Authority/Conscience

There is a tendency to confuse the responsibility of the bishops to teach with the responsibility to determine in conscience whether the teachings of the bishops are acceptable. Some think it warranted to decide that they will follow the Magisterium regardless of what it teaches. James T. Bretzke, S.J., forcefully argues that the latter position is untenable in his A Morally Complex World: Engaging Contemporary Moral Theology 112: “To replace the authority of conscience as the ultimate voice of moral authority, even if it be the pope or the bishops, would open up a huge number of problems concerning authority and mature human action. Heteronomy, the imposition of the moral law from some outside source . . . is not the traditional Roman Catholic position. Whatever authority one believes is absolute is, in effect, the voice of God for that person, and if we allow any outside authority – no matter how respected – to supplant the individual’s conscience, then we are, in effect, making this heteronomous moral authority into God for that person. Making into a “god” that which is not truly God is idolatry . . . .”