Four Principles of conscience 

It's crucial that people have the capacity to hear and act on their conscience. A person's conscience gives them the ability to accept responsibility for their deeds. If humans are to make wise decisions that are supported by reason and divine rule, they must adhere to the following principles.

There are four principles of conscience. These are: You are obligated to form your own conscience, follow sincere conscience judgements, conscience does not decide right or wrong and a good and does not justify immoral means.

First principle: everyone is obliged to form their conscience Every area of human potential needs development. This means that, just as people need to develop their physical or intellectual potential, they also need to develop the potential of listening to and obeying their conscience. Everyone is obliged to form or mould their conscience by discipline, training and instruction. This is done by learning to distinguish right and wrong. The first requirement for the formation of moral conscience is to learn the commandments of God as taught by Jesus. You form your own conscience when you behave in moral ways by recalling God’s laws before acting and working out the right thing to think, say or do and recalling God’s laws after an event, and working out whether what they thought, said or did was right or wrong.

it can be difficult to obey our moral conscience in daily life situations due to pressure from peers, the expectations they are held to and social trends and attitudes. People need to keep trying to become more aware of when such pressures are affecting them. They need to withdraw and to ‘take time out’. They need to think before they act.

It is also important to try and think ahead about the possible situations in which moral choices need to be made. It is much easier to do what is right when people can think ahead about the choices they have to make, and work out the right thing to do, that is, to practise the virtue of prudence.

When people can foresee situations in which they may be pressured to do wrong, they are better off avoiding them.

Many people confuse ‘formed’ conscience with what ‘feels right’. They may say, ‘I should be free to follow my conscience’, when what they really mean is ‘I should be free to follow what I feel to be right’.

What ‘feels right’ is just a feeling; it is not formed conscience and needs to be given no more weight than any other feeling. Feelings can be misleading such as a groundless fear of the dark or irrational hatred in reaction to an imagined hurt.

People with formed moral consciences are able to do two things. They can: • understand the moral principles behind a moral choice • relate the principles to the actual situation in which the choice is being made.

Second principle: everyone is obliged to follow sincere conscience God created human beings to be good, and to always do what is right. Therefore, people are obliged by the Creator to obey what their conscience tells them is the right thing to do. This is true even if their conscience is mistaken, provided that the mistake is not made through some fault of the people concerned. It should be noted that society does not always accept ‘conscience’ as suitable grounds for a person to deliberately violate the laws of the community. One such example is the treatment of a conscientious objector who refuses to fight in a time of war. Similarly, in a situation where a person refuses to obey a lawful command or where a genuine protest may result in property damage, society will not accept that the person is following their conscience. Whether through their own fault or not, and no matter how sincere they may think that they are, a person acting on formed conscience may well be seen as behaving in a way that conflicts with society’s generally accepted principles.

For many reasons people can make mistakes about what is right and what is wrong. They may be misinformed, lack good moral education or be pressured by circumstances. They may be unduly influenced by others or by bad habits.

 People are obliged to do all they can to ‘form’ their conscience. They are also obliged to avoid, as far as possible, situations in which their emotions are likely to cloud their better judgement and their conscience. They are also obliged to recognise and to try to change bad habits and attitudes.

Third principle: conscience does not decide right or wrong

Only God the Creator ultimately knows and determines what is right and what is wrong. The role of moral conscience is to discern whether a particular action conforms to God’s law and therefore is right or disobeys God’s law and is wrong.

Right and wrong, therefore, are not determined by conscience. The role of an individual’s conscience is to answer the questions: • ‘Which moral principles apply to this situation?’ • ‘How do they apply?’ • ‘What should I do?’

No human person has the right to disobey God. Nor does anyone have the right to tell others that they may disobey God.

Sometimes a society or parliament makes laws which disobey God’s laws. In such cases, the Church finds it necessary to defend those who are harmed by such laws. For example, the Church has spoken out strongly in favour of: • respect for international law, especially for the resolution of conflicts between nations, a fairer distribution of the world’s resources, and the humane treatment of refugees • the rights of the unborn • religious and other freedoms.

Even so, with the best intentions in the world, people can make honest mistakes in discerning what is right and wrong. When they do, they are in ‘good conscience’, because it is an honest mistake, but they will still do wrong unintentionally. The fact that they are following a mistaken conscience does not make their action right.

Across the world today, there are other examples of people in good conscience doing wrong. This is not to suggest that all who do these things are in good conscience – only those who sincerely do not know God’s laws can be in good conscience.

Four examples are: • discrimination against people of other races • not allowing women to participate properly in society by, for example, not allowing them to vote • killing sick babies or female babies • stoning adulterers to death.

These actions are wrong, even if those who commit them cannot see this.

Moral conscience, therefore, does not determine what is right or what is wrong. Conscience can only tell people whether they are intending to do what they believe to be right or wrong.

As discussed earlier, good and bad, right and wrong, are taught by the Creator. This means that what is right for one is right for all: what is wrong for one is wrong for all. Right and wrong cannot vary in different situations.

It cannot be right for me, for example, to do wrong by deliberately causing harm to myself or to someone else, whether I can foresee or intend it or not. So there is no such thing as something being ‘right for me’ and wrong for others. Right and wrong do not depend upon the ideas of individuals or upon their consciences.

People can only say that: ‘As far as I can see, this word or action is the right thing for me to say or do’; or ‘As far as I can see, this is right in this situation’; or ‘My intention is good’.

Conscience, therefore, does not decide what is right or what is wrong for anyone. It can only help people to work out whether something they want to do is right or wrong. This highlights the importance of people doing all that is possible to educate or to ‘form’ their consciences.

Fourth principle: a good end does not justify immoral means People usually have good intentions when they are faced with choices that require a moral judgement. Few people ever set out to do something that will deliberately harm others.

In every case that requires a moral judgement, a person needs to consider not just the good end, but also the means or the way people go about achieving the good end.

An example of a good end is putting a stop to bullying in a school. If students or staff decided that the best means for solving the problem of bullying in their school involved delivering threats to bullies, or actually using violence against them, their ‘solution’ would be immoral – even if it succeeded. A good end cannot be based on something that is wrong in itself, in this case threatening or actually using violence. Instead, nonviolent and moral strategies need to be used to deal with the issue and the bullies themselves.

Another example of a good end is to live simply and not waste the earth’s resources through over-consumption. If the means chosen to achieve this end involved destroying others’ property because the owners were seen to be wasteful – or worse, harming the owners themselves – a morally wrong choice will have been made.

The purpose of an examination of conscience is for an individual to discover whether or not they have behaved as God taught. Where they have, they need to give thanks. Where they have not, they need to ask for God’s forgiveness and for the help to change for the better.

People examine their conscience as they review past thoughts, words and actions. They try to: • discover examples of when they have done what is right, such as acts of kindness, cooperation or forgiveness • find examples of improvement in their lives where they are trying to change for the better • identify deliberate thoughts, words or actions that were wrong • recognise guilty feelings and work out whether or not they are justified.

People need to examine their consciences every day. This helps them in three ways:

1. It helps them to build upon their good behaviour and see if and where they may still    need to change.
2. It helps them to see that they have not disobeyed God and therefore do not need to    feel guilty.
3. It helps them to prepare for death, which can come unexpectedly, and for the judgement    of their lives by Christ after death. They can see where they have done wrong deliberately, and ask for God’s forgiveness.

    People are encouraged to examine their conscience regularly, even daily. An examination of conscience is part of the preparation for the celebration of the Sacrament of Penance. The following form of examination of conscience is intended to help people to reflect on whether or not they have behaved as God taught.