RE

• Conscience


  This is from Old French conscience "conscience, innermost thoughts, desires, intentions; feelings" and Latin conscientia "a joint knowledge of something, a knowing of a thing together with another person; consciousness, knowledge;" particularly, "knowledge within oneself, sense of right and wrong, a moral sense,"
• Akrasia


  Greek word that means lack of self control
• Conscience


  A judgment of reason by which the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act
• Kinds of badly formed conscience

  • Lax conscience
  • Scrupulous conscience
  • Perplexed conscience
  • Rationalizing conscience
  • Legalistic conscience
• Luke 6:36-38: '"Be kind to everyone, just as God your Father is kind to you. Don't judge others, so God might not judge you. Don't condemn others, so God might not condemn you. Forgive others, so God might forgive you. Give to others freely, and God will do the same for you. What he gives to you will overflow. The way you give is the way you will receive."'
• Human Acts


  Acts that are freely chosen following a judgment of conscience. They are deliberate acts proceeding from the intellect and the will of the person.
• Three determinants of moral act


  • Object
  • Intention
  • Circumstances
• Object


  • The matter which the will deliberately direct itself
• Intention


  • The purpose for which an act is performed. It is "a movement of the will toward the end"
• Circumstances


  • Conditions accompanying or surrounding the act
• The act in itself should be good, or at least morally neutral. The good effect must not come from the evil effect. The evil effect should not be directly intended but allowed to happen only as a regrettable side effect. The good effect must outweigh the evil effect in its importance.
• Three elements that constitute human act

  • Knowledge
  • Freedom
  • Voluntariness
• Knowledge


  Consciousness of the conditions and implications of our actions
• Freedom


  The power rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so perform deliberate actions on one's own responsibility
• Voluntariness


  The quality of human acts whereby any action committed or omitted results from willing consent within the person
• Three kinds of voluntariness

  • Perfect voluntariness
  • Conditional voluntariness
  • Simple voluntariness
• Human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience.
• Jn 9:42: '"If you were blind," Jesus replied, "you would not be guilty of sin. But since you claim you can see, your guilt remains."'
• Principles


  • One may never do evil so that good may result from it
  • The Golden Rule: "Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them
  • Charity always proceeds by way of respect for one's neighbor and his conscience
• Thus sinning against your brethren and wounding their conscience you sin against Christ. Therefore "it is right not to do anything that makes your brother stumble."
• A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. If he were to deliberately act against it, he would condemn himself. Yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgments about acts to be performed or already committed.
• Two kinds of erroneous judgment

  • Invincible - totally not knowledgeable about the wrongfulness of an act
  • Vincible - might have known but failed to know. "Ignorance of the law excuses no one."
• If a person has thoroughly examined himself and arrived at a certain judgment, he must in any case follow his inner voice, even at the risk of doing something wrong.
• Well-formed conscience


  • Upright and truthful. It formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator.
• The education of the conscience is a lifelong task.
• Prudent education teaches virtue; it prevents or cures fear, selfishness and pride, resentment arising from guilt, and feelings of complacency, born of human weakness and faults.
• Fulton J. Sheen 1953: 'Moral principles do not depend on a majority vote. Wrong is wrong, even if everybody is wrong. Right is right, even if nobody is right.'
• Synderesis


  A term used by the Scholastic theologians to signify the habitual knowledge of the universal practical principles of moral action.
• The education of the conscience guarantees freedom and engenders peace of heart.
• How to form our consciences

  • Pray
  • Learn
  • Reflect
  • Nurture friendships
• Indifference


  • Conscience requires us to be attentive. We must listen to God, who speaks to us.
• Coercion


  • Unjust actions that insist that popular opinion, rather than conscience, should be our primary guide for action.
• Sin


  An offense against reason, truth, and right conscience. An offense against God.
• Sins


  • Sins of Impurity
  • Sins of Idolatry
  • Sins of Hostility
  • Sins of Intemperance
• The root of sin is in the heart of man according to the teaching of the Lord: "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a man."
• Mortal sin


  Destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God's law; it turns man away from God, by preferring an inferior good to him.
• Venial sin


  Allows charity to subsist, even though it offends and wounds it.
• For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: grave matter, full knowledge, and deliberate consent.
• Unintentional ignorance can diminish or even remove the imputability of a grave offense. But no one is deemed to be ignorant of the principles of the moral law, which are written in the conscience of every man.
• Effects of Mortal Sin


  • Loss of charity and the privation of sanctifying grace
  • Exclusion from Christ's kingdom and the eternal death of hell