Brian R Corbin's Reflections on Religion and Life

Living Your Faith as Citizens and Leaders in Politics, Culture, Society and Business

October 6, 2008 • 5:09 pm 0

Forming Your Conscience: What is a Well Formed Conscience?

The US Catholic Bishops, in their in 2007 Statement, Forming Conscience for Faithful Citizenship, note that the role of the Church is to help persons form their conscience.  This is a long term process.  Election cycles are an important moment for voting.  Such voting requires citizens to have a well formed conscience.

Here is what the Bishops write:

“Conscience is not something that allows us to justify doing whatever we want, nor is it a mere ‘feeling’ about what we should or should not do. Rather, conscience is the voice of God resounding in the human heart, revealing the truth to us and calling us to do what is good while shunning what is evil” (paragraph 17).

The Church’s primary role is to help its members to form their individual conscience and to engage the laity in its work.  

The Bishops outline the proper method of conscience formation: “The formation of conscience includes several elements. First, there is a desire to embrace goodness and truth. For Catholics this begins with a willingness and openness to seek the truth and what is right by studying Sacred Scripture and the teaching of the Church as contained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is also important to examine the facts and background information about various choices. Finally, prayerful reflection is essential to discern the will of God. Catholics must also understand that if they fail to form their consciences they can make erroneous judgments” (paragraph 18).

What do you think?

Filed under: Personal Reflections, Politics, Social Doctrine

September 13, 2008 • 10:00 pm 0

Why are Political Parties Creating Catholic networks?

It seems that the two major political parties and their presidential candidates have begun the process of trying to engage the Catholic community for their vote.  I have received notices from Catholics for Obama and from Catholics for McCain.  Another group, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, has also engaged parishes and Catholics to utilize their materials for reflections on the electorial process.

All these groups seem to have a slight bias for some categories of moral thought and Church reflection over others.

Filed under: Personal Reflections, Politics, ,

September 13, 2008 • 9:08 pm 1

A Framework to Discuss the role of faith/organized religion in society

I ask that you please consider reading the US Catholic Bishops’ Statement on Political Responsibility to help inform any reflective conversation.

Filed under: Church-State, Culture, Economic Policy, Market Place, Official Statements, Papal Teachings, Personal Reflections, Politics, Social Doctrine, Social Justice, Uncategorized,

October 19, 2007 • 1:06 pm 0

NEED FOR POLITICIANS INSPIRED BY IDEALS: 40th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s Encyclical "Populorum Progressio."

NEED FOR POLITICIANS INSPIRED BY IDEALS

VATICAN CITY, OCT 18, 2007 (VIS) – Made public today was the text of an address delivered by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, Ireland, at the United Nations headquarters in New York for the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s Encyclical “Populorum Progressio.”

Archbishop Martin began his English-language talk by recalling how “it was the challenge of addressing the needs of the poorest nations and their peoples which led the Pope to write his Encyclical.”

“Populorum Progressio,” said the archbishop, was “the first social Encyclical to be written after Vatican Council II, an event which had among its aims that of establishing a new way of looking at the relationship between the Church and the world.”

“Authentic development is one of the key concepts of ‘Populorum Progressio’,” he continued, indicating that such a concept “also touches on the very nature of the human person and the response we need to make to his or her needs.”

“Were Pope Paul here with us today he would certainly be saying thanks to all those who have given themselves in the service of humanity within the U.N. system. He would surely also certainly be making remarks on the slow progress of U.N. reform. We need a well-functioning U.N. Today’s possibilities for inter-connectivity among peoples offer new and innovative ways of cooperation, also within the U.N. system.”

“In talking about responsibility for development and of international cooperation,” said Archbishop Martin, “the Encyclical “consistently stresses the role of public authorities. This recalls today’s debate about both good governance and the important role of politics.”

“Politics,” he concluded, “is an essential dimension of the construction of society. We need around the world a new revival of politics. Around the world we need a new generation of politicians inspired by ideals, but also capable of taking the risks involved in transmitting those ideals into the ‘possible,’ through the optimum use of resources and talents to foster the good of all.”
…/POPULORUM PROGRESSION/UN:MARTIN VIS 071018 (340)

Filed under: Papal Teachings, Politics

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