higher participation in
ordering to God as the common good and God’s providential plan than other creatures
final end of all that is. do because we can understand it become
willing agents in bringing it to completion for
3. Types of Law According to Aquinas ourselves, for others, and for our
Four Types of Law communities.
- These are arranged as a hierarchy where the lower ○ Endowed with the power of reason means
law types of law participate in and make more specific that we are not simply moved by brute force
the higher types. or instinct. The precepts of the natural law
● Eternal Law follow the order of our natural inclination.
○ The order of creation as it preexists in the ○ This means that as we understand the
divine mind. inclinations of our spiritual nature, we come
○ Ultimately, that creation would reflect and to grasp what God made a human being to
share in the glory and splendor of God. be and what human life is ordered to. And
○ Aquinas begins with the Highest possible so, we come to know what a human being
level: God himself, who not only is the ought to do and avoid.
creator of the universe but also its end, the
source of its order, and who governs it by his ○ Five Principles of Natural Inclinations:
providential plan. ■ To good (to what perfects us)
○ This plan of order emerges from God’s ■ To self-preservation
divine reason as an idea in God’s mind ■ To sexual union
and like God himself this plan is eternal. ■ To knowing the truth
Thus, eternal law. ■ To Living in society (justice, truth,
○ Eternal law is not only in God’s mind but fairness towards others)
is in the things that God makes. ○ These inclinations are features of
○ Because God has created all things the kind of beings that we are.
according to a plan as coming from him and ○ They give us a fundamental
ordered back to him, he imprints on their orientation towards what will
very being, in their very nature an inclination make us increasingly happy and
for creatures towards their proper acts and increasingly free.
ends. So they will tend to their perfection and ○ Natural law does not impose on us,
fulfillment precisely as the kinds of things it is rather the very design of our
they are according to the nature God has being. As we come to know this
given them. with our minds, we are able to
participate intentionally and freely in
● Natural Law this plan.
○ The rational creature’s participation in the ○ We order ourselves, our actions
eternal law. according to this plan by the use of
○ The way that rational creatures, like human our freedom. This is the purpose of
beings, participate in God’s plan, i.e., in the our freedom, that we be the
eternal law. creatures that order ourselves
○ Unlike lower creatures, we human beings freely and knowingly to God
are not only moved to our end from the according to his plan.
outside, we use our reason, minds, to
actively participate in directing ourselves, ○ Properties of the Natural Law
ordering ourselves, and ordering and ● Universal. Binds all men
directing others towards their ultimate end at all times and in all
and we do this insofar as we understand places, for it is the very
what kind of beings we are and what is really nature of men.
good for us and so act accordingly. ● Indispensable. Man has
no authority over natural
 law. God is the source of aims to direct this particular community and
natural law. its members to their proper common good.
● Immutable and Dynamic.
Exists for as long as Church Laws
human nature exists. ● The Six Commandments of the Church
Changes in the condition ○ To hear mass on Sundays and Holy Days of
of man results in modified Obligation.
or new demands of the ○ To fast and abstain on the days
Natural Law. appointed.
○ To confess at least once a year.
➢ Relation between Human Law and Natural ○ To receive the Holy Eucharist during
Law Easter Time.
■ Human law is only just in accord ○ To contribute to the support of the Church.
with the natural law and that laws ○ To never violate laws concerning
that conflict with the natural law are marriage.
not morally binding.
■ The natural law is most clear with
respect to certain general and C. Conscience: Man’s Sanctuary
negative precepts, e.g. decalogue:
theft, murder, adultery…these are The Freudian Personality Diagram
wrong always and everywhere ● Id. The in born primitive portion of the storehouse of
because they are contrary to what libido, the basic energy that continually pushes for
the natural law teaches us is the immediate gratification. “The Pleasure Principle”.
good for human beings, e.g., ● Ego. The portion of personality that organizes, plans
self-preservation, sexual union, and and keeps the person in touch with reality.
the raising of children. Language and thought are both ego functions. “The
■ The important job of lawmakers Reality Principle”.
is to specify and apply the ● Superego. The ‘conscience’ part of personality,
general precepts of the natural which contains parental and societal values and
law in a particular context and for attitudes incorporated during childhood. “The Ought
a particular community. Principle”.
