Evangelisation: The Fallacy of Conscience.

Dear friends: Neither a bishop, nor a priest, nor a sister, nor anyone, can or should tell you how to vote. They can point out the important issues at stake, and educate you on church teaching, but how to vote is up to your conscience. Know the Gospels and church teaching, study the issues, and then vote as your own conscience demands.

An informed conscience is the final arbiter of the moral life. St. Thomas Aquinas famously said he'd rather go against church teaching than his conscience.

And here is Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger commenting on the Second Vatican Council's statements on the primacy of conscience: “Over the pope as the expression of the binding claim of ecclesiastical authority there still stands one’s own conscience, which must be obeyed before all else, if necessary even against the requirement of ecclesiastical authority. Conscience confronts [the individual] with a supreme and ultimate tribunal, and one which in the last resort is beyond the claim of external social groups, even of the official church."

More here: https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/following-faithfully

As Pope Francis said, the church is supposed to "form consciences, not replace them."

I'm writing this now because I'm being deluged with questions like this, and Catholics telling me that their bishop or pastor is telling them they'll be "going to hell," or they can only vote for one party.

That's false. You're an adult with a conscience. Use it and be at peace.

The above letter is from a Fr James Martin S.J.  assuring all who place their souls in his care and seek his advice, that they can after all ignore Church teaching.  But not only Church teaching but the teaching of Christ Himself.  No, he does not actually say that, he keeps Jesus at a distance since contradicting him may raise difficulties, so he just mentions the Church, knowing that there is a difference between peoples understanding of what the Church is.  And certainly Fr James has a very different idea. but let us try to define conscience, since an informed conscience 'is the final arbiter of a moral life'   So you see it is much more important than the teachings of Christ.

Let us try to define conscience.  Conscience is a personal conclusion, reached by reason, as to what is right and what is wrong.   It is not a hidden guidance inside an individual which is paramount to any rational process,  and sorts out reason to our own satisfaction.   So Fr Martin cannot just appeal to conscience as though it was an independent tribunal not dependent on reason.   The people he quotes as saying conscience was paramount, were engaged in speculative theology.   In the UK in the 70's people were taught 'ad nauseam' this speculative theology and Cardinal Newman was frequently quoted.  There was a reference to him telling Protestants that Conscience is something he would drink to although where he said it was never revealed.   His comment on Conscience being paramount was in a letter to the Duke of Norfolk, where he said that is was possible for someone to contradict the Church on the grounds of conscience if that person on other matters was faithful to the Church, but it was impossible for him to give examples.     

In the end we are left with questions, as to how Fr Martin justifies the killing of millions of babies created by God to know him, love him, and serve him in this world and be happy with him forever in the next.   His reply to that question will be  honest or dishonest, and it is on that basis, not mine or anyone elses, that he will be judged by the Lord, as to whether in fact he followed his reason thereby  justifying an informed conscience or not.