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Recently, I had the honor of addressing a meeting of the Pontifical Academy for Life at the Vatican on the importance of conscience in promoting the right to life. After my remarks, the academy itself was privileged to be received in audience by Pope Benedict XVI.
The Holy Father spoke of the necessity of a properly formed Christian conscience – a conscience, he said, that was “based on the solid foundation of truth” so that it may “distinguish good from evil.” The pope emphasized the necessity of having an “upright” conscience – one that “is determined to follow its dictates without contradictions, without betrayal and without compromises.”
Pope Benedict also quoted the Second Vatican Council, saying that “Pastors…should recognize and promote the dignity and responsibility of the laity” (Lumen Gentium, 37), especially in matters affecting the family such as the right to life and the dignity of marriage. He added, “When the value of human life is at stake” the “harmony” between pastors and the “committed laity” becomes “singularly important.”
Too often today, so-called “pro-choice Catholics” repudiate this “harmony.” They champion the rights of conscience against the teaching of the Church.
To quote the title of a book by a good Catholic friend of mine and brother Knight, they have “the right to be wrong.” We all have the option of saying “no” to the Gospel of Life. God gives us free will. But no one should be under any illusion that rejecting such a fundamental moral law – in this case that it is wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human being – does not bring with it consequences. No one should be under any illusion that rejecting such a fundamental moral law can be the result of a properly formed Catholic conscience.
The right of conscience is not simply a matter of sincere belief or firm conviction. If that were true, then Hitler and his gang of murderers could argue their way into heaven with the claim that they thought what they were doing was right. If that were true, then heaven could be filled with such evil men, since, as the poet Yeats reminds us: “the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that “man has the right to act in conscience,” but it adds a critical detail, that “conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened” (1782, 1783).
Pope John Paul II made a point of saying that it is up to each of us to make a deliberate, conscious decision to “choose Christ.” As Catholics, we do not choose Christ in a vacuum. We choose Christ in a community that has a tradition, a history and a memory. We choose Christ as he presents himself to us. He is the bridegroom who loves his bride the Church, who has given his life for her and who guides and protects her still today. We choose Christ who has given us a pope and bishops to protect that tradition, that history and that memory.
In choosing Christ in this way, we defend this tradition, we contribute to this history and we preserve this memory. And we do one thing more: We make possible an informed and upright conscience enlightened by the mind of Christ.
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