Tag: Conscience

The Prayer of the Lowly Pierces the Clouds

Once there was an older, very stern, upright, humorless womanโ€”weโ€™ll call her Mrs. Pendergastโ€”who wasnโ€™t feeling well.  She went to see a doctor, who began by asking her some routine questions.  โ€œDo you drink at all...

St John the Baptist: A Strong Formator of Conscience

The feast of the nativity of St John the Baptist is certainly characterised by joy, which the Latin word for it is gaudium. Interestingly enough we are not talking aboutย felicitas, happiness, butย gaudium,ย joy. The collect for the Mass during...

The First, Most Essential Right

At the core of the human person is the most essential duty, the duty to worship God and live according to His commands.ย On the day that we die, it is not to any government that we will answer, nor to any person, not even to the leaders of the...

Jesus Responders

I was born almost 12 hours before the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I remember seeing the Vietnam War on TV but as a child, it didnโ€™t mean much.ย I saw Nixon getting on a helicopter leaving the White House after his resignation. I remember Ronald...

How Can a Vaccine be Immoral?

When I was younger, I recall being asked if I was allergic to โ€œeggsโ€ before I got a flu shot.ย Oh, for the good old days.ย Vaccines were produced in eggs and no one worried about the morality of a vaccine. Today is different. A COVID-19 vaccine cannot...

Contextualizing the Coronavirus

There are moments in the life of the Church and society when public issues become the occasion for reassessing our conduct, to ensure that it lines up with Christ.ย Now is such a moment.ย Fears of this coronavirus have spread throughout the world and...

The Cost of Denying Conscience

For millennia the concept of conscience was prominent in virtually every religious and secular ethical system, though interpretations of its nature varied. Some defined it as an โ€œinner voice,โ€ but disagreed about what kind of voiceโ€”Desire...

Crocodile Tears for the Constitution

โ€œIt does violence to the Constitution and the vision of our founders to appoint such a person in such a manner to be the chief legal officer in our country.โ€โ€”Nancy Pelosi. In the above quotation, Pelosi is referring to President Trumpโ€™s appointment...