Moral Conscience

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Simplified

An Inner Law (1776)

Deep within his conscience, man discovers a law which he must obey, namely to do good and to avoid evil. In his conscience (man's most secret core) he is alone with God whose voice echoes within man.

Conscience - Judge of Individual Acts (1777-1779)

Moral conscience urges a person to do good and avoid evil. It even judges his particular choices (past, present, and future) and shows God's authority. The prudent man hears God speaking in his commandments.

By conscience, the person's reason judges the morality of his actions (past, present, or future). In this judgment, man sees God's law. "Conscience is a messenger of him who speaks to us behind a veil and teaches us by his representatives. Conscience is the aboriginal Vicar of Christ" (John Cardinal Newman).

Every person must have sufficient interior awareness so he can hear and follow his conscience. "Turn inward, brethren, and in everything you do, see God as your witness" (St. Augustine).

An Upright Conscience Assumes Responsibility (1780-1782)

Human dignity requires an upright conscience which knows moral principles and applies them in each circumstance. Truth is recognized by prudent judgments. Whoever follows his conscience is indeed prudent.

By conscience, a person assumes responsibility. Even in evil deeds, conscience remains an inner witness to truth that the choice was evil. This true judgment makes clear that the person must seek forgiveness and choose good in the future. "Whenever our hearts condemn us, we reassure ourselves that God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything" (1 Jn 3:19-20).

Man has a right to make his own moral decisions. He cannot be forced to act contrary to his conscience, nor be prevented from acting according to his conscience, especially in religious matters.

Man's Duty - To Have a Right Conscience (1783-1785)

The person has a duty to have a true conscience which is formed by reason and seeks to know God's will. Only the educating of conscience can overcome negative influences and temptations.

This lifelong task begins with awakening the child to know and practice God's law. A prudent education teaches virtues, cures selfishness, and guarantees peace of heart.

The Word of God guides this education. Man must examine his conscience before the cross, seek the advice of others, and learn the Church's authoritative teaching.

Difficulties in Judging (1786-1789)

Conscience can make a right judgment (in accord with God's law and reason) or an erroneous judgment (not in accord).

In some situations, moral judgments are difficult. However, in every case, the person must seek God's will in accord with his law.

The person must interpret the data, assisted by his own prudence, competent advice, and the help of the Holy Spirit.

In all cases, evil can never be done so good can result. "Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them" (Mt 7:12). "Do nothing that makes your brother stumble" (Rom 14:21).

Sources of Errors in Judgment (1790-1792)

Although a person must always obey the certain judgments of his conscience, he might be in ignorance and make erroneous judgments.

Sometimes, the person is to blame for having an erroneous conscience because he took no effort to discover the truth. In this case, he is responsible for the evil he commits.

There are several sources of these errors in judgment: ignorance of Christ and of his Gospel, bad example from others, enslavement to passions, lack of conversion of heart, and rejection of the Church's teaching.

Unable to Overcome (1793-1794)

Sometimes, the person is not responsible for his erroneous judgment because he cannot overcome the obstacles to truth. This is called "invincible ignorance." Although evil is present, the person is not blameworthy. He should work to correct his errors.

Conscience must be enlightened by faith so that persons and groups will turn aside from blind choices.

Got a serious question for you, Salvation. Recently experienced something I never had happen before, betrayal. Betrayal on a scale that includes myself & potentially millions of others who’ve been prescribed antidepressants for many years will & do experience now; anti-depressant withdrawal.

Now with that in mind, we are taught & I believe God exists out of time. He see’s everything that was, that is and that is to come.

What does the Church say to the following question: When God sees that a betrayal of trust that will cause many years of earthly harm, harm that will make it near to impossible for many people to worship Him because of cognitive issues from the withdrawal & brain damage...WHY DOESN’T HE STOP IT!

If this is off topic, I am sorry. The hurt & news is very recent. I am VERY angry with God and those on down the line who either allowed or perpetuated this atrocity.

Here’s a link describing what I and millions of others are going through purely because we put our trust in medical professionals & med companies were allowed to create a new addiction to keep the $$$ rolling in: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/side-effects/201107/antidepressant-withdrawal-syndrome-findings-recommendations-and-resources

Again if this is OT, I am sorry. I jumped at the 1st Catholic thread I saw.

Valium was prescribed for my mom and somehow I have always suspected that this drug compounded the effects of her over weight and diabetes problems.

Now for your link....Yikes!

