Conscience
The Church promotes the role of conscienceAn inner sense (or 'voice') which communicates what is right or wrong in one's behaviour. in establishing right and wrong actions, and applying and understanding natural law.
Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil...
Catholicism teaches that:
- conscience can be described as the voice of God within each individual
- conscience has to be listened to and used alongside reason to make decisions
- a conscience must be educated, through prayer, study of scriptureA piece of writing that has religious significance. and experience
- an uneducated conscience can lead to misunderstandings and misinterpretation of issues
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.
Virtues
To become a morally good person, the Catholic Church teaches that individuals should become virtuousHaving good or moral characteristics or qualities.. This means adopting virtues which allow the person to develop attitudes and habits that result in good moral decisions being made. The Church teaches that there are seven virtues made up of four cardinal virtuesThe basic four virtues required to lead a life of virtue. They are temperance, justice, prudence and fortitude/courage. and three theological virtueA good or moral characteristic or quality, that is associated with the study of God..
The four cardinal virtues are:
- prudence 鈥 saying and acting in the appropriate manner at the appropriate time
- justice 鈥 seeks equality, rewards goodness and punishes evil
- fortitude 鈥 courage and perseverance to do what is good and right
- temperance - moderation, having fun whilst avoiding sin. Finding the 鈥榤iddle road鈥
The three theological virtues are:
- faith 鈥 gift of belief in God
- hope 鈥 desire and trust in the afterlife with God
- charity 鈥 love of God and love of neighbour
The belief is that these virtues differ from the cardinal virtues as they are received as a gift from God.
Sin
Sin can be defined as going against the will of God. But sin and crime are not necessarily always the same thing.
Many acts that a religion might class as a sin would not be considered a crime under law.