So, so, so good!!! I am so tired of the mumbo jumbo and twisting words and meanings so that one’s head aches. It gets to the point where it’s almost impossible to defend the truth, even to Catholics.
The entire theme of my book and blog points out the goodness of insourcing ethics (developing one's conscience) and the danger of outsourcing ethics. It's a big sighroll -- combination of a sigh and an eyeroll -- to see where the Church hierarchy is trending.
I remind myself that God chooses Judas to show us that even bishops can be Satanically wrong about matters of faith and morals.
Thank you for this! If I understand you correctly, you are speaking to a subject that is much discussed in our house—the tendency to substitute the statements of theologians and church leaders as the “current understanding of said doctrine that you must now adhere to”. It is tied to the over-intellectualization (is that a word?) of the Faith. Especially in orthodox circles you get the impression that you cannot be a good and faithful catholic without having read and understood the Summa (not that it is a bad thing to do, just now REQUIRED for holiness) and every written document that comes out of Rome must be downloaded into your brain to update your conscience. It is also part of the problem of the proliferation of professional Catholics on the internet who all have a hot take on the latest thing. Our reaction has been almost a minimalism—which I know isn’t exactly right, but you feel forced to it. Know the Creed, know the Ten Commandments and the Precepts of the Church, worship God to the best of your ability and fight your sin problem. It seems to me that if you do those things, your conscience will be informed, and you need not consult the Cult of the Experts at every turn.
Back here, thinking more about conscience. The c#vid va((ine and the mandates were a vivid example of this problem of out-sourcing our conscience to authorities. Remember when some Church agency with theology credentials said it was okay to get the va((ine and we went swiftly from “morally acceptable” to obligatory and those with overly sensitive consciences that compelled them to avoid it were marginalized, laughed at, told to shut up. The professional Catholic world was filled with people sharing pictures of their proof of va((ination and cheering themselves for getting it—thereby applying peer pressure to the conscientious objectors. I can remember thinking to myself—what happened to the sacredness of following one’s conscience? How can anyone calling themselves a Catholic leader compel me to violate my own conscience? But I admit that I also felt like I was saying “well it’s not okay for me, but i guess it is okay for you”…which seemed pretty lame.
Yes I certainly do remember that. A shocking example of forcing conscience.
Had those people allowed the conversation to happen, instead of using manipulation and silencing, perhaps *their* consciences would have been awakened.
Sometimes all you can say is "I won't do it." People have to respect that and maybe someday it will become clear what the truth is.
The real conversation never happened. I did post a LOT here about it all. You can find what I said if you simply search vaccines and covid.
So, so, so good!!! I am so tired of the mumbo jumbo and twisting words and meanings so that one’s head aches. It gets to the point where it’s almost impossible to defend the truth, even to Catholics.
The entire theme of my book and blog points out the goodness of insourcing ethics (developing one's conscience) and the danger of outsourcing ethics. It's a big sighroll -- combination of a sigh and an eyeroll -- to see where the Church hierarchy is trending.
I remind myself that God chooses Judas to show us that even bishops can be Satanically wrong about matters of faith and morals.
Thank you for this! If I understand you correctly, you are speaking to a subject that is much discussed in our house—the tendency to substitute the statements of theologians and church leaders as the “current understanding of said doctrine that you must now adhere to”. It is tied to the over-intellectualization (is that a word?) of the Faith. Especially in orthodox circles you get the impression that you cannot be a good and faithful catholic without having read and understood the Summa (not that it is a bad thing to do, just now REQUIRED for holiness) and every written document that comes out of Rome must be downloaded into your brain to update your conscience. It is also part of the problem of the proliferation of professional Catholics on the internet who all have a hot take on the latest thing. Our reaction has been almost a minimalism—which I know isn’t exactly right, but you feel forced to it. Know the Creed, know the Ten Commandments and the Precepts of the Church, worship God to the best of your ability and fight your sin problem. It seems to me that if you do those things, your conscience will be informed, and you need not consult the Cult of the Experts at every turn.
Back here, thinking more about conscience. The c#vid va((ine and the mandates were a vivid example of this problem of out-sourcing our conscience to authorities. Remember when some Church agency with theology credentials said it was okay to get the va((ine and we went swiftly from “morally acceptable” to obligatory and those with overly sensitive consciences that compelled them to avoid it were marginalized, laughed at, told to shut up. The professional Catholic world was filled with people sharing pictures of their proof of va((ination and cheering themselves for getting it—thereby applying peer pressure to the conscientious objectors. I can remember thinking to myself—what happened to the sacredness of following one’s conscience? How can anyone calling themselves a Catholic leader compel me to violate my own conscience? But I admit that I also felt like I was saying “well it’s not okay for me, but i guess it is okay for you”…which seemed pretty lame.
Yes I certainly do remember that. A shocking example of forcing conscience.
Had those people allowed the conversation to happen, instead of using manipulation and silencing, perhaps *their* consciences would have been awakened.
Sometimes all you can say is "I won't do it." People have to respect that and maybe someday it will become clear what the truth is.
The real conversation never happened. I did post a LOT here about it all. You can find what I said if you simply search vaccines and covid.