Conscience and divorce

“Which of the following factors would influence your decision about divorce: own conscience, advice by politicians, Church instructions?” This question was part of the survey commissioned by The Sunday Times and conducted by Misco International Ltd.

The survey’s questions and results were published on pages 6 and 7 of the August 8 edition of this newspaper. Some were surprised that 75 per cent said they would be influenced by their conscience while only 19 per cent would be guided by Church instructions.

The “respondents could choose more than one option”. However, I suspect that due to the defective catechetical formation the Church has generally provided, most would not think that the best answer would be “own conscience” and “Church instructions” together.

Unfortunately, many Catholics, and not just lay people, are not conscious enough that like any other person, Catholics have a right and a duty to follow their own conscience. In fact, the Church teaches that one is morally bound to act in accordance with one’s own conscience.

Cardinal John Henry Newman contended that “obedience even to an erring conscience was the way to gain light”. In saying this, Cardinal Newman was giving conscience the weight that it deserves.

Acting in accordance with one’s own conscience means opening oneself to reality, taking account of its complexity, and being ready to revise one’s position as soon as one realises that relevant questions need to be answered. A Catholic person evidently does this kind of exercise enlightened by the teaching of the Church, but his or her search of what they are to do in the circumstances always remains a matter of conscience.

Thus the Church cannot and does not pretend to take the place of the individual conscience. Its teaching on divorce and any other moral matter is meant to enlighten and guide one’s judgement. This has been the constant teaching of the Church.

Let me return to The Sunday Times’ survey. The answer given to the question at the start of this article does not necessarily indicate that people have underestimated the influence of the Church on their own conciences. I concede that it is difficult to say how much and in what way the Church is influencing people in the formation of their conscience.

The answer given can suggest either of – at least – two different scenarios: Catholics have in­dividualised their morality, or Catholics do not take decisions based only on the argument from authority. What is important from a pastoral point of view is to note that there is no short-cut way for the Church (indeed for any educational institution) to explain its position.

It is true that today there are still some people who prefer the type of leadership that abrogates to itself the role that is legitimately the role of conscience. During the divorce debate, our bishops have, fortu­nately, streered away from such a position which is both simplistic and mistaken.

They are probably very conscious of the fact that most people today expect, quite rightly, that any moral guidance given will enable people to know at least somewhat more clearly what they are to do in the concrete circumstances encountered, with full respect for their own conscience.

The Church’s moral guidance should thus base itself on emphasising the personal responsibility of each individual in forming their conscience and resist the temptation of giving facile answers to a very complex issue.

The above in no way exhausts the arguments on this complex and intricate subject. In the coming days I will revisit it in my blog on www.timesofmalta.com, where space is less of a problem. I will refer to, among other things, the opinion that it is better to die excommunicated than to violate one’s conscience.

joseph.borg@um.edu.mt