■ Then, always respecting what the
natural law demands in its negative 1. Definition of Conscience
precepts, human lawmakers Conscience and Truth
should make laws that order their ● Man’s Sanctuary
communities towards its ○ The relationship between man's freedom and
common good. God's law is most deeply lived out in the
"heart" of the person, in his moral
● Divine Positive Law conscience. Vatican II observed:
○ What God has revealed through divine ○ In the depths of his conscience man detects
revelation in the OT and NT about how a law which he does not impose on himself,
human beings should live in order to come to but which holds him to obedience. Always
the supernatural good of heaven. summoning him to love good and avoid evil,
○ These are things that we could not have the voice of conscience can when necessary
discovered on our own since knowing and speak to his heart more specifically: 'do this,
travelling on the way to the triune God shun that'. For man has in his heart a law
completely exceeds what our nature is written by God. To obey it is the very dignity
capable of by its own power of man; according to it he will be judged (cf.
Rom 2:14-16)" VS, 54.
● Human Law ○ Moral conscience, present at the heart of the
○ Application or determination of the person, enjoins him at the appropriate
natural law on various levels in particular moment to do good and to avoid evil.
community. ○ It judges particular choices, approving those
○ Also, an ordination of reason for the common that are good and denouncing those that are
good, in this case the common good of a evil. It bears witness to the author­ity of truth
nation, of the state, of the city. in reference to the supreme Good to which
○ More particular and specific than the the human person is drawn, and it welcomes
natural law. the commandments.
○ It does not apply everywhere like the natural
law does but only in this jurisdiction and it
 ○ When he listens to his conscience, the excuse the Gentiles with regard to their behavior (cf.
prudent man can hear God speaking. CCC, Rom 2:15).
1777 ● The term "conflicting thoughts" clarifies the precise
nature of conscience: it is a moral judgment about
Definition of Conscience man and his actions, a judgment either of acquittal or
● Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the of condemnation, according as human acts are in
human person recognizes the moral quality of a conformity or not with the law of God written on the
concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the heart. VS, 59.
process of performing, or has already completed. ● In the same text the Apostle clearly speaks of the
CCC, 1778 judgment of actions, the judgment of their author and
● In all he says and does, man is obliged to follow the moment when that judgment will be definitively
faithfully what he knows to be just and right. rendered: "(This will take place) on that day when,
● It is by the judgment of his conscience that man according to my Gospel, God judges the secrets of
perceives and recognizes the prescrip­tions of the men by Christ Jesus" (Rom 2:16). VS, 59.
divine law. CCC, 1778 ● The judgment of conscience is a practical judgment, a
● ”The sanctuary of man, where he is alone with God judgment which makes known what man must do or
whose voice echoes within him". not do, or which assesses an act already performed
● This voice, it is said, leads man not so much to a by him.
meticulous observance of universal norms as to a ● It is a judgment which applies to a concrete situation
creative and responsible acceptance of the personal the rational conviction that one must love and do good
tasks entrusted to him by God.” and avoid evil.
● This first principle of practical reason is part of the
2. The Judgment of Conscience natural law; indeed it constitutes the very foundation
● Biblical understanding of conscience. "When Gentiles of the natural law, inasmuch as it expresses that
who have not the law do by nature what the law primordial insight about good and evil, that reflection
requires, they are a law unto themselves, even of God's creative wisdom which, like an imperishable
though they do not have the law. They show that what spark (scintilla animae), shines in the heart of every
the law requires is written on their hearts, while their man. VS, 59
conscience also bears witness and their conflicting ● But whereas the natural law discloses the objective
thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them" (Rom and universal demands of the moral good, conscience
2:14-15). VS, 57. is the application of the law to a particular case;
● The importance of this interior dialogue of man with ● This application of the law thus becomes an inner
himself can never be adequately appreciated. But it is dictate for the individual, a summons to do what is
also a dialogue of man with God, the author of the good in this particular situation.
