Question Three: On the Practical Formation of Right Conscience

66. The laying aside of erroneous conscience and the formation of right conscience. - He who, because of a serious reason, doubts or suspects or is certain that he has an erroneous conscience, so that it now becomes vincible, in order to act prudently is bound to institute further inquiry and new deliberation with sufficient and moral diligence, so that he may form for himself a right and true conscience, and lay aside the erroneous one, as is clear from n. 49.

But he must do this prudently, not rashly, lest he change conscience without sufficient reason and thus expose himself to the danger of erring and acting badly; but only on account of grave and sufficient motives of reason or authority, by which he will prudently judge that the prior judgment was erroneous and that the motives on which it rested were insufficient, but on the contrary that the opposite judgment is founded (cf. n. 51). But if, after moral diligence has been employed, a sufficient reason does not occur to someone so that assent may prudently be given to the opposite, by that very fact the error becomes invincible.

But as Sylvius observes, on I-II, q. 19, a. 5, q. 6, he is judged to lay aside rashly the conscience which he has erroneously: 1) who does not care for it, but acts or omits just as if he had conscience of no thing; 2) likewise who according to his own will, with no examination first made, averts his mind from the dictate of conscience lest he be found evil, but so that he may act more freely and operate what he wills without actual remorse: thus he contemns conscience, as does one who affects to be ignorant whether the contract proposed to be entered is licit and does not desire to examine its circumstances lest perhaps he find that it is unjust (likewise whether a book is prohibited...); 3) likewise who is moved to lay aside even an erroneous conscience by certain reasons, but light or insufficient ones, for example (Scavini notes) one who quickly acquiesces in any little arguments whatever, provided they favor liberty, or too easily believes doctors speaking things pleasing to him, and does not consult (as Sylvius notes elsewhere) more learned men who are beyond suspicion that they will deceive him from malice or from negligence.

67. Signs by which a vincibly erroneous conscience can be recognized can be enumerated as follows: 1) if someone has seen other good persons act otherwise; 2) if he fears or suspects the malice of his action and nevertheless without sufficient foundation judges it to be licit; 3) if he has been admonished in some way concerning the malice of the action; 4) if he has thought that further investigation must be made and a confessor or another prudent man must be asked, and has voluntarily neglected the occasion of inquiring.

But if these signs are absent, generally the conscience will be invincibly erroneous.

By similar signs the confessor will be able to judge whether the conscience of his penitent is vincibly or invincibly erroneous, namely:

a) if there is question of the first principles of natural right and proximate conclusions, it is presumed vincible;

b) likewise if there is question of obvious obligations proper to one's state, for example, a mother not sending her son to Mass or catechism;

c) on the contrary, if the penitent is ordinarily diligent and accurate in those things which upright men are accustomed to observe, he will easily be judged inculpable; for example, if he employs sufficient diligence for knowing the duties of his state, and knows many things, but is ignorant of one thing from inadvertence, he is judged not culpable; not so if he is accustomed to transgress;

d) likewise if he grieved when he discovered the error: this excludes present fault in the conscience, though not always fault in the cause;

e) likewise if the matter is difficult to know, invincible error can easily be presumed.

But to investigate this, the penitent can be asked:

1. whether he adverted to a certain indecency in the act,

2. whether at least some doubt concerning licitness preceded the action,

3. whether conscience suggested that investigation should be made, or a confessor or another prudent man asked,

4. whether he abstained from asking out of shame or fear of moral evil; not out of shame merely of acting against civility, for example, by speaking about menstruation.

If he denies all these things, it must be judged invincible; if he affirms, ordinarily the conscience can be judged vincible.

68. The office of forming the conscience of others. - Those who have the office of instructing and directing others and forming their conscience, such as parents, instructors of children, pastors, preachers, catechists, and other educators, should diligently take care that they rightly instruct those committed to them in true conscience. Specifically:

1. Let them avoid exaggerations and not propose as precepts things which are not certainly such, but only as counsels or pious customs; nor as mortal sins things which perhaps are only venial.

2. Whence parents and nurses act imprudently and badly, for example, who, so that they may avert little children from evil, persuade them that all things are grave sins, or are greatly detestable, or lead to hell: for thus a tender and credulous mind is often imbued with errors which grow with age, and by which an entangled conscience is often an occasion of sinning where there is no matter of sinning, or of sinning gravely where there is only light matter.

3. They should not, on account of consequent conscience, say that others are guilty or not guilty. For antecedent conscience alone, as rule, influences the act to be placed or omitted; consequent conscience supposes the act as constituted in moral being. Whence past sin does not depend upon a subsequent judgment of the doctor or confessor, but upon the dictate of antecedent conscience, upon the practical dictate which one had in acting.

