Avant-propos - Studia Moralia

THE BASIC GOODS THEORY AND REVISIONISM 183
conscience 42 and to ignore history. First, Christian tradition has
consistently defended the authority of conscience in moral matters.
AQUINAS writes regarding the application of knowledge to
action, “conscience is said to bind by force of the divine precept.”
43 That is, as long as one acts according to one’s well
formed and informed conscience, even in the case of invincible
ignorance and an erroneous judgment of conscience, that conscience
maintains its dignity. 44 While it certainly is the case that
one who informs one’s conscience according to the noninfallible
authoritative teachings of the magisterium is not morally culpable
if this teaching is erroneous, it does not follow that, given serious
reasons that conflict with the claims of those teachings,
one who acts against them is morally culpable. Revisionists argue
that while there is always a strong presumption of truth in
favor of magisterial teaching, if there are serious reasons for
questioning that teaching, one can indeed knowingly and willingly
act against such a teaching on the authority of conscience.
One only need look at the history of the Church to see that, especially
in questions of morals, the magisterium has erred on
noninfallible judgments, even grievously. 45 POPE JOHN PAUL II’s recent
acknowledgement of the sins of the sons of the Church
would seen to attest to this fact. 46 If individual Christians err, including
those acting in a magisterial capacity, it is proof not of
the limits of the Holy Spirit but of the limits of human beings to
respond faithfully to the Spirit. All human beings, including
members of the magisterium, are subject to sin and its impact
on the discernment of truth. And while the Church as a whole
42 Code of Canon Law c. 752 and the commentary 548.
43
AQUINAS, De Veritate, q. 17, a. 3. See JOHN MAHONEY, The Making of
Moral Theology: A Study of the Roman Catholic Tradition (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1987) 192.
44
POPE JOHN PAUL II, Veritatis Splendor par. 62; and The Universal Catechism
of the Catholic Church (Rome: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1994) par.
1793.
45
NOONAN, “Development in Moral Doctrine”.
46
JOHN PAUL II, “Jubilee Characteristic: The Purification of Memory,”
Origins 29/40 (March 23, 2000) 648-50. See also, INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL
COMMISSION, “Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and Faults of the
Past,” Origins 29/39 (March 16, 2000) 626-44.