Saturday, April 16, 2011

Tideous, but worth it

Hello friends,
May you be Open to God as He blesses each of you. Lord bless me as I write this blog, to connect to the HS' will, and thus Your Will. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
To continue with my thoughts from my previous blog, more definitions and thoughts:
I am still quoting Bruce Sabalasky, and his website, www.ourladyswarriors.org, regarding “Freedom of Conscience”…that no one can be forced against his/her will to believe one thing or another. Only the individual person has the right to choose his/her beliefs. Yes, that means that even the 100% Truth of Catholic beliefs cannot be forced onto a person. Canon Law confirms this:
Can. 748 ß2 "It is never lawful for anyone to force others to embrace the Catholic faith against their conscience."
"However," continues Mr. Sabalasky, "this does not imply that one can believe anything and act accordingly, especially if one claims to be Catholic. As clearly stated previously, Vatican II Dignitatis Humanae tells us "In the formation of their consciences, the Christian faithful ought carefully to attend to the sacred and certain doctrine of the Church."
"Jesus' teachings as transmitted through His Church provide us the real freedom - the freedom from sin and eternal death (i.e. loss of salvation)."
I am certainly attempting to carefully attend to the “sacred and certain doctrine” of the Church.
Another site that was helpful to me in my search for truth in scrutinizing being pro-choice was Douglas McManaman’s site, www.catholiceducation.org; Douglas is a high school religion teacher. Here he is speaking of In Vitro Fertilization, and 'erroneous conscience.'
“If, for example, a Catholic claims to be able to choose In Vitro Fertilization in good conscience while knowing that the Church teaches that such an option is morally wrong, it must mean that he or she is convinced that it would be sinful not to choose that option. That would certainly constitute an erroneous conscience; nevertheless, he or she would be obliged to obey it.”
McManaman continues saying, that most people do not claim ‘erroneous conscience’ when acting contrary to Catholic teaching.
“But conscience does not mean that Catholics are free to act on the basis of what they personally judge is morally right in spite of Church teaching. Catholic conversion, as the etymology of “conversion” indicates, means a complete turn around (vertere), implying movement in a new direction in conjunction with (con) the community of Christ’s Mystical Body. As St. Paul says: “We all were among them too in the past, living sensual lives, ruled entirely by our own physical desires and our own ideas” (Eph 2, 3).
What I take from this is the fact that I can claim 'erroneous conscience' for being pro-choice, but that Christ calls us to something greater; I need to be 'unguarded', as it were, to what Christ is delivering to me, through His Church. The Church is pro-life. No exceptions, either. The Catholic Church opposes War, the Death Penalty, and Euthanasia. I like that...
Okay, reader, just a little more, and then I'll wrap things up...

"I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world." Mother Theresa

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