What is Abuse of Conscience?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ย. 2024
- This week, Paul and Dominic dive into a specific type of spiritual abuse, the abuse of conscience. An individual’s conscience is their innermost sanctuary where they are alone with God. However, that sanctuary can be invaded and violated by the malicious and the careless. Paul and Dominic give examples of what this kind of abuse looks like and how common it is. So common that, at times, the abuse of conscience is presumed to be the orthodox way of practicing the faith.
“We also find it hard to make room for the consciences of the faithful, who very often respond as best they can to the Gospel amid their limitations, and are capable of carrying out their own discernment in complex situations. We have been called to form consciences, not to replace them.” (Amoris Laetitia 37)
LINKS
PFG episode about conscience:
www.popefranci...
The Place Where You Stand is Holy Ground: Recognizing and Preventing Spiritual Abuse in the Catholic Church:
wherepeteris.c...
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Pope Francis Generation is the show for Catholics struggling with the Church’s teaching, who feel like they might not belong in the Church anymore, and who still hunger for a God of love and goodness. Hosted by Paul Fahey, a professional catechist, and Dominic de Souza, someone who needs catechesis. Together, we’re taking our own look at the Catholic Church- her teachings and practices- from 3 views that changed our world: the Kerygma, the forgotten doctrine of theosis, and the teachings of Pope Francis. Together, with you, we’re the Pope Francis Generation.
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ABOUT PAUL FAHEY
Paul lives in Michigan with his wife, Kristina, and five kids. A catechist, retreat leader, counseling student, as well as a contributor and co-founder of Where Peter Is. Paul writes and speaks about what he loves: the Kerygma, the Sacraments, Catholic Social Teaching, and Pope Francis. pfahey.com/
ABOUT DOMINIC DE SOUZA
SmartCatholics founder, Dominic de Souza, is a convert from radical traditionalism - inspired by WherePeterIs, Bishop Robert Barron, and Pope Francis. He is passionate about helping ordinary Catholics break the ‘bystander effect’, and be firstresponders. “We don’t have to be geniuses. We just have to show up with witness and kindness. Christ does the rest.” Today he hosts the SmartCatholics community. smartcatholics...
Beautiful dialogue, thank you both! Karen Dear
Truly wish I had this podcast years ago. It would have helped me to never previously leave the church.
Very glad it's helpful for you, friend! It's one way we're trying to make sense of it all. :)
Thank you guys so much for shining the light on this. I have so, so many examples I could share. Toward the end you touch on one that bothered me a lot: we were told if we didn’t bring our kids to confession at least monthly, we (the parents) would probably go to hell. Whether they needed to go didn’t factor in.
My family ultimately left that parish when it was made clear that we were expected to share the anti-vax and anti-mask opinions of the pastor and the majority of parishioners, or else we were idiots. There was also pressure to homeschool and have many kids, among other things. I never felt good enough and didn’t have much hope for my salvation.
I'm so sorry that was your experience :(
Great video guys! So an example of abuse of conscious. My sister, although married with kids now, was once told by some Legionary nuns that if she did not join them she might go to hell, because It’s “Gods Will”. This traumatized her for a while. Pretty messed up.
yes, thats awful.
I knew a priest who seemed to be trained to keep consciences fresh. In his case, I didn’t see it as abuse. I saw it as someone trying to strengthen our consciences by helping us exercise them. So, there can be “Conscience Management” which is not conscience abuse, in my opinion.
Greetings from Mexico. It's great that you're addressing the issue of abuse of conscience. It's a complex but tremendously necessary discussion in the Catholic Church, especially in relation to abuses of power, abuses of authority, and spiritual abuses, without which it's difficult for sexual abuses to occur in ecclesiastical contexts. Could you delve deeper into the relationship between abuse of conscience and other types of abuse?
Thanks for joining us, friend. Have a lool at the playlist for this podcast - we just might have done what you're asking!
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But let’s make sure we don’t discourage children from seeking knowledge of Scripture, the Word. We must take in knowledge, including rules, that we may know what is to be put into action and habit. So memorizing these things is fine so long as the goal is not to be seen as knowledgeable, but known as holy after the example of Jesus Christ. Also, let’s not downplay the respect a child ought to show toward those who are wise!
When speaking on teaching another person about what the church teaches, do you think that there is a bit of grey area as well, since a teacher has to use his own powers of reason to interpret the teachings of the church in various and individual circumstances?
In reference to 58:19
Thats almost always going to be the case, because we have to figure out where a person is and their capacity to hear. And thats why accompaniment is a virtue we practice, the same way Christ and the Church accompanies us through our own misinterpretations and stumbling for the light.
I think we can summarize this discussion with Jesus’s law against judging others. While an act can be objectively mortally sinful, we may not know a person’s a) knowledge nor b) intention or motivation or context. So, the act is still sinful - wrong, but the actor is not necessarily doomed to Hell.
It can be objectively grave matter. It’s almost impossible to know that another person has satisfied the three requirements of mortal sin. And yet that is frequently, purposely misrepresented because it’s easier to just scare everyone.
@@jenniferrobertscreative Most catechized Catholics should be afraid to sin grievously because Sacred Scripture expressly states that the consequences will or can be eternally really, really bad and irreversible. Should any one person accuse and rule on another's act? No; that would be a violation of the Law of Not Judging. Should any one knowledgeable person who witnesses a grievously sinful act counsel the subject of the act? Yes; should at least suggest the sacrament of reconciliation, right?
I'd be interested how these gentlemen would approach the Spiritual Work of Mercy: "Admonish the sinner." Of course, we need to be aware of our own log first etc. But this injunction is regarded as a mercy.
That’s not what they’re talking about. There’s a big difference between admonishing someone when what they are doing is objectively sinful and/or where there is an actual teaching of the church that says it is wrong that you can specifically refer to versus doing it over something that you personally don’t like or approve of but is not either of the things I just mentioned. The problem is that a lot of the time, it’s the latter, and people try to use threat of damnation to compel others’ consciences to conform to their erroneous ideas of what is and is not actually sinful. And many times it is done in an extremely uncharitable way that is not going to make the person they are admonishing want to be anything like them let alone listen to what they have to say.
It’s also important to keep in mind that unless we are Padre Pio, we are not privy to what is going on in people’s hearts nor do we know all the background or circumstances surrounding a particular action we might observe somebody doing.
I like what the Baltimore Catechism says:
Q. When are we bound to admonish the sinner?
A. We are bound to admonish the sinner when the following conditions are fulfilled: (1) When his fault is a mortal sin; (2) When we have authority or influence over him, and (3) When there is reason to believe that our warning will not make him worse instead of better.
@@musiclist4792 Fair enough