A week or two ago I mentioned a podcast I’d listened to. The guest was Brother Guy Consolmagno, the director of the Vatican Observatory, and he was speaking about the intersection of faith and science.
The quote in this graphic blew my mind. Conscience gets thrown around a lot, by people across the spectrum. The question of primacy of conscience is one of the many things I’m pondering at this time in my life. And this quote peeled back half a dozen layers.
“A well formed conscience is one that has listened to authority.”
Boy, if that doesn’t twinge your conscience, I don’t know what will.
Intentional Catholic 
Question, Kathleen.
Can authority, hypothetically speaking, be abused?
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No need for a hypothetical. I’d say we’re getting that all the time these days. I have very specific thoughts about this particular reality, but they’re probably too hot for the purpose! 🙂
The trouble is that people on both sides of every disagreement these days would say they *are* listening to authority. The question is who actually IS the authority. People are disregarding whatever authority they don’t care to listen to. I don’t know the answer. I only know what this quote sparked in my heart, because the things I’m struggling with, I *have* listened to authority, and I’m still struggling. That’s why it was eye opening for me personally.
But yes, I’d say people in authority are routinely abusing it. Probably (mostly) with good intentions and a lack of self-awareness. But abusing it nonetheless.
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