'Conscience cannot contradict truth'- Bishop Conley

October 22, 2015

In an essay appearing on the First Things site, Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, does not directly mention recent public comments by Archbishop Blase Cupich, but his argument offers a sharp contrast to the Chicago prelate’s view that pastors should always respect the consciences of any Catholics who approach the sacraments.

Bishop Conley notes that Blessed John Henry Newman, the great champion of conscience, believed that “a true sense of conscience had been ‘superseded by a counterfeit,’ in order to assert ‘the right of self-will.’”

”The task of pastors,” Bishop Conley writes, “is to help the faithful understand that conscience can never contradict truth.”

 

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Further information:

• Toasting the Conscience (First Things)
• Archbishop Cupich: respect consciences of all Catholics who approach the Eucharist (CWN, 10/16)