Taken from Credo: A Practical Guide to the Catholic Faith, 1954

"WITHOUT LAWS, the human race would be no better than wild beasts of prey" wrote a heathen sage. Of laws the first is the natu­ral law which is the fundamental rule or standard of human acts, imprinted on the heart of each human being even though he knows not God. Each man has an intuitive notion of right and wrong, which decides for him the morality of his acts, teaches him the important requirements, homage to God, respect for one's own life, the rights of others, etc. In addition to this natural law there are the ten Commandments, or the revealed law which is an amplification of the natural law. Further there are ecclesiastical law, or the commandments of the Church, and civil law, or the law of the land which binds those subject to it under obedience so long as nothing contrary to divine law is contained therein.

From knowledge of the law arises conscience, i.e. an act of judgment deciding the legality or otherwise of an action. Con­science is a most important factor in our spiritual life since it is the deciding faculty in questions of right and wrong. Each hu­man being is endowed with this faculty to guide him in discerning law and applying it to any specific act. It is not a virtue, a habit, but a decision or judgment of the practical reason about a certain act as to whether it is or is not in accordance with the law of God.

We are never allowed to act in a way contrary to this decision of conscience. St. Paul writes: "All that is not of faith (i.e. ac­cording to conscience or 'in good faith') is sinful." Suppose that, by mistake, I think to-day to be a Friday, on which day the eating of meat is forbidden, whereas in fact it is Thursday, and I eat meat, thereby acting against my conscience. In that case I sin in so doing, because I have consented to what conscience tells me is unlawful at that time.

Conscience is directed by knowledge of the law and is the ap­plication of such knowledge here and now to some particular act; the consequent decision regulates our moral conduct. Obviously conscience is of the gravest importance, hence we should under­stand its working as far as we are able. We shall be judged by the measure of our compliance with its dictates. Granted that we have a true conscience, it is an infallible guide to all acts. It has been called "the voice of God" but is in fact "an act of the practical reason deciding what is to be done, or not to be done, here and now."

Conscience may be "antecedent" or "subsequent." Antecedent conscience decides the lawfulness or otherwise of what is proposed before we do it. We are bound to follow this decision unless we have grave reason for thinking that we may have a false con­science." If we go against this decision, we sin. Subsequent consci­ence is the peace or disquiet of mind following the act. We have either a "good" or a "bad" conscience in passing judgment on what we have done. A good conscience gives peace and joy to the soul; a bad one makes us ill at ease and embitters the soul, so that it torments us until we repent of the evil done. It can drive us to despair, as it did Judas; or to repentance, as it did Peter.

Conscience is of different kinds also; one may have a true con­science or a doubtful conscience, even a false conscience. The true conscience judges in conformity with the law of God; the doubtful hesitates or fears to decide; the false is out of harmony with divine law. It is a principle that we are never allowed to act on a doubt­ful conscience; we may not give ourselves the benefit of the doubt in things moral, but must decide one way or the other. If possible we must seek advice to settle the matter and remove all doubt; if the matter is urgent, we are permitted to do what seems most reasonable at the moment and seek advice later; in other words we must make a decision before we may act. If a choice must be made between two evils, what appears to be the less evil must be chosen. If two duties of obligation conflict, we must decide which has the greater claim, e.g. the choice between the obligation of hearing Mass or the necessity of attending to a sick person; we must decide which is the more urgent claim., and act accordingly.

A false conscience is a very different matter. If through igno­rance of the law which is no fault of our own conscience misleads us, we are still bound to follow it. If we are convinced that to-day there is an obligation to hear Mass, we are bound to do so, even though in fact there is no obligation; otherwise we disobey con­science and sin in consequence. But if a person of normal intelligence is culpably ignorant, i.e. ignorant through his own fault, or wishes not to know the law as an excuse to evade it, if he neglects ordinary diligence to learn what he ought to know, then he has a false conscience, and each time such a conscience is followed sin is committed.

