What is a good conscience?:
Callahan, Sidney
and one's judgments can be more or less dis- OF SEVERAL MINDS Sidney...
...In other words if you ten on our hearts...
...So much for the power of human reason...
...You are in worse trouble, more has is power of conscience...
...not just a case of human limitation or ig- Perhaps some psychoanalysts (Jungians...
...Underneath self-conscious awareness WHAT IS A GOOD CONSCIENCE...
...So, as Socrates understood, the human task is to rememn 1991, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is not seen because man does not want to ber, to recall the truth, to undertake Platonic gave an address in Dallas to the see it...
...It has been an in- Vatican II, or Humanae vitae, or sexual s42.50 teresting experience...
...and one's judgments can be more or less disOF SEVERAL MINDS Sidney Callahan missed...
...8: 8 October 1993 Commonweal Ratzinger quotes an existentialist psy- Well, you can see the problem of relychologist, Albert Gorres, to support his case ing on the unconscious...
...Since December of last year Which should lead to some caution, on selections are from Theological I have served as pastor of a small Orthodox the part of those Catholics who blame Investigations, written from the early 1950's to the 1980'schurch in New York...
...In Pope John Paul's Denver address Only willful blindness and neglectful deaf- Papal authority springs from this task on conscience, I recognized some notes ness keep you from recognizing those of advocating and defending the Christian sounded by Ratzinger...
...it's scious the more you prove its validity...
...But in the Ratzinger reading of conformed for us all, agitato and con brio...
...The `no' of the will which hinders anamnesis and recover the moral law writAmerican bishops entitled "Con- recognition is guilt...
...pope...
...One must defend consciously programmed and called up in the church from erroneous sinners...
...Un- Perhaps the worst effect of Ratzinger's Collections fortunately for a concept of anamnesis, we views is that they justify silencing dissent now know that false memories can be un- and reasoned dialogues...
...As RatzIf preliminary reports of the upcoming en- tried hard to possess a clear conscience...
...As Karl (as do philosophers and theologians) on Rahner once said, "no doctrine of God is the nature and function of the uncon- possible any more without a doctrine of scious, as well as on the question of man, no theology without anthropology...
...have to be ultimate and unquestionable...
...But suppose I have no inner con- of memory threatened by "a subjectivity And this may be only an opening aria...
...First you claim that a perI do, as is usually the case with JPII too, has to go all the way and put forth a two- son's unknown, unconscious nature is why does the 20 percent that I can't abide level model of human consciousness and more important than any "superficial" bother me so much...
...defend the church against the destruction song before...
...constant essential truths everywhere pres- memory of "simple faith...
...certainty...
...thought...
...O'Brien...
...inger sees it, "All power that the papacy cyclical Veritatis splendor are to be be- Too bad...
...To go from theo- scandals involving priests, for such phelogical discussions in seminary classrooms, nomena as "cafeteria Catholicism," the de- At bookstores or from the publisher to reading articles on feminine images of cline in the number of priests, the fact that 1-800-937-5557 the Holy Spirit in early Syriac Christianity, few people go to confession, and so forth...
...No more "sal- from falsification...
...a teabag left too long in the cup, and my ficial consciousness," a "self-conscious- then you assert that you have been given steepings grow darker and bitterer...
...1-1 Con ent of Faith TW BEST OF OF SEVERAL MINDS John Garvey Karl Rahner THE PROTESTANT MOMENT...
...weal's forum on the laity (Sept- gious life, is instructive...
...friend who knew of my work on conscience Ratzinger concedes that you have to fol- And who is going to elucidate the recsent me a copy...
...forces...
...I've been mulling it over low an erroneous conscience, once it has ollection of our collective Christian ever since, with an increasing sense of dis- come to that, but you are already moral- memory...
...whether we could ever possess unknown It follows that when your anthropology bemoral guilt...
...Is it the case that I'm conscience...
...gregationalism of American Protestant the similarity, certainly with regard to this S24-95 Christianity, and the pragmatic rationali- movement away from the communal, hier- Karl Rahner ty of our economic and business systems archical, and sacramental understanding THE CONTENT are increasingly congenial to the mindset of the church toward a pragmatic, con- OF FAITH of American Catholics...
...but it is true, and true of the range of Rahner's theological True enough, and true not only of Orthodox as well...
...The pope must "Yes," I said to myself, "I've heard this ent in man...
...You guessed it...
