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Expert: - 12/29/2007


Question
I am in a parish lay ministry workshop and I have this one question of which I do not know where to find the answer or what the question is asking. What is nice is we can use any source we want because this is a group discussion question all we have to do is let the group know where I got the answer. Here our group question; A hallmark of the church's traditional teaching on conscience is that individuals must always follow their informed conscience, even if such a conscience-based decision be a variance with the teaching of the Magisterium. Discuss the church's teaching on conscience in recent magisterial documents, and relate your discussion to a contemporary moral theological presentation of conscience. I have looked into some of the Vat II docs and some recent papal encyclicals and even into the Catechism. Are these the right resources if so why couldn't I find some answers? If you can help I would appreciate it.

Answer
Hi... here's an essay that might help (it's referenced):

http://www.ewtn.com/library/DOCTRINE/CONSC.TXT

And EWTN has a good search facility. I did a search using the keyword 'conscience' and quite a few links came up:

http://www.ewtn.com/vlibrary/search.asp

The Catholic Ency. is always good too:

http://www.newadvent.net/

And last, there's a searchable Catechism that might help:

http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm

I hope this helps!  

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Michael Clark, Ph.D.

Expertise

I'm a progressive Catholic--not a liberal, conservative nor a single-minded critic of Catholicism. I simply believe that adults in the 21C should use the mind God gave them and not just repeat ancient and medieval modes of thinking.

I can probably help with questions that intelligently and respectfully question those aspects of Catholicism that are not infallible. But if you're looking for someone to vigorously defend or perhaps refute Catholicism as a whole, that's not me. So please ask another expert.

Experience

I run an educational website earthpages.org and know what the web has to offer. I might suggest hyperlinks and/or book titles as I have a Ph.D. in Religious Studies and a considerable personal library.

Publications
Print Media:
My table from "Religions and Cults" at earthpages.org is reproduced with permission in L. Lindsey, S. Beach and B. Ravelli, Core Concepts in Sociology, 2nd ed., p. 157

World Wide Web:
My online article "Letter to God" coauthored with Buddhist monk, E. Raymond Rock, appears on several different spirituality-based websites, including http://tinyurl.com/db7a5o

I've interviewed, as a Christian, a self-proclaimed mystic: http://tinyurl.com/cawykr

My articles appeared at the former New View magazine nuvunow.ca and are published at earthpages.org.

Education/Credentials
Ph.D. in Religious Studies
M.A. in Comparative Religion
B.A. Hon. in Psychology/Sociology
For more info, please see my CV and letters of recommendation and my blog at michaelwclark.com.

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