CATHOLICS & CONSCIENCE

The Catholic Church is finding fewer young men are interested in becoming priests, and critics within their own ranks are complaining that the Catholic Church is out of touch:

YOUNG people are being turned off the priesthood by an increasingly autocratic and doctrinaire Catholic Church that is out of touch with the 21st century, according to a leading Jesuit.

Director of the Jesuit Social Justice Centre, Father Frank Brennan, said the push by Catholic conservatives for greater Vatican control was driving people away from the church.

"All of us need to accept that the revolution in sexuality has left many people, especially young people, completely uninterested in the views of an all-male, unmarried clergy," he said.

Of course, I have all sorts of Biblical problems with the Catholic Church and its priesthood, but I find internal struggles within it an odd thing. It seems to me if you sign up for the Catholic Church then you are ipso facto signing up for its tradition, rules and authority structure. If you don't like those things, then, well, don't be a Catholic. For example, as someone who doesn't agree with them, I'm not a Catholic.

Brennan, it seems, is leading a charge for letting the conscience be one's guide. That's one of those modern concepts that always sounds good, but basically boils down to "I will do whatever I want to do and call it my conscience":

Describing his battle with Archbishop George Pell over the issue of the primacy of conscience as a "war at arm's length", Father Brennan said the clergy needed to consider their consciences ahead of church law....

The theologi cal debate over the primacy of conscience -- the idea that a person must follow the dictates of conscience rather than being mechanically obedient to the church -- has opened a deep fissure in the church, with sections of the Jesuit community openly critical of Dr Pell.

The Archbishop did not respond to The Australian yesterday, but earlier this year he delivered a broadside against a "neo-pagan or secular" reading of primacy of conscience.

He said the church had to clearly differentiate between conscience and a mere wish, and should dump the doctrine.

"It is interesting that few argue that if your conscience instructs you to be racist or weak on social issues, it is acceptable to be so," Dr Pell said.

To illustrate the point, he said a parishioner -- who had asked whether it was wrong to take Holy Communion if a person had been regularly sleeping with his girlfriend -- was told by a theologian to follow his conscience.

Pell hits the nail on the head, of course. "Conscience" isn't the guide when it disagrees with the liberal agenda, but when it does, by all means have at it!