Primacy Of Conscience
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Primacy Of Conscience
Primacy of conscience is a concept in Catholic moral theology that holds that a person must obey their conscience above all else, even the dictates of Catholic dogma, so long as that conscience is "well-formed". A "well-formed" conscience is one that has considered Catholic dogma deeply and seriously, and in good faith. The concept is cited in Cardinal Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua. It found expression in papal teaching in Pope Paul VI's Gaudium et spes, part of the constitutions of Vatican II. It was also expanded upon in the Winnipeg Statement of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB; ) is the national assembly of the bishop (Catholic Church), bishops of the Catholic Church in Canada. It was founded in 1943, and was officially recognized by the Holy See in 1948. Since the Sec ... in 1968. Then-Cardinal Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI summarised the concept in his ''Commentary on the Documents of Vatican II'', ...
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Catholic Moral Theology
Catholic moral theology is a major category of doctrine in the Catholic Church, equivalent to a religious ethics. Moral theology encompasses Catholic social teaching, Catholic medical ethics, sexual ethics, and various doctrines on individual moral virtue and moral theory. It can be distinguished as dealing with "how one is to act", in contrast to dogmatic theology which proposes "what one is to believe". Overview Sources of Catholic moral theology include both the Old Testament and the New Testament, and philosophical ethics such as natural law that are seen as compatible with Catholic doctrine. Moral theology was mostly undifferentiated from theology in general during the patristic era, and is found in the homilies, letters and commentaries on Scripture of the early Church fathers. Examples of Catholic moral theologians include St. Alphonsus Liguori (author of '' Theologia Moralis''), Bartolomé Medina (originator of Probabilism), Dominic Prümmer ( Compensationism), Be ...
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John Henry Newman
John Henry Newman (21 February 1801 – 11 August 1890) was an English Catholic theologian, academic, philosopher, historian, writer, and poet. He was previously an Anglican priest and after his conversion became a cardinal. He was an important and controversial figure in the religious history of England in the 19th century and was known nationally by the mid-1830s. He was canonised as a Catholic saint in 2019. He was a member of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. Originally an evangelical academic at the University of Oxford and priest in the Church of England, Newman was drawn to the high church tradition of Anglicanism. He became one of the more notable leaders of the Oxford Movement, an influential and controversial grouping of Anglicans who wished to restore to the Church of England many Catholic beliefs and liturgical rituals from before the English Reformation. In this, the movement had some success. After publishing his controversial Tract 90 in 1841, Newman la ...
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Apologia Pro Vita Sua
() is John Henry Newman's history of his religious opinions, showing how his opinions had been formed and how they had led him from Anglicanism to the Catholic Church. It was originally published as a series of pamphlets in 1864 in response to an attack by Charles Kingsley against Newman's honesty. Though Newman's honesty had been widely questioned for years, the ''Apologia'' was immensely successful and cleared Newman's name. Newman published a revised version in 1865. Background Between the publication of Tract 90 in 1841 and his conversion to Catholicism in 1845, Newman had been accused of secretly working to convert people to Catholicism while outwardly professing to be Anglican, and the belief in his dishonesty during that period persisted even into the 1860s. Newman's reputation in the early 1860s was at a low point, and he was seen as a "safe object" for insult and ridicule. He had refrained from answering the attacks because of their anonymity or because they had been only ...
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Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXIII, he continued the Second Vatican Council, which he closed in 1965, implementing its numerous reforms. He fostered improved ecumenical relations with Eastern Orthodox and Protestant churches, which resulted in many historic meetings and agreements. In January 1964, List of pastoral visits of Pope Paul VI, he flew to Jordan, the first time a reigning pontiff had left Italy in more than a century. Montini served in the Holy See's Secretariat of State from 1922 to 1954, and along with Domenico Tardini was considered the closest and most influential advisor of Pope Pius XII. In 1954, Pius named Montini Archbishop of Milan, the largest Italian diocese. Montini later became the Secretary of the Episcopal Conference of Italy, Italian Bishops' Co ...
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Gaudium Et Spes
(, "Joys and Hopes"), the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, is one of the four constitutions promulgated during the Second Vatican Council between 1963 and 1965. Issued on 7 December 1965, it was the last and longest published document from the council and is the first constitution published by a Catholic ecumenical council to address the entire world. clarified and reoriented the role of the church's mission to people outside of the Catholic faith. It was the first time that the church took explicit responsibility for its role in the larger world. The constitution's creation was necessitated by fear of the irrelevance in the modern era due to its ignorance on problems that plague the modern world. The document represents an inner examination of the church by the council and features a response to problems affecting the modern world. Within are the themes of gift of self and the promotion of peace. While initial reception of the document was focused o ...
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Vatican II
The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for sessions of 8 and 12 weeks. Pope John XXIII convened the council because he felt the Church needed "updating" (in Italian: ''aggiornamento''). He believed that to better connect with people in an increasingly secularized world, some of the Church's practices needed to be improved and presented in a more understandable and relevant way. Support for ''aggiornamento'' won out over resistance to change, and as a result 16 Magisterium, magisterial documents were produced by the council, including four "constitutions": * ''Dei verbum'', the ''Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation'' emphasized the study of scripture as "the soul of theology". * ''Gaudium et spes'', the ''Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Mo ...
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Winnipeg Statement
The ''Winnipeg Statement'' is the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops' statement on the papal encyclical ''Humanae vitae'' from a plenary assembly held at Saint Boniface in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Published on September 27, 1968, it is the Canadian bishops' document about rejecting Pope Paul VI's July 1968 encyclical on human life and the regulation of birth. Summary Published two months after ''Humanae vitae'', the Winnipeg Statement was an attempt by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops to address widespread concern within the church about the prohibition of all forms of artificial contraception, and to counsel its members on how to respond to those who have difficulty accepting the directives. It recognized that "a certain number of Catholics", in spite of being bound by the encyclical, find it "either extremely difficult or even impossible to make their own all elements of this doctrine". These With regard to those in that situation, "the confessor or counsellor must s ...
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Canadian Conference Of Catholic Bishops
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB; ) is the national assembly of the bishop (Catholic Church), bishops of the Catholic Church in Canada. It was founded in 1943, and was officially recognized by the Holy See in 1948. Since the Second Vatican Council, it became part of a worldwide network of episcopal conferences, established in 1965. Until 1977, it was called the Canadian Catholic Conference, when the present name was adopted. According to its statutes, together the bishops exercise certain pastoral care, pastoral functions for Catholics in Canada, respecting the autonomy of each bishop in the service of his particular church. Through the work of its members, the conference is involved in matters of national and international scope in areas such as ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, social justice, aid to developing countries, the protection of human life, liturgy and Christian education. It also provides the bishops with a forum where they can share their experie ...
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Pope Benedict XVI
Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as pope occurred in the 2005 papal conclave that followed the death of Pope John Paul II. Upon his resignation, Benedict chose to be known as " pope emeritus", a title he held until his death on 31 December 2022. Ordained as a priest in 1951 in his native Bavaria, Ratzinger embarked on an academic career and established himself as a highly regarded theologian by the late 1950s. He was appointed a full professor in 1958 when aged 31. After a long career as a professor of theology at several German universities, he was appointed Archbishop of Munich and Freising and created a cardinal by Pope Paul VI in 1977, an unusual promotion for someone with little pastoral experience. In 1981, he was appointed Prefect of the Congregation for t ...
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