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Monthly Archives: January 2015

Follow Your (Informed) Conscience

27 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by Fr. Moore in C.S. Lewis, Pro-Death 'Catholics', Pro-Life, The Weight of Glory

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Authority, Conscience

(Conscience) can mean (a) the pressure a man feels upon his will to do what he thinks is right; (b) his judgment as to what the content of right and wrong are. In sense (a) conscience is always to be followed. It is the sovereign of the universe, which ‘if it had power as it has right, would absolutely rule the world.’ It is not to be argued with, but obeyed, and even to question it is to incur guilt. But in sense (b) it is a very different matter. People may be mistaken about wrong and right; most people in some degree are mistaken. By what means are mistakes in this field to be corrected?

The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis

That last question is very important. As he rightly says, we are all mistaken to some degree about what is right and what is wrong. As fallen and sinful creatures we can and often do misunderstand or misinterpret the truths that would establish for us what is right and what is wrong. Surely most (all?) of us have encountered a situation in which something we thought for sure was true turned out to be false. If someone tells us this has never happened to them then we can only assume one of three things about them: a) they are perfect and know the good and act on it perfectly – but this is only true of God and perhaps could be said of the good angels that serve Him; b) they are lying to us; c) they are delusional. Basically, if someone (except God Himself) thinks they are right about everything – that they have the ultimate source of knowledge for what is good and evil – then they should not be trusted. To say it another way, we all need to be willing to admit that we make mistakes in our understanding about what is right and what is wrong. If this is not your understanding of yourself then you can stop reading now.

And now that it is just the mere mortals of sound mind left, let us ask the question again: how do we correct our conscience when it is mistaken? And this really requires another question to be answered: how can we even know when our conscience is wrong? First of all, we need to be humble, acknowledge our shortcomings, realize that we do not ‘know it all’, and always be on the search for the Truth; because truth brings knowledge of good and evil, right and wrong. This truth can come to us in different ways: first through intuition. Most people understand that it is not right to just walk up to someone on the street and shoot them in the face. Our basic moral intuition tells us that. On the other hand, many people today would not apply that same understanding to the unborn. Instead, they have been brainwashed by a political and social system that is constantly screaming about a woman’s ‘right’ to reproductive choice. The result is, that according to many people’s conscience, the unborn child, who is really no different from the innocent person walking down the street, does not deserve the same protection. This is obviously an instance of someone’s conscience (and here we are talking about a large group of people) being seriously distorted.

There is another way, though, that we can know our conscience is wrong and that is from authority. An example would be when parents help their children understand that a certain behavior is wrong. And here I am not talking about the parent who simply says, “Stop doing that!” Instead, I am speaking of the parents who take the time to help their children understand why a certain behavior is wrong. The same can be said of the priest in the confessional when he causes you to think to yourself, “Wow! I’ve never thought of it that way before, but he is right.” And of course the ultimate example would be Authority of Christ Himself, who speaks to us through Scripture and also speaks to us through His Church. Truly, it is with Authority that the Chruch teaches us what is right and what is wrong.

And yet, how many so-called Catholics use the excuse “My conscience says it is ok” to vote for pro-abortion politicians, to use contraception, to skip Mass on Sunday, etc. Of course the main problem here is that these people think that if their conscience says it is ok then there is nothing else to consider. But, they are missing the crucial step that is needed to rightly follow your conscience and that is to make sure you have a properly formed conscience. And this formation comes primarily from authority.

Whether we know it or not, everyone’s conscience if formed in large part from authority. What makes the difference between pro-life and pro-abortion Catholics, for instance, is which authority their consciences have been formed by. Those who believe in abortion have been formed by the ‘authority’ of the secular worldview. They have been formed by the opinions of the supposed experts that surround them in the media, movies, music and books. On the other hand, those who are pro-life have formed their conscience in accordance with Authority of the Church, which is nothing less that the teaching of Christ that has been handed down to us throughout the centuries.

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Choice or Fear?

22 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by Fr. Moore in Pro-Life

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Below is the speech I gave at a press conference in front of a future Planned Parenthood site here in San Antonio. There is a local organization trying to stop it and they asked me to speak. I thought today would be a good day to post it.

