Die In at White HouseI have been writing a lot about conscience recently and have started a web page of Quotes on Conscience. This move toward conscience was heightened last week when I was in Washington D.C. with SOAWatch.
Fr. Roy, founder of SOAWatch read a letter to his Maryknoll religious order in front of the Vatican Embassy saying how in conscience he could not renounce his support for women priest and thus was being expelled from the religious order that he had been a member of for 44 years. He already had been excommunicated from the Catholic Church by the Pope for not recanting his participation in an ordination of a woman priest, who now is a dear friend. In his letter he quoted from the present Pope of the Catholic Church who in 1968 as an archbishop said: “Over the pope … there still stands one’s own conscience, which must be obeyed before all else, if necessary, even against the requirement of ecclesiastical authority.”
On Sunday, a week ago, Fr. Roy with the woman priest whose ordination he concelebrated were arrested with others in front of the White House at a “die in” to protest the USA money and training for the militarism of Central and South America.
Dorothy Day, co founder of the Catholic Worker said about the ‘priority of conscience’: “My understanding of the teaching of the Church is that we must follow our conscience, even an erroneous conscience.” Following one’s conscience, like Fr. Roy, can have serious consequences and lead to rejection.
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