Hence a) the Christian people are to be admonished that the formal goodness or malice of human acts is not taken from consequent conscience but from antecedent conscience;

b) they act unsuitably who, after a work has been perpetrated, begin to be distressed and inquire from books or from a confessor whether they have sinned; and uneducated persons are deceived who, while they read books or hear sermons, judge that they have sinned in certain things, although in doing those acts they never thought about or suspected their malice; likewise, on the contrary, those who act in doubt and afterward, knowing that the action placed was not evil, are no longer distressed. For subsequent judgment does not influence the morality of a past act, but that morality depends wholly upon the dictate of conscience antecedent and concomitant with the act;

c) whence in these matters penitents are rather to be instructed than interrogated, unless the interrogation is made to direct them better for the future;

d) nevertheless he acts prudently who asks superiors so that he may know the truth, namely, in what manner in the future, in a similar case, he can or ought to conduct himself.

4. But if they detect some error in conscience, it is their office to correct it.

1. Hence St. Alphonsus observes, Moral Theology, book V, n. 52, into what danger he casts himself who, following rigid doctrines, easily condemns men of mortal sin in those things in which grave malice does not appear by evident reason, thus exposing them to the danger of eternal damnation; and the same must be said of those who easily brand with the mark of laxity opinions which do not seem openly improbable. Whence St. Thomas, Quodl. IX, 15: "Every question in which mortal sin is asked about is determined dangerously, unless express truth is had...: the error by which something is believed to be mortal which is not mortal binds one, from conscience, to mortal sin."

69. The office of the confessor as doctor and physician is to form a good conscience in the penitent, and to reform a harmful erroneous conscience. And indeed the instruction of the penitent is useful and therefore generally to be done:

1. if the error is vincible and gravely culpable, for example, if someone is not in good faith but doubts, as if he asks;

2. if the error would soon become vincible, as if someone is ignorant of laws which cannot long be ignored, for example the first principles and proximate conclusions of natural right or the obvious duties of one's state (of a priest, father, judge, etc.);

3. if the error is not gravely culpable, but harmful to the penitent, for example if it is concerned with things necessary for salvation or for absolution, or induces an occasion or proximate danger of sinning or persevering in sin, or is a cause of thinking that something is a sin which is not, or that something is mortal which is venial;

4. indeed even if the error is invincible and favorable, but the admonition is likely to be beneficial, at least after some time, unless graver inconveniences for others are feared, such as formal sins or grave harms, such as scandal, hatreds, quarrels, for example from the dissolution of an invalid marriage: thus if the wife could be admonished concerning the nullity of the marriage without any danger, but danger of sinning were to be feared on the part of the husband.

The reason is that laws are to be made known and known so that they may be observed, and it is the office of the confessor as doctor to instruct penitents concerning them, if this can be done without notable inconvenience.

On the contrary, generally it is to be omitted on account of a greater evil, namely, if the error is not gravely culpable and:

a) the admonition is doubtfully beneficial and equally doubtfully harmful, with a positive doubt, because formal sin is more to be guarded against than material sin;

b) more so, if it is likely not to be beneficial, unless nevertheless greater harm is feared, whether public (for example, great scandal), or of a third party (for example, omission of restitution), or of the penitent himself (as an evil custom, for example of pollution, to be conquered with difficulty);

c) most of all, if it certainly will not be beneficial; unless nevertheless silence is equivalent to approbation, for example if a priest is silent when asked or when seeing the goods of many being injured, or unless from non-admonition there follows a great harm of many or a public harm, because the common good or the good of many is to be preferred to a private good: thus per se if a priest is invalidly consecrating or teaching errors, or spouses with some good faith are exercising the act of marriage in such a way that they impede generation; but not if the harm of one person follows, because the spiritual good of the penitent is to be preferred.

1. This is speaking per se, because if knowledge of the truth would certainly be more gravely harmful, the confessor would have to dissemble as if he had not heard, or say that there is no need now to treat of this: in the meantime he can do that by which he judges God not to be offended; provided nevertheless that from this the confessor is not thought to approve the evil. Similarly, the confessor must beware lest, if no fruit is hoped for, he answer more than is necessary or than he is asked; for example, if someone bound by a simple vow of chastity asks whether the marriage, because of the vow, was invalid, he should answer negatively, being silent about the debt; if he asks whether he ought to render the debt to the spouse, he should answer affirmatively, being silent about the obligation of not asking. Cf. St. Alphonsus, book VI, n. 616.

2. In a negative doubt it is to be done, because no one is presumed evil unless it is proved.

70. On the education of conscience. - So that man may be able prudently to form his conscience, reason needs a special education and formation, to be acquired by natural and supernatural means.

I. The natural means are:

A. Direct instruction through doctrine; for this educators (parents, teachers, catechists, etc.) should diligently and gradually inculcate that there is a distinction between good and evil, that certain actions are conformed to divine reason and will, others altogether difform from them, so that thus children may become accustomed to perform good from conviction and not only on account of obtaining a reward or praise, or for avoiding punishment, being persuaded that the chief reward is placed in the testimony of conscience and the approbation of God.

Therefore 1) there should be inculcated in them the necessity of following a good conscience, namely, a) of offering attentive ears to conscience, as to the voice of God Himself, and b) in actions of not seeking pleasure or one's own advantage as an end, but whatever is honorable, whatever is holy, whatever is pleasing to God; c) but if they doubt concerning the licitness of some action, let them approach experts and honorable men, not evil or imprudent men.

