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“Too many people confuse a rightly-formed conscience with personal preferences dominated by selfishness” Pope Francis said in a video message to an Italian meeting on ‘Amoris Laetitia,’ his exhortation on the family.
“Conscience,” he said, “always has God’s desire for the human person as its ultimate reference point.
“The contemporary world risks confusing the primacy of conscience, which is always to be respected, with the exclusive autonomy of the individual” even when the individual’s decisions impact his or her marriage and family life, the pope said.
Repeating a remark he had made to the Pontifical Academy for Life, Pope Francis said, “There are those who even speak of ‘egolatry,’ that is, the true worship of the ego on whose altar everything, including the dearest affections, are sacrificed.”
Confusing conscience with selfishness “is not harmless,” the pope said. “This is a ‘pollution’ that corrodes souls and confounds minds and hearts, producing false illusions.”
He said the Catholic Church must strengthen its programmes “to respond to the desire for family that emerges in the soul of the young generations” and to help couples once they are married.
“It is important that spouses, parents, not be left alone, but accompanied in their commitment to applying the Gospel to the concreteness of life.
“In the domestic reality, sometimes there are concrete knots to be addressed with prudent conscience on the part of each,” he said.
Diagnosing problems in the church’s outreach to married couples and families, Pope Francis had written, “We have long thought that simply by stressing doctrinal, bioethical and moral issues, without encouraging openness to grace, we were providing sufficient support to families, strengthening the marriage bond and giving meaning to marital life.”
“We also find it hard to make room for the consciences of the faithful, who very often respond as best they can to the Gospel amid their limitations, and are capable of carrying out their own discernment in complex situations,” he wrote in ‘Amoris Laetitia.’ “We have been called to form consciences, not to replace them.”
The meeting, sponsored by the Italian bishops’ conference, was focused on ‘conscience and norm’.
Source
- National Catholic Reporter
- Image: mltestblog
