Journal 4: Key Moral Teachings of the Catholic Church

I find that the key idea in the section is the Catholic idea of a Conscience, especially in relation to how it is both a power and a process.  Contrary to how many Catholics consider their consciences, our conscience gives us the power to make good choices or, in other words, it gives us freedom to, as opposed to freedom from.  In this respect, the freedom that our conscience provides gives us the power to act or not to act.   As a power, our conscience is a human's most sacred part of the body and it is also a place where God resides.  In addition, it lets us reason through decisions and hopefully chose the best choice that we possibly can. These decisions are made through the execution of our morals and principles.      As a process, our conscience allows us to go through the whole system of events to eventually reach a decision; it is the "power of reason."  To be able to utilize our conscience to the fullest extent, Catholics must tirelessly strive to form a good and informed conscience free from negative cultural influences.  In order to acheive an informed conscience, we must always pursue accurate knowledge and make sure we understand the facts.  Essentially a conscience encourages a process of reason which we all may use to make good and thoughtful decesions.

The Three Most Important Ideas:

1.  In any situation the morality of an action depends on three primary attributes: object, intention, and circumstances.  The object in the situaction is the actual action itself.  Essentially, this is the seriousness of the whole matter  This seriousness, or object, weighs heavily on the issue as a whole.  Another vital aspect in judging morality is the intention.  An example in killing of human life is: first, a person is accidently run over and killed by a car as he walked into the street without looking; second, is a man who planned a murder for 18 months and proceeded to dismember the body after he was through.  Obviously, in these two examples, both of which are on opposite ends of the spectrum differ greatly in the area of morality.  The premeditated, cruel murder is far worse morally than an accidental car accident.  Therefore, intention is a really major piece to the puzzle.  Lastly, circumstances are another aspect to observe in the area of morality.  In continuation of the above example, the circumstances in the accidental car accident are considerably favorable when judging morality.  However, if the driver was drunk, hit the person, and didn't stop, event though it was still an accident, the circumstances are quite different. 2.  I think that it is very important to remember the three rules that apply in every case in regards to making decisions with our conscience.  This helps to remind ourselves of what we should be doing in our daily lives.  First, one must never do evil so good may result.  No matter how tempting, or how "right" it may seem, this should never occur.  As the old proverb says, "two wrongs don't make a right."  Second, it is of paramount importance that we always remember and execute the Golden Rule.  If all people treated others the way they would like to be treated, evil would be greatly lessened in the world in which we live.  Finally, we should always respect our neighbor and their conscience.  Thinking that we have a more informed conscience than another is simply, quite misinformed.  Rather, we should always take into account the possibility that our neighbor may actually be correct in his anaylsis of the problem, where we may be off the mark. 3. People should always realize that there are many different ways to sin, it is not necessary for us to committ the act of sinning first hand for it to be considered a sin nevertheless.  Therefore, there are four primary types of ways in which we may sin.  First, and most obviously, we may be directly involved in a sin by actively participating.  Second, we may sin if we order, advise, praise, or approve a sin of another person.  Thirdly, if we hide the facts of asin or not hinder a sin when we witness one.  It is important that we always disclose a sin.  Lastly, we may still sin if we protect the evil-doers who took part in the physical act itself.  In conclusion, people should be careful when going about their day to day lives, because in many cases it is easiest to simply remain silent when witnesing injustices, but these people don't realize that in doing so they have actually committed a sin themselves.

Picture Link

-An image that reminds me of Catholic morality  is this image of a bully picking on another kid on a school playground while a large group of kids look on from a safe distance.  This reminds me of the four ways it is possible to sin.  Even though the onlookers aren't directly participating, their lack of action in itself is sinful.

-I can try to be a better Catholic by being more observant of what is going on around me.  When I encounter a sinful situation, I should strive to always do the right thing, even if it may seem difficult.  If I witness a sin, I should try to voice my opposition, not just stand alongside as a bystander.  Through doing nothing at all is a sin.

-A question that I have to ponder on this section on the Morality of Catholic Teachings is, "why do so many people go against their conscinece?"  I realize that this is the very definition of sin, but it does seem as though more people would do the simple action of listening to their consciece when they are in a sinful situation, it really isn't that hard to do.  For that matter, it doesn't even require much thought.