The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 240: Erroneous Judgment of Conscience (2025)

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

It is possible for our moral conscience to remain in ignorance for a variety of reasons. Fr. Mike delves into the sources of errors of judgment in moral conduct and how habitual sin blinds our conscience. As we wrap up this article, Fr. Mike reminds us that a well-formed conscience sets us free and gives us the power to do what we ought. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1790-1802. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism in a year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us revealed in scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 240. We're reading paragraphs 1790 to 1802 is a little bit of nuggets in there today. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith Approach. You can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your

own cacism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash CIY, and you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Today's Day 240. I just want to have a quick thank you for all those who have supported the production of this podcast with your prayers, your financial gifts. Literally, literally, we couldn't do this without you. We couldn't get to Day 240. That's. for sure. Reading paragraphs, as I said, 1790 to 1802, what we're talking about today is an erroneous judgment. We always must obey the certain judgment of our conscience. If we were deliberately act against it, we condemn ourselves. Okay, so that's the key, though. We have to always obey the

certain judgment of our conscience. If I knew something would be the wrong thing to do, I was completely convinced of this. I knew it would be the wrong thing to do, and if I deliberately acted against that, I would be condemning myself. And yet, it can happen that the moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgments. Because we're talking about that today, let us open ourselves to the Holy Spirit and call upon God, our Father, in Jesus' name, to send that Spirit among us. Let's pray now. Father in heaven, we give you praise. We give you glory. We ask you to please open our minds so that we can truly apprehend the truth. We can truly apprehend the good, the beautiful, and give us hearts that are in wills that are strong and courageous, that can actually choose what we know is true

and refuse to do what we know is evil. Help us always to turn away from evil, even in small ways, Lord God. There are some things that are obviously evil, some things that we would say are beyond the pale. We would never choose those. Lord, we ask you to please, help us to choose against those when they're small.

Help us to choose against those when they're little. Help us to choose against those when we just tolerate evil in our lives. Help us to not tolerate evil in our lives. The evil that we not only tolerate, but sometimes we delight in. help us to never do that help us to delight in you help us to delight in virtue help us to delight in truth and goodness and beauty in jesus name we pray amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the

holy spirit amen it is day 240 we are reading paragraphs 1790 to 1802 erroneous judgment a human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience if he were deliberately to act against it he would condemn himself yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgments about acts to be performed or already committed. This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin. In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits. Ignorance of Christ and his gospel, bad example given to others,

enslavement to one's passions. Assertion of a mistaken notion of autonomy of conscience, rejection of the church's authority and our teaching, lack of conversion and of charity, these can be at the source of errors of judgment and moral conduct. If, on the contrary, the ignorance is invincible, or the moral subject is not responsible for his erroneous judgment, the evil committed by the person cannot be imputed to him. It remains no less an evil, a privation, a disorder. One must, therefore, work to correct the errors of moral conscience. A good and pure conscience is enlightened by true faith,

for charity proceeds at the same time from a pure heart in a good conscience and sincere faith. As Gaudi Matspez states, the more a correct conscience prevails, the more do persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and try to be guided by objective standards of moral conduct. In brief. Conscience is man's most secret core and a sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths. Conscience is a judgment of reason by which the human person

recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act. For the man who has committed evil, the verdict of his conscience remains a pledge of conversion and of hope. A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful. It formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good wielded by the wisdom of the Creator. Everyone must avail himself of the means to form his conscience. Faced with a moral choice, conscience can make either a right judgment in accordance with reason and the divine law, or on the contrary, an erroneous judgment that departs from them. A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. Conscience can remain in ignorance or make erroneous judgments.

Such ignorance and errors are not always free of guilt. The Word of God is a light for our path. We must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. This is how moral conscience is formed. All right, there it is, erroneous judgment. So a couple assertions and a couple dangers, right? We're looking at this first paragraph 1790. It says this, as we said at the very intro,

a human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. So if I know something is true, right? If I know something is wrong, if I know something is good and know something is evil, I have to. That's certain judgment. I know this to be true. If I were to deliberately act against it, I would condemn myself, right? Because I would be doing what I knew was false.

We mentioned this yesterday. That person I mentioned who looked at it, he examined his own life and he realized that the majority of what he would say in a course of a daily basis was not true. He did not truly believe this. And he realized that in doing that, he is making himself weaker because he was saying things he didn't even believe. He was condemning himself, right? He was speaking against what he knew it was true already. At the same time, it says this, yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgment about acts to be performed or already committed.

So we recognize that we have to follow the certain judgment of our conscience. At the same time, our moral conscience can remain in ignorance. We can make erroneous judgments. Therefore, this ignorance, If we don't know the true, the good, the beautiful, that can be imputed to one's personal responsibility. It actually could be the case that, yeah, I didn't know that, but I had every opportunity to know it. I didn't know that, but it was my job to know it. Maybe I have to share this example before one of our students at one point got pulled over for speeding, essentially. And the officer said, you know, this is a 30 mile an hour zone. And she said, but I didn't know it was 30 miles an hour.

