Newman, Vatican II, and Conscience.

I have met so many people in the Portsmouth Diocese who `follow their conscience` that there does hot seem to have been any need for Jesus Christ and his teachings, and I am still puzzled as to where Jesus actually fits in. I have been at meetings where Cardinal Newman was quoted as a defence for those who were undermining the Catholic Faith. I remember someone quoting Jesus Christ on Divorce and Remarriage and being told not to be judgemental. The point is of course that if you are following your conscience you really need to try to block out the evidence thay you are really not following your conscience but rather justifying your lack of belief. What I found objectionable was the way that they dragged Cardinal Newman into their deceit. I have not found the article but I did have to heart boasts about he championed the right to conscience. The story goes that at a dinner with Anglicans he did not drink to the Pope but to conscience. This meant that as a Catholic he always put his conscience first or so we are told. But of course Newman was actually respecting the Conscience of the Anglicans present and their right to disagree with Rome. In his letter to the Duke of Norfolk, easily found in the Inetrnet, he spoke about Catholics and Conscience and one of his main points was that disagreeing with he Church was a very serious matter and to do so the person first `had to have loyalty to the Pope`. Am I really to understand that I am the only one in Portsmouth who has read this letter? Vatican II took up right of conscience for those outside the Church in the document on the Church in the Modern World. The document took up the theme of the salvation of those who were `outside the Church` and how they must be guided by the moral law and the exercise of their conscience. The application of this to Catholics by certain Bishops and Priests was nothing short of evil. Havibg totally made ineffective the words of Jesus on Divorce and Remarriage they welcomed the right of people in such circumstances to receive Holy Communion to almost mock his words. Yes compassion comes easy especially when we can ignore what this hypocricy has done to our youhg, who looking on are just as disgusted as Protestants, who smile with and ecumeniical gesgture but have never been further from the Catholic Church as they are tday. The readings from the Mass yesterday were impressive. From Ecclesiasticus `He never commanded anyone to be godless, he has given no one permission to sin`. And St Paul, "We have a wisdom to offer those who have reached maturity, not a philosophy of our age, IT IS TRUE, still less of the masters of our age..." Is it no a thibg of wonder that those who deride this wisdom within the Church are now the ones who call themselsves `mature`. No one in a Catholic Church has a right to deny he Catholic Faith, no one in a Catholic Church has a right to `follow their conscience and impose it on others. We have in may parishes small goups of people who were taught by a fomer bureaucracy to hang on to power and run the parish according to their wishes, a former parish priest once referred to them as Elders what ignorance. These people have not right to destroy the Faith of our children