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"You must be the change you want to see in the world."
Mohandas Gandhi |
On Conscience:
"Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person
recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to
perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed."
(CCC 1778)
"In the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does not
impose upon himself, but which holds him to obedience. Always
summoning him to love good and avoid evil, the voice of conscience when
necessary speaks to his heart: do this, shun that. For man
has in his heart a law written by God. To obey it is the very
dignity of man; according to it he will be judged." (Gaudium et
Spes 16)
"Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a man.
There he is alone with God, whose voice echoes in his depths. In a
wonderful manner conscience reveals that law which is fulfilled by love
of God and neighbor." (Gaudium et Spes 16)
Pope John Paul II
On Freedom, Conscience and the Human Person:
"It is essential that we be convinced of the priority of the ethical
over the technical, of the primacy of the person over things, of the
superiority of the spirit over matter. The cause of the human
person will only be served if knowledge is joined to conscience. Men and
women of science will truly aid humanity only if they preserve 'the
sense of the transcendence of the human person over the world and of God
over the human person.' " (Ex Corde Ecclesiae)
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"Because we love,
God is present."
(Thomas Merton)
"Authentic freedom is never freedom 'from' the truth but always
freedom 'in' the truth." (Veritatis Splendor 64)
"Detached from the truth about the human person, freedom deteriorates
into license in the lives of individuals, and in political life it
becomes the caprice of the most powerful and the arrogance of power.
Far from being a limitation upon freedom or a threat to it, reference to
the truth about the human person--a truth universally knowable through
the moral law written on the heart of all--is, in fact, the guarantor of
freedom's future." (Speech to UN General Assembly 1995)
"We need to begin with the renewal of a culture of life within
Christian communities themselves. Too often it happens that
believers, even those who take an active part in the life of the Church,
end up by separating their Christian faith from its ethical requirements
concerning life, and thus fall into moral subjectivism and certain
objectionable ways of acting. . . . The first and fundamental step towards this cultural transformation
consists in forming consciences with regard to the incomparable and
inviolable worth of every human life. It is of the greatest
importance to re-establish the essential connection between life and
freedom. These are inseparable goods: where one is violated,
the other also ends up being violated. There is no true freedom
where life is not welcomed and loved; and there is no fullness of life
except in freedom. Both realities have something inherent and
specific which links them inextricably: the vocation to love.
Love, as a sincere gift of self, is what gives the life and freedom of
the person their truest meaning."(Evangelium Vitae)
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