While agreeing with theologian Fr Charlò Camilleri, O.Carm. (August 27) and with Fr Manwel Agius as quoted in an item that appeared on August 30, that conscience remains the ultimate arbiter of moral responsibility, I still feel uneasy by the way things have been said. Meaning does not come across solely through what one says but also through how one says it.

Both Fr Camilleri and Fr Agius say that conscience needs to be formed. Fr Camilleri quotes Thomas Aquinas several times – I counted five – insisting that one’s conscience needs to be a reasoned conclusion of an honest search of truth and goodness but, in my opinion, he has not emphasised this aspect well enough. As a consequence, one might conclude that the Church need not be listened to at all. Going through the pages of The Times following this contribution, a number of people quote Fr Camilleri on the primacy of conscience but without making the slightest reference to the need for conscience to be formed.

Fr Agius gives more importance to this element and names two possible hurdles in forming a conscience: an incomplete knowledge of the factors in play and bias or the risk of self-deception. As for the former, the complexity of the issue is such that it won’t be easy for anybody to grasp all that matters. Besides, we have a habit of mixing “thinking” with “feeling” and this does not augur well for our search for truth. As for bias, there is little to say, especially if one is personally involved.

So, while it is true that conscience remains supreme, a conscience that has been “formed” without a serious confrontation with the Church’s teaching – which is the fruit of the experience enlightened by the Gospel of 2,000 years – would hardly be a very reliable arbiter.

When it comes to enlightening the community about the matter, I prefer the way Archbishop Paul Cremona put it, as he was reported in The Times a few weeks ago. Archbishop Cremona said, and I quote from memory and in my own words, that he would rather not put the issue in terms of “sin” but in terms of the responsibility of convinced Christians to contribute towards what helps the community to grow and their duty not to facilitate that which could be detrimental to it.

I would be much happier if Curia officials followed suit. I would only add one sentence to what Mgr Cremona has said. It is not only the duty of every Christian to do this; it is the duty of every human person worthy of the name.