**”The symptoms of discontinuation syndrome could be fierce,” Stutz added, as he recounted in considerable detail, at varying doses, his own harassing problems with “brain zaps,” panic attacks, insomnia, and despair on lower and lower doses of Effexor. Fava, he noted, went on to publish in 2006 a paper citing further withdrawal symptoms, such as “agitation, anxiety, akathesia, panic attacks, irritability, aggressiveness, worsening of mood, dysphoria, crying spells or mood lability, overactivity or hyperactivity, depersonalization, decreased concentration, slowed thinking, confusion and memory/concentration difficulties.” To the authors, these symptoms and their widespread recurrence looked increasingly like a drug-related syndrome.**

Some doctors are going to hurt for a long time after they pass from this life for passing on such pain to patients....that’s about all I can say, because I really don’t have the medical background.

I was 1st prescribed prozac in 1990. Took it for a few months. Quit due to cost. 4 Years later had horrible panic attacks and was put back on. Was on it for 15 years. 2008 due to family tragedy I experienced a severe depressive episode and was one prozac + many other anti-depressants before I leveled back out. Then in 2010 I found out the hard way prozac “poops out”, stops working as it should.

Spent last 13 months in a terrible depressive state, always going up on one med while coming off another. Finally a few weeks ago as a psychiatrist was telling me she wanted to take me off Effexor and start Zoloft, a bell went off in my head. I went off the Effexor as prescribed and BOOM bad things started happening. Did some research & found that link.

Sometimes I have the emotional control of a 4 yr old. Snapping and cursing at people who I have no reason to ever speak that way. I may have alienated my priest for good. Best case I start getting better in 6 weeks. Might take 6 years.

Why God? Why? I need to know why.

I need to know why

Of course. Now, you are asking of the purpose in the act, or in this case, in the inaction (God did not make these men to act in the evil way that they acted, he merely did not prevent them from acting), -- of another person. That is always difficult. Moreover, that person is also the Divine Persons of God. Understanding God is not going to be complete or easy. But God is also not irrational; He is in fact the source of our rationality. So some understanding is possible.

To begin to understand the purpose of God as He allows evil one needs to look at the Cross.

Here we have Evil allowed to happen, even sought to happen. "That which thou dost, do quickly" and "behold the Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners" are words from the mouth of God.

Well, we know the purpose of allowing THAT evil: the Cross of Christ gives us our salvation. What purpose has a cross of mere man? St. Paul writes: "[I] now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for his body, which is the church" (Col. 1:24). Our suffering unites us to Christ. So that is the purpose. Christ could have chosen to restore man to his sinless condition right then on the Cross; He could even do so as He restored countless sick people to health. He did not choose to do that: rather, He went to the Cross Himself and now He wants us to imitate Him even on the Cross. We cannot be restored to heavenly life magically; it takes a lifelong work. “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” – is spoken as a directive. Not “behold, I make you perfect” but “behold, I go to the Cross” and “you be (or become) perfect”.

On the psychotropic drugs, in particular, there is a reason in this object lesson. Modernity teaches us that there is a magical cure, a pill, for everything, -- and it comes from technology, by human effort alone. Instead of becoming perfect by imitating Christ, we want to be made well by eating a pill. This error: that we want the cure but not the Christ offering a cure, -- cannot be overcome by preaching. It has to be a life experience of our technological society, that peace of mind, wholeness of body cannot come without wholeness of souls. Christ does not want us to suffer; there are many pills that benefit man, and we should not refuse them just because they are "technological". But he does not want us to be shaped by pills. Hence the failure of Prozac that you experienced.

It looks that you also on the mend. Praise the Lord.

God gave man free will. Man chose evil and because of this evil was allowed into the world. Evil is here because of man allowing sin and Satan helping - If God had not allowed us our intellect, will and reason, we would be no different from his other creatures (as in creations).. God wanted us to be special.

Of course God did not abandon us afterward and sent us the Redeemer. It is still a fallen world, however, and Christ opened the gates of heaven for us. This world won’t be perfected until the second coming and the new Jerusalem.

The point is we must not blame God for man’s follies. When tragedy happens we must remember that we (mankind) ourselves are responsible because of collective disorder brought about by our own disruption of God’s perfect order. This is not on a personal level, of course!! This is collective. In otherwords, once evil was introduced, helped by Satan, it became a sort of general infestation, kind of like Pandora’s box.

Also God does hear prayer and does work miracles - He does listen.

If we hadn’t had free will we would have just been robots/ ants, creatures with instinct only.

I have experinced depression myself and will pray for you.

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