A distorted sense of >> conscience leads to a distorted understanding of freedom...
behavior by blaming it on their conscience. As Cardinal Newman tells us, conscience can be corrupted when responding to one’s passions that become the justification to avoid doing right and good. A distorted sense of conscience leads to a distorted understanding of freedom, which leads to a distorted understanding of truth, which leads to a distorted understanding of the human person. Conscience becomes a “choice,” but choice has to have a moral good to it. Our society, whether through legal action or mandates or our own personal culture, is eroding conscience, which erodes freedom, which then erodes truth, which erodes human existence as God intends. This is the seriousness of the whole matter involving the HHS mandate. People that are not guided by truth but by the most persuasive speaker, by those who pander, by what is popular, by their passions, by what is convenient allow these shallow influences to become the norm. We must not allow our conscience to be controlled by passions rather than our humanity, which gives us a sense of duty and of doing what is right and avoiding what is bad. When we take our conscience seriously, ultimately there is going to be conflict either with oneself or with outside forces. Conscience has to rule supreme in those moments. When issues that hit so close to the human person become legislation and are put into governmental spheres, they divide people and relegate conscience to second place. As a people, when we debate and legislate with conscience on the sidelines we are divided and make decisions by majority rule, instead of by the rule of God. In many ways our current situation is a defining moment. Freedom of religion is a true American idea, but now it seems as if governmental powers are being used to control or obviate our conscience. We value freedom but we need to examine what freedom is. Freedom has the absolute duty to protect and preserve righteousness. The freedom espoused by relativism does not help build up a society; it destroys it. Loyalty to conscience helps build up society. Ultimately, to follow ones conscience is to do good and to avoid evil; to do what is right and to refrain from doing what is wrong; and to “love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind…and to love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mt 22:37-39) As Catholic Christians our conscience is clear. www.SouthTexasCatholic.com
OUR FAITH
The Church on contraception Deacon Stephen Nolte Contributor
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he furor surrounding the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate affords us an opportunity to reexamine the Church’s teaching on contraception. The HHS mandate effectively forces nearly all private health plans to provide coverage for any FDA-approved prescription contraceptive drugs and devices, including surgical sterilization. These are euphemistically listed among “preventive services for women” that all health plans will have to cover without co-pays or cost sharing. There is a general misunderstanding regarding the mandate and the Church’s opposition to it, which has led many to erroneously claim that the disagreement is about contraception. This simply is not the case. The exemption provided for “religious employers” fails to cover most faith-based organizations, including Catholic hospitals, universities and service organizations like Catholic Charities that serve millions every year. This rule infringes upon our First Amendment right to freedom of religion, which guarantees “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” While the Church’s opposition arises because the mandate violates religious freedom guaranteed by the first amendment of the Constitution, the administration and the secular media have tried to make this about contraception. Even as the national conference of bishops are leading the fight to preserve our religious liberty with clarity and conviction, the attempts at misdirection by the administration and their supporters of contraception impel us to explain the Church’s teaching on this important issue. AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2012 | SOUTH TEX AS CATHOLIC
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