Pro-life and pro-choice: this is how the two sides of the abortion debate refer to themselves; but, do these two terms adequately describe the sides they represent? Let us first look and consider what life is and see if the word accurately describes the pro-life side. Based on the dictionary I have in my office, life can be defined as the power of something, or someone, to move itself toward its own good or perfection. And if we look at the basic objective of the pro-life side, which is to prohibit abortion so that unborn children may have the right to move towards their own good and perfection, then we can see that the term does in fact fit with what pro-lifers promote.

But the same cannot be said of those who call themselves pro-choice. In the same dictionary just mentioned, choice is described as “a free judgment arising from reason,” which would be the opposite of decisions based emotion or feelings. This would mean that those who claim to believe in ‘choice’ have a rational freedom to make decisions that are free from psychological forces, such as feelings or emotions. But what do we find in reality? We find that those who claim to be pro-choice rarely exhibit the rational freedom necessary to truly make a free choice. Instead what we see are people who react with their emotions and especially the very powerful emotion of fear.

According to the CDC 50% of all women who have abortions are younger than 25 years old. And what but fear would lead most of those women and girls to have abortions. Fear of the college girl whose boyfriend threatens to leave her if she doesn’t have an abortion. Fear of the teenage girl who doesn’t want her parents to find out she is pregnant or who is forced by her parents to have an abortion. Fear of those who feel pressured to have an abortion because society tells them, “You are too young to have a baby – it will ruin your life.” Or what about the fear of women of all ages in lower income brackets who don’t think they can afford to have a child.

If this Planned Parenthood opens it will feed on this fear I have discussed today. When women walk through those doors there will no longer be a choice for them because fear will have taken it away. That is why all those in this city who hold to a belief in the right to life must stand against this place opening and must pray without ceasing that God will intervene and keep these doors closed.

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Excuses, excuses, excuses

20 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by Fr. Moore in Salvation

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Love of God, Loving our Neighbor

There are many things I could list as valid reasons of why I have not been posting on a regular basis recently: a hectic schedule leading up to Christmas, various sermons to write, trip out of town with my family, and sickness for 5 out of 6 members of my family. But to be honest I must admit that I sometimes used those reasons merely as an excuse not to write on my blog. It was simply easier not to write anything. And yet I know that writing helps me to understand things better and, therefore, to be more effective at communicating with others. Perhaps those who read this blog don't care whether or not I write, but that does not matter. What matters is that I know what is good for me (to write) and yet I neglected to do it.

But because mankind is fallen we all have a tendency to do the same thing. For instance you've probably heard people say, “I just don't have time to pray.” Or, “I'm too tired to go to Sunday Mass.” Or, “I'm just to busy to learn more about the Faith.” And perhaps we are too busy. After all our society teaches us that we must always be 'doing' something in order to be successful. As proof of what I am saying look at how our society forms children: school for 8 hours a day, a couple of hours of homework every night and an endless procession of extra-curricular activities that is basically non-stop, which are all billed as necessary things so you can get into a good college and 'succeed'. (Yes, a good education is an excellent thing to have; but only if it helps to form us into the persons God wants us to be.) But exactly what is it that we are trying to succeed in doing?

Our ultimate goal in this life is come to know and love God with all our heart, soul, and mind and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Anything that keeps us from this ultimate goal is not helping us to be successful. Instead, it is at best a waste of our time and at worst leading us away from God for all eternity. In the end it is not really about what we do with our time but why we are doing it. If what we are doing in our lives leaves us too busy for God then why are we doing it? Why do we keep making excuses to do things that don't really matter? If we are too busy, and it seems to me that many (most? all?) of us are, then let us get rid of those things that don't matter and let us stop making excuses.

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…walk as children of Light

05 Monday Jan 2015

Posted by Fr. Moore in C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, Thought for the Day

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Light of Christ

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

The Weight of Glory, by C.S. Lewis

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Fr. Moore

Fr. Moore

Parochial Vicar Our Lady of the Atonement San Antonio, Texas FrMoore@truthwithboldness.com

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