law, the primordial image and final end of man. VS, ● Conscience thus formulates moral obligation in the
58. light of the natural law: it is the obligation to do what
● ”Conscience is like God's herald and messenger; the individual, through the workings of his conscience,
it does not command things on its own authority, knows to be a good he is called to do here and now.
but commands them as coming from God's VS, 59
authority, like a herald when he proclaims the edict of ● The judgment of conscience has an imperative
the king. This is why conscience has binding force." character: man must act in accordance with it. If man
Saint Bonaventure, VS, 58. acts against this judgment or, in a case where he
● Conscience bears witness to man's own rectitude or lacks certainty about the rightness and goodness of a
iniquity to man himself but, together with this and determined act, still performs that act, he stands
indeed even beforehand, conscience is the witness of condemned by his own conscience, the proximate
God himself, whose voice and judgment penetrate the norm of personal morality. VS. 60.
depths of man's soul, calling him fortiter et suaviter to ● The dignity of this rational forum and the authority of
obedience. VS, 58 its voice and judgments derive from the truth about
● Moral conscience does not close man within an moral good and evil, which it is called to listen to and
insurmountable and impenetrable solitude, but opens to express. This truth is indicated by the "divine law",
him to the call, to the voice of God. the universal and objective norm of morality.
● In this, and not in anything else, lies the entire ● The judgment of conscience does not establish the
mystery and the dignity of the moral conscience: in law; rather it bears witness to the authority of the
being the place, the sacred place where God speaks natural law and of the practical reason with reference
to man. VS, 58 to the supreme good, whose attractiveness the
● Saint Paul does not merely acknowledge that human person perceives and whose commandments
conscience acts as a "witness"; he also reveals the he accepts.
way in which conscience performs that function. He ● "Conscience is not an independent and exclusive
speaks of "conflicting thoughts" which accuse or capacity to decide what is good and what is evil.
Rather there is profoundly imprinted upon it a
 principle of obedience vis-à-vis the objective norm ■ in the case of the erroneous
which establishes and conditions the correspondence conscience, it is a question of
of its decisions with the commands and prohibitions what man, mistakenly,
which are at the basis of human behavior" VS, 60 subjectively considers to be true.
● The truth about moral good, as that truth is declared ○ It is never acceptable to confuse a
in the law of reason, is practically and concretely "subjective" error about moral good with the
recognized by the judgment of conscience, which "objective" truth rationally proposed to man
leads one to take responsibility for the good or the evil in virtue of his end, or to make the moral
one has done. VS, 61 value of an act performed with a true and
● If man does evil, the just judgment of his conscience correct conscience equivalent to the moral
remains within him as a witness to the universal truth value of an act performed by following the
of the good, as well as to the malice of his particular judgment of an erroneous conscience. VS,
choice. 63
● But the verdict of conscience remains in him also as a ○ It is possible that the evil done as the result
pledge of hope and mercy: while bearing witness to of invincible ignorance or a non-culpable
the evil he has done, it also reminds him of his need, error of judgment may not be imputable to
with the help of God's grace, to ask forgiveness, to do the agent; but even in this case it does not
good and to cultivate virtue constantly. VS, 61 cease to be an evil, a disorder in relation to
● Consequently in the practical judgment of conscience, the truth about the good.
which imposes on the person the obligation to ○ Furthermore, a good act which is not
perform a given act, the link between freedom and recognized as such does not contribute to
truth is made manifest. the moral growth of the person who performs
● Precisely for this reason conscience expresses itself it; it does not perfect him and it does not help
in acts of "judgment" which reflect the truth about the to dispose him for the supreme good.