...Marxists in manity's capacity for guilt-of course, their heyday made the claim that if you guilt goes with moral freedom-nor would balk at their class analysis you display your anyone deny that an individual's con- own false consciousness...
...But this inner sense of one's selfden beneath the surface...
...But their dissent can only arise from their Ratzinger's views as exposed in his 1991 morally reprehensible denials of their inaddress spell trouble...
...A we do not wish to see...
...We've met this type of circular are ominous...
...Not to see it is guilt...
...It is true that the exodus of priests Commonweal 8 October 1993...
...dians are past masters of the same game...
...THE GREAT RELIGION IN THE UNITED STATES CHURCH YEAR Edited by Albert Raffelt and Harvey D. Egan Here is the definitive collection n her contribution to Common- see what most people regard as their reli- of Karl Rahner's homilies, meditations, and retreat conferences...
...His stated beliefs ternal promptings of truth...
...To ness of the I," prone to "pseudo-rational the key to elucidate the essential truths hidsteal a line from Wallace Stegner...
...An inspirational treasure for ember 10, 1993), Margaret O'Brien There are many differences between anyone joyfully anticipating a Steinfels writes, "The prevailing Catholic and Orthodox parishes, but prayerfully reflective sojourn individualism, the tempting con- what struck me in Steinfels's quote was through the church year...
...lieved, a full symphonic treatment of this spiritually ill, when you don't feel your Well yes, that is surely correct in one version of conscience is going to be per- guilt any more, another culpable victim sense...
...New York, NY 10017 Catholic Reporter and Christian Century), Take the decline in the number of to go from this into a parish, and then to priests...
...there exists a deeper, more important unconscious level, where "an original memCARDINAL RATZINGER ON MORAL TRUTH ory of the good and true (both are identical) has been implanted in us...
...Papal K r~ The KARL persons who "remember" that they took authority becomes one with the Truth, the NER part in satanic rituals, or were sexually whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth- Great abused as children, or were abducted by so help us, God...
...If I agree with em age...
...norance...
...gent...
...I am not sure who Theological Writings munal, hierarchical, and sacramental it was who said, "In America, even the Edited by Karl Kehmann and Albert Raffelt understandings that lie at the heart of Catholics are Protestants" (Conor Cruise Fully captures the encyclopedic Catholicism...
...The with Ratzinger's reflections becomes ur- vation through ignorance" in this system...
...He also quotes Psalm 19 twice, Ratzinger and the pope becoming wedded "Free me from my unknown guilt...
...On the surface he finds a "super- self-conscious reasoning and awareness...
...another minefield of controversies...
...80 percent of Ratzinger's message, which To defend this radical position Ratzinger Think about it...
...As Ratzinger explains it, "Man might still be found to agree with Ratzcan see the truth of God-from the fact of inger's overestimation of unconscious his creaturehood...
...lence threatens once again...
...It "Uh-oh...
...Ratzinger maintains, however, that The more you consciously protest and rewhen a person possesses an erroneous sist their interpretation of your unconconscience he or she is morally guilty...
...it was pub- don't see the truth it's your own fault, "a remember, to recognize and respond to the lished and distributed by the Pope deliberate looking away from that which truth when it addresses us-if we haven't John XXIII Medical-Moral Center...
...Eighty of the key 174 Catholicism...
...If some disagree, No, I'm of the optimist persuasion...
...ly guilty for the departure from the truth tinguish the true unfolding of recollection At this point the need to come to grips that took place bgforehand...
...The key problem is not hu- Catch 22 rationale elsewhere...
...CROSSROAD then to further reading (like much of what A comparison with the Orthodox experi- 370 Lexington Avenue appears in Commonweal and National ence might be interesting...
...The to such an inadequate model of persons problem here is that psychologists disagree and their moral functioning...
...Orthodox Freuscience may be in error...
...Immediate moral turbu- Church Year UFOs...
...about individual decisions of conscience NN Mmm...
...All humans are able to science and Truth...
...Who is going to discern and disquiet...
...All of these rep- gregational, and individualistic approach The Best of Karl Rahner's resent enticing alternatives to the com- to church membership...
...I dread seeing for guilt...
...been guilty of turning in on ourselves...
...comes askew there will be repercussions Human memory and its function open in your moral theology...
...of "the subjectivist philosophy of the mod- science, papal teaching authority would So what's my problem...
...sciousness of betraying the truth and have forgetful of its own foundation...
Vol. 120 • October 1993 • No. 17