2. So that they may know their duties better and fulfill them more diligently, it is necessary to explain to them not only what they ought to do, but why, by declaring namely the reasons on account of which they ought to do this and avoid that: for thus they will learn to do good not from blind instinct, but from the intimate persuasion of the soul.

3. But while horror of sin is impressed upon them, let nothing false or less true be said: thus slight sins should not be exhibited as an enormous crime, but as venial, although nevertheless as dishonorable and base, to be diligently fled.

B. Indirect instruction through examples: for since younger persons are accustomed to imitate what they have before their eyes, if they see noble actions performed by parents, teachers, and other educators, by that very fact they will be moved to acting nobly, while on the contrary they are easily drawn to evil by wicked examples.

Whence 1) if sometimes they are witnesses of someone's wicked action, educators should seize that very opportunity to manifest the baseness of that action, and inspire horror and hatred of sin into their souls;

2. let them likewise take care that those youths read only books in which examples of virtue are praised, but vices are severely condemned: for from those things which they read, the mind is vehemently borne toward good or evil;

3. likewise that those youths frequent companions who conduct themselves honorably and in a Christian manner: little by little, without noticing it, we commonly embrace the judgments and manner of acting of those with whom we often converse;

4. if it is impossible to avoid all those who act perversely, let adolescents learn as quickly as possible to contemn the judgments of the wicked, and, contrary opinions and examples notwithstanding, to act manfully according to the dictate of conscience and the law of God.

C. The condition required in him whose conscience is to be formed is perfect sincerity, not only with others but also with himself, which is obtained by faithful, continual, and candid searching of one's own conscience, by which he judges his own actions as if they had been performed by another.

Concerning this Chrysostom says: "Do you not have a book at home, in which you write daily accounts? Likewise have a book in conscience, and write your daily sins; for example, when you lie in your bed, and there is no one who troubles you, before sleep creeps in bring the little book into the midst, and reckon your sins with yourself, saying within yourself: Have I sinned today either by word or by deed?... But when you count them, hang your soul up, tear it, open it by fear of gehenna... so that on the next day you may approach the perpetration of sins more sluggishly" (on Psalm 2, hom. 2, n. 5-6). Truly, he who seriously and sincerely thinks over and discusses his actions, investigates the causes of his sins, and foresees the consequences, grieves more easily and efficaciously over past offenses, guards against future ones, and in this way rightly forms his conscience, which otherwise, often transgressing without penance, would become lax.

II. The supernatural means are:

A. Frequent and fervent prayer to God, the Father of lights, that He will illuminate us concerning His reason and will, by which He is the supreme rule of morals, and give strength by which we may more easily fulfill the law.

"Give me understanding, O Lord, and I shall search Thy law, and I shall keep it with my whole heart... Give me understanding, and I shall learn Thy commandments" (Ps. CXVIII, 34-36, 73). "We beseech Thee, O Lord, pursue the vows of Thy supplicating people with heavenly loving-kindness: that they may see those things which are to be done, and be strengthened to fulfill those things which they have seen."

B. The practice of Christian virtues with strenuous battle against inordinate passions.

For just as conscience is easily clouded by passions and frequently repeated wicked actions, which are as a dense smoke intercepting the clear rays of reason, so it is not a little illuminated by the assiduous practice of good works: for we perceive moral truths much more distinctly when with a pure heart and sincere will we seek, without any prejudice, what must be done. "Each one judges according as he is affected" (I-II, q. 58, a. 5). For this reason daily experience establishes that men captive under the yoke of passions have a lax and erroneous conscience; on the contrary, the conscience of those who devote themselves wholly to cultivating virtues becomes more tender and delicate.

C. Frequenting sacramental confession, and obedience rendered to a prudent spiritual director: for these things suppose a diligent examination of conscience, the utility of which even the pagans recognized, establishing the principle of moral life: Know thyself. Then after the manifestation of the secrets of the heart has been made to the director, he, helped by divine light, will give the best counsels.

By these things the penitent will be able to judge 1) what is good and what is more expedient; 2) what is commanded and what is counseled; 3) how doubts are to be solved: for with the help of the confessor, who is endowed with greater science and experience, he will be able to solve them more prudently; 4) what means lead to Christian perfection. Thus he will walk more safely in the ways of the Lord, and will form for himself an altogether right conscience under the leadership of him who bears the place of God on earth; whence it happens that, after a good confession and obedience rendered to the director, all remorses of conscience are accustomed to cease. But obedience must be rendered to the confessor not only by the uneducated but also by the learned, both because it is often impossible to judge in one's own cause, and because the confessor is a judge, to whom whoever desires to receive the sacrament of Penance is bound to submit himself.

These are the chief means for cultivating conscience, so that it may be conformed to divine reason and law, and consequently be a safe norm of acting.

1. Prayer of the Sunday within the Octave of Epiphany.

2. These things are taken from Tanquerey, n. 422 ff., and from Prummer, n. 353 ff. Gillet, The Education of Conscience, can be consulted.