Madam, - Would it be impudent to remind Frs Vincent Twomey and Sean Fagan of the words of Jesus? "I praise you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children" (Matthew 11:25). - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL A CARROLL, Cherrygarth, Mount Merrion, Co Dublin.
Madam, - Catholics are taught firstly that they must inform their conscience and secondly that they must follow it, come what may. In its Declaration on Religious Liberty Vatican II noted: "[ in] forming their consciences, the faithful must pay careful attention to the sacred and certain teaching of the Church." So far so good.
Quite what the "teaching of the Church" may be on a particular issue - or where it may be found - is the first problem. The second is the situation arising when a person, having so informed himself/herself, finds that his or her conscience is in conflict with that teaching. Such a person is often accused of having an erroneous conscience.
As to the first problem, a Catholic may have recourse to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the teachings of the various councils of the Church, Papal encyclicals, bishops' pastoral Letters, right down to the reflections, sometimes bizarre and often amusing, given at Sunday homilies.
The labelling of such teaching, ranging from "Magisterium", or teaching authority of the Church, to "infallible", to "authentic" may suggest a differing weight to be attached to such teachings. My recollection of the promulgation of Humanae Vitae by Pope Paul VI in 1968 was its being described as "authentic", but as "infallible". Whether the outcome, in terms of theological and lay dissent, would have been any different if Humanae Vitae had been latterly described is a matter of speculation.
If, despite the liberty of conscience advanced by Vatican II, Catholics in practice must in any event follow what is put forward as Church teaching, what is the point of going to the bother of informing one's conscience? Those who are confused should, however, take heart. Accommodating diverse views while at the same time insisting on absolute conformity is not at all impossible, as Henry Ford found when advising prospective buyers of his Model T automobile: you can have it in any colour, so long as it's black. - Yours, etc,
JOHN A KEHOE, Roselawn Road, Dublin 15.
Madam, - In a further effort to bring these exchanges back from a re-run of the 1960s to a focus on the practical issue of conscience and sin, may I make a simple suggestion? It concerns a topical issue of great moment for the media.
It is this: how far may Catholics, without risk of serious sin, dissent from official teaching on forgiveness?
Also to break free from 1960s confusion, I suggest that answers be related to the 1992 2,865-paragraph Catechism which tidied up Catholic thinking in the aftermath of that confusion. - Yours, etc,
JOSEPH F FOYLE, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.
Madam, - In his reply (January 16th) to Fr Vincent Twomey's epistolatory attack (January 11th), Fr Sean Fagan refers to the "psychological and spiritual harm" done to "present-day Catholics struggling to hold on to their faith by the skin of their teeth" by some "church teaching".
As one of those who chose not to hold on, I acknowledge the part that the Catholic Church played in helping me see the light. - Yours, etc,
GREG SCANLON, Shannon, Co Clare.