To be a Catholic "involves accepting that the Church cannot teach what is wrong in itself", a leading Irish theologian has claimed.
"For a Catholic to act against the clear teaching of the Church, once one knows what that teaching is, is to sin," Fr Vincent Twomey has said.
Former professor of moral theology at St Patrick's College Maynooth, Fr Twomey also studied for seven years in Germany under Pope Benedict when he was a professor there.
Dealing with the issue of informed conscience, he said it was "a term I find to be rather misleading, even when properly used. It tends to imply that all the Church offers is information; one opinion among others, which may be rejected once one has examined the teaching and found it wanting".
He continued: "The Church's teaching is thus misunderstood just as one opinion among others, which, indeed, one should should know about, but then can reject, if one does not agree with it. As a result, a person can then justify anything."
Writing on the theme 'What Is Meant by an Informed Conscience' in the January edition of the Word magazine, of which he is editor-in-chief, Fr Twomey continued that the obedience of faith "includes submission to the Church's teaching authority on faith and morals, irrespective of how little we understand of the reasons why the Church so teaches . . . For a Catholic, one submits to what the Church teaches and uses it as a guide. One trusts the Church's teaching authority".
He said that "one's good sense can be undermined or made uncertain by misconceptions that gain currency in the dominant culture one finds oneself in, as is the case in the so-called advanced societies of the western world today.
"Good sense can also be too vague to be useful with regard to more refined acts or new moral dilemmas, as in bioethics. In these cases, the Church's teaching has a prophetic role. It confirms the truth that people of integrity in every society have recognised as right or wrong and it clarifies what may be clouded by one's culture."