good, and not in arbitrary "decisions". VS, 61. ○ Thus, before feeling easily justified in the
● Certainly, in order to have a "good conscience" (1 Tim name of our conscience, we should reflect
1:5), man must seek the truth and must make on the words of the Psalm: "Who can discern
judgments in accordance with that same truth. As the his errors? Clear me from hidden faults" (Ps
Apostle Paul says: 19:12). There are faults which we fail to see
● ”Conscience must confirmed by the Holy Spirit" (cf. but which nevertheless remain faults,
Rom 9:1); because we have refused to walk towards
● “It must be "clear" (2 Tim 1:3); the light (cf. Jn 9:39-41). VS, 63
● “It must not "practice cunning and tamper with God's ○ Conscience, as the ultimate concrete
word", but "openly state the truth" (cf. 2 Cor 4:2). judgment, compromises its dignity when it is
● On the other hand, the Apostle also warns Christians: culpably erroneous, that is to say, "when
"Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed man shows little concern for seeking
by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what what is true and good, and conscience
is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and gradually becomes almost blind from
perfect" (Rom 12:2). being accustomed to sin". VS, 63
○ Jesus alludes to the danger of the
3. Types of Conscience conscience being deformed when he warns:
● Conscience, as the judgment of an act, is not "The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your
exempt from the possibility of error. VS, 62 eye is sound, your whole body will be full of
○ As the Council puts it, "not infrequently light; but if your eye is not sound, your whole
conscience can be mistaken as a result of body will be full of darkness. If then the light
invincible ignorance, although it does not on in you is darkness, how great is the
that account forfeit its dignity; darkness!" (Mt 6:22-23).
○ but this cannot be said when a man shows
little concern for seeking what is true and 4. Formation of Conscience
good, and conscience gradually becomes ● We are called to form our conscience, to make it the
almost blind from being accustomed to sin". object of a continuous conversion to what is true and
○ In these brief words the Council sums up the to what is good.
doctrine which the Church down the ● Saint Paul exhorts us not to be conformed to the
centuries has developed with regard to the mentality of this world, but to be transformed by the
erroneous conscience renewal of our mind (cf. Rom 12:2). It is the "heart"
● Correct and Erroneous Conscience converted to the Lord and to the love of what is good
○ It is always from the truth that the dignity of which is really the source of true judgments of
conscience derives. In the case of the conscience.
correct conscience, it is a question of the ● Indeed, in order to "prove what is the will of God, what
objective truth received by man; is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom 12:2),
 knowledge of God's law in general is certainly
necessary, but it is not sufficient:
● What is essential is a sort of "connaturality" between
man and the true good. Such a connaturality is rooted
in and develops through the virtuous attitudes of the
individual himself:
● Prudence and the other cardinal virtues, and even
before these the theological virtues of faith, hope and
charity. This is the meaning of Jesus' saying: "He who
does what is true comes to the light" (Jn 3:21). VS,
64.
● Christians have a great help for the formation of
conscience in the Church and her Magisterium. As
the Council affirms: "In forming their consciences the
Christian faithful must give careful attention to the
sacred and certain teaching of the Church.
● For the Catholic Church is by the will of Christ the
teacher of truth. Her charge is to announce and teach
authentically that truth which is Christ, and at the
same time with her authority to declare and confirm
the principles of the moral order which derive from
human nature itself ".
● It follows that the authority of the Church, when
she pronounces on moral questions, in no way
undermines the freedom of conscience of
Christians.
● This is so not only because freedom of conscience is
never freedom "from" the truth but always and only
freedom "in" the truth, but also because the
Magisterium does not bring to the Christian
conscience truths which are extraneous to it; rather it
brings to light the truths which it ought already to
possess, developing them from the starting point of
the primordial act of faith.
● The Church puts herself always and only at the
service of conscience, helping it to avoid being
tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine proposed
by human deceit (cf. Eph 4:14), and helping it not to
swerve from the truth about the good of man, but
rather, especially in more difficult questions, to attain
the truth with certainty and to abide in it.