Matters of conscience

In 1956, Soviet tanks rolled into Hungary and suppressed, after much bloodshed, the legitimate calls for freedom of the Hungarians.

This action shocked and saddened the free world but more so the members of communist parties all over Europe who had, for decades, looked at the Soviet Union as the beacon of hope for those suffering injustices in the non-Communist world.

There were a number of card-carrying communists, especially intellectuals, writers and artists, who felt they could not remain members of a party with which they did not share ideals anymore.

Therefore, their intellectual honesty decreed that they should return their party membership card and publicly declare that their conscience was in conflict with the action taken in Hungary by the Soviet Union and its allies.

All this should make us Christians, especially Catholics, reflect whether our beliefs and way of life are consonant with the teachings of Christ and of the Church we profess to belong to.

Every so often a census is conducted to assess the number of Catholics who attend Mass.

The results invariably show the decline in attendance but stop short of showing what really matters: the stand that those attending take regarding Christ’s and the Church’s teachings on non-negotiable issues such as marriage being an indissoluble bond between a man and woman.

Thus, we have the sad spectacle of people attending Mass and even partaking of the Eucharist but who sometimes, even publicly, declare their conflict with Christ’s and the Church’s teachings and seem quite unperturbed by this inconsistency in their behaviour.

In no way is it being suggested that there should be a mass exodus from the Church of those holding contrary views or living a life that objectively cuts them off from the communion of the faithful.

However, those communists who, after the Hungarian revolution, refused to compromise with their conscience put us Christians to shame when we choose the comfortable but devious path of inconsistency and compromise.