A lax conscience, sometimes cloaked under the name of broad­mindedness, is one that easily condones evil because of bad habits, passion, or for similar reasons; it fails to detect evil in what pleases, or excuses itself on the plea that "God will understand." In time such a conscience may cease to act either in warning or blaming. It becomes a dead conscience.

The scrupulous conscience is a disease of the mind causing a foolish fear of sin rather than a sane judgment of reason. St. Francis de Sales says that it has its source in pride, though it may also be due to nervous derangement or other physical causes. Like a timid horse that shies at shadows, endangering its rider, such a conscience imagines sin where none exists; it is liable to cause dis­obedience and stubbornness. People afflicted in such a manner must distrust their own judgment in conscience matters and rely im­plicitly on the advice of their confessor, giving him complete obedience in his directions as the only cure for such an illness of mind. Signs of a scrupulous conscience are to be recognized in too much anxiety about past confessions, in profuse and irrelevant explanations of the circuмstances of an action, in want of obedi­ence to the confessors' advice--or in seeking advice from several confessors on the same matter through want of trust or disagree­ment with the decision given. The cause of such a state may be temperament, hidden pride, nervous disposition or taking too much notice of what is said by others who are in no way qualified to decide in matters of conscience.

Since conscience is of such vital importance to the soul, we must strive to study the divine law, by perfect sincerity with self, by fervent prayer, by fighting the lower impulses of nature and by obedience to the decisions of our confessor in any matter. We cannot be too earnest in the desire to know what should be known; too many allow themselves to be influenced by others who have not sufficient knowledge themselves to teach what is right or wrong or to give advice on matters of conscience. They can only guide us by their own conscience and we have no evidence that their own conscience is a true one. The directing of conscience is a very delicate matter and in any doubt the advice of the priest should always be asked; it is his business to direct consciences to the truth; he is fully qualified by study of the law to instruct others. If we are sick, we do not go to the butcher or the baker to find out what is wrong; we go to a doctor qualified to diagnose what ails us and to give us the proper remedy. Similarly in all matters of conscience we ought to go to the properly qualified "soul-doctor," the priest.

Further, we must not be misled by "mass conscience." One often hears the easy judgment "It is all right: everyone does it." But is that a sound piece of reasoning? Materials are at times taken from the factory by workers who say it is all right because everyone does it. But does the employer know and approve of the custom? If he objects to stuff being taken, then it is stealing in spite of the fact that all do it. Many wrongs do not make a right. Prejudice is also misleading. We must not allow the prejudices of others to influence conscience. Prejudice is the ill-formed judgment of the mind made without sufficient knowledge or reason or without due consideration. It deems wrong what is right, and right what is wrong. It is no standard by which to judge the law. Some people, for instance, maintain that it is a sin to receive Holy Communion without previous confession the night before; they are ignorant of the Church's ruling on this point. They are guided by their prejudice which is no standard for true decisions.

Each must follow his own conscience, not another's; he will be judged 'by his own conscience. One may have a lax conscience, another a false, or a scrupulous conscience; we cannot accept their advice. In all cases of any doubt the only safe course is to ask the advice of a priest who by his study and knowledge of the law and of human responsibilities is alone capable of advising in matters of conscience. His advice is based on his knowledge of the law and its application; that of others is based on the promptings of their own conscience which may be true, but may also be lax, scrupulous or false. How can we place any reliance on others who probably know little more than we ourselves know and who are not able to direct themselves properly in many cases? If we can­not settle our own doubts, how can we be sure that another is giving correct advice without any personal prejudice, unless we are satisfied as to his qualifications? We must not play the fool in so delicate a matter on which so much depends in our spiritual life. St. Paul writes (I Corinthians IV): "To me it is a small thing to be judged by you or by man's day; but neither do I judge myself. For I am not conscious to myself of anything, yet I am not hereby justified, but he that judgeth is the Lord." He cares not what judgments are passed on him by man because his own conscience is clear and at peace; that is sufficient; God alone can judge him. If we act in accordance with the dictates of our own conscience, if we act "in good faith," then we shall be at peace with God in our own mind, knowing that we have done our best. It matters not what others may do or judge. We act by our own conscience, not by another's.