Primacy of Conscience

We think of Zaccheus (Luke 19: 1-10) to whom Jesus gave time and space to reach a life-changing decision; of the woman (Luke 7: 36-50) who decided to risk humiliation in order to carry out the highly symbolic act of washing Christ’s feet and was commended by him: “Much is forgiven her for she has loved much.” In the incident of the woman taken in adultery (John 8: 1-11) Jesus refuses to enter into legalistic or moralistic arguments; instead he invites the woman’s accusers to look inwards, to their own consciences, in order to make their decision: “Let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone.”

There have always been voices within the Church who echoed this attitude of Christ in upholding the primacy of the individual conscience. Teresa of Avila and Catherine of Siena challenged the ecclesiastical authorities of their day, while in more recent times Cardinal Newman famously declared that he would drink a toast to conscience first and afterwards to the Pope! More seriously he wrote: ”It seems then that there are extreme cases in which conscience may come into collision with the word of a Pope and is to be followed in spite of that word” (Letter to the Duke of Norfolk).

Josef Ratzinger, later Benedict XVI, wrote: ”Over the Pope as the expression of the binding claim of ecclesiastical authority there still stands one’s own conscience which must be obeyed over all else, if necessary even against the requirement of ecclesiastical authority.”(Commentary on the Documents of Vatican II) Pope Francis describes conscience as “the interior space in which we can listen to, and hear the truth, the good, the voice of God. It is the inner place in our relationship with Him who speaks in our heart and helps us to discern, to understand the path we ought to take, and once the decision is made, to move forward, to remain faithful.” (Angelus address 30/6/13)

However the importance of following one’s own conscience is rarely taught or preached. Instead the parallel tradition of obedience has been given enormous prominence in church teaching: it could almost be said that ‘blind obedience’ has been given the status of a major virtue. This in spite of Christ’s attitude which clearly was that obedience to rules and regulations has to be tempered by compassion and common sense: we remember how he defended his disciples when they were accused of disobeying the law by picking and eating ears of corn on the Sabbath (Matthew 12 1-8). He frequently criticised the Pharisees for their rigidity in applying the law, their hypocrisy and lack of compassion “laying burdens on the people” (Matthew 23:1-12) If we want to follow Jesus, lazy-minded obedience in accepting the legalistic status quo is not an option.

As baptised Christians we have a duty to listen to the voice of conscience, to be rigorous in our efforts to discern the will of God, so that we may then carry it out with confidence and joy.

Jackie Nelson