Rhamiel
Member of the Round Table
Have you read Benedict XVI's explication of it? Primacy of Conscience does not imply that we can ignore Church teaching and it does not allow us to confuse longings of the flesh with genuine concern of conscience. Yet it is true that if you concience tells us that something as wrong, we must follow it.
Let me ask you this. If you lived during the age when the church thought the burning to death of heretics was ok, and you were convinced that such malicious torture was wrong, what would you follow? The predominant view of the Church that this was morally justified, or you conscience that said this was wrong?
Likewise, I find it morally repugnant to tell a woman, who's doctor has told her that another pregnancy could kill her, that she can't use non-abortive contraceptive methods to prevent pregnancy. Considering Paul, in 1 Corinthians 7, tells husbands and wives to not deny each other their "conjugal rights", ordering them to simply abstain from sex does not suffice. In such conditions I see non-abortive contraception as morally justifiable. In such cases we must follow our conscience, and I am convinced that such a couple is NOT in sin for using such methods. The same goes for poor or even destitute couples for whom NFP is not effective.
Did they? I think the most common excuse during the Nuremburg Trials was that they were following orders. So in fact, the problem was that they were not following their conscience, they were merely following orders. Much like some extremely conservative Catholics who think it heresy to ever disagree with the Church on something, would have us to do. Blind obedience without concern for critical thought or one's conscience is usually a recipe for disaster.
why would I side with heretics over the Church?
sorry, just having a hard time getting into the mindset of your hypothetical question, heretics caused social unrest and led other humans to eternal damnation
1 Corinthians 7 tells husbands and wives to not deny each other,
I am not telling them to deny each other, if they want to have sex, they can choose to have sex
now if they think that the risks to their health or that they can not afford more kids and NFP is not enough of a guarantee, they can choose not to have sex
1 Corinthians 7 says nothing about birth control being permissible
sex is naturally unitive and procreative, to remove the procreative aspect turns it into an unnatural act, to have two people use each other in such a base fashion is not loving, it is taking advantage the other person, and is a selfish act
it boogles the mind that any Christian would try and say such a thing is good
as for the Nuremburg issue, yes they used the excuse of "I was only following orders" because they wanted an excuse that made sense
the defense strategy of "well at the time it did not seem to be wrong" would not have worked at all
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