And the reality, of course, is if you're driving, it's your job to know. If you're driving, it's your job to know the speed limit. And that's why the catachshund quotes Gaudi met spes and says, this is the case. You know, it's our fault. If I'm ignorant and it's my fault, it says, it's going to be the case when a person takes little trouble to find out what is true and good. Think about that. Think about that.

Man, how many times like, that's fine? I'm sure that's fine. And have I ever thought about it? Remember yesterday's big question? Like, well, I think this is good. I think this is bad. Okay, give me a reason. What's the reason why you think this is good?

What's the reason why you think this is bad? Like, I don't know. I just, this is what people say, right? That's what our culture says. That's what I want to be true. And our ignorance can be our fault when we take little trouble to find out what is true and good. Or it says this, I don't know if it's even worse, but it's also the case. Or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded to the habit of committing sin.

We realize that sin can make us blind, right? Sin can make us deaf. Sin can make us numb. In fact, I remember someone, the preacher who once said something along the lines, he highlighted the fact that some people were saying, oh, you know, sin pricked my conscience. And this man said, actually, that doesn't happen. Sin doesn't prick your conscience. Sin deadens your conscience.

As it says here, sin can blind our conscience. Sin can deafen our conscience. He said, God pricks your conscience. God is the one who helps us see. God is the one helps us here. God is the one who wakens us up. Sin blinds, deafens, and numbs our conscience. And if this is the case, if I've taken little trouble to find out what is true,

and good. Or when by degrees, my conscience is almost blinded to the habit of committing sin, then I'm culpable for the evil I commit because it was my job to know. I'm alive. I'm a human being. I'm a rational human being. I'm rational being made in God's image and likeness. It's my job to find out what the truth, the good and the beautiful is. And if I choose against the truth, the good and the beautiful life, if I choose the uncle, if I choose the evil, and I become blinded, that's my fault. Now, some other things that can be at the heart of our errors of judgment. The things are going to be at the heart of our male-formed conscience is in paragraph 1792. It says ignorance of Christ and his gospel.

Those are some of the things that just, yeah, I didn't know that was the true, the good, and the beautiful. I didn't know that was the right thing to do. Others, bad example given by others. I surround myself by people who, or even I've never even had choice, right? Maybe it was people that was raised by. Maybe it was the people that just kind of happened to falling with. It wasn't even, again, my decision. It just happened to be there.

But the bad example given by others, that can be a source of errors of judgment. enslavement to one's passions. Remember we talked about the passions before, right? Those passions are meant to be the driver, right? The engine in us. It gives us the fuel to reach out to the true, the good, and the beautiful. But so often the passions aren't merely that fuel. The passions are the things we choose, the thing we follow as opposed to being guided by our intellect and moved by our will.

We're just moved by those desires. And we can become enslaved to those things. There's the next one. It says assertion of a mistaken notion of autonomy of conscience, meaning I don't need any guidance. I can figure it out myself. I don't need to be taught. I don't need to be formed. I think this is the case.

Therefore, it is the case. The next one is connected to it. Rejection of the church's authority and her teaching. That can be a source of my error and judgment. The last one here is lack of conversion and charity. Lack of conversion and lack of love. That I haven't actually been conformed to even wanting to be like Jesus. Or maybe I just lack love.

Remember what love is? Love is willing the good of the evil. other. And maybe I know the good, I know the true, I know the beautiful. I just don't care, right? I have a lack of love. And therefore, yeah, this is at the source of maybe my error of judgment and moral conduct. Now, last thing, there are times where our ignorance is invincible. Yep, I didn't know that. In knowing my story, there's no way I could have known that. There's no way I should have known that. So my ignorance is what they call invincible. Or, you know, I'm not responsible for my erroneous judgment for whatever reason my culpability right my culpability has been mitigated maybe even eradicated now at the same

time it says this judgment remains no less in evil it's still a privation it's still a disorder and i have to therefore work to correct that i have to continue to go about the process of formation of my conscience therefore no one's off the hook even if my ignorance is invincible even if there are things in my life that are happening that make it so my guilt my culpability right has mitigated all of us are called to become virtuous. Not because this is a straight jacket, but because we're called to be free. Remember, virtue is a call an invitation to be free. To have a formed conscience is an invitation to be free, to be strong, to be courageous, to be powerful in this world, as strong as possible in this world. That's what virtue is. It is not a straight jacket that binds us. It is the power. Remember freedom.

It is the power to do what we ought. And to have that power, think about this. Imagine your life like this, if you had the power to do what you ought, how incredibly free you would feel. Like we mentioned yesterday, you wouldn't be afraid. If you had the power to do what you ought, you would have joy. And that's what God wants for us. That's what the church wants for us when we talk about this erroneous judgment. Yes, we have to always obey the certain judgment of our conscience. And yet, we have to make sure that that conscience has been and is being formed. That is the great invitation that the church puts out to us tomorrow. I mentioned the word virtues about a thousand times today. Well, tomorrow we're going to talk about Article 7, which is beginning to talk about the virtues, which is just, you guys, I'm telling you right now, you're going to love it.

Until then, I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.