{"id":32592,"date":"2017-11-17T14:52:46","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T06:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/home\/?p=32592"},"modified":"2017-11-17T14:52:46","modified_gmt":"2017-11-17T06:52:46","slug":"couples-need-help-forming-following-their-consciences-pope-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/2017\/11\/17\/couples-need-help-forming-following-their-consciences-pope-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Couples need help forming, following their consciences, pope says"},"content":{"rendered":"[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”off” sticky=”off” align=”left” force_fullwidth=”on” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” src=”http:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/vatican_couplespope.jpg” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Image Caption” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” text_font=”Arial||||” text_font_size=”12″ text_line_height=”1.3em” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_padding=”||30px|”]\n

Twenty-one couples celebrate their convalidation ceremony at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Alexandria, Va., June 24. The Catholic Church must strengthen its programs \u201cto respond to the desire for family that emerges in the soul of the young generations\u201d and to help couples once they are married, Pope Francis said Nov. 11 in Rome.\u00a0TYLER ORSBURN\/CNS<\/strong><\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]\n

VATICAN\u2014 Marriage and family life are blessings for individuals and for society, but both are filled with difficult choices that Catholic couples must be helped to face prayerfully and in the light of their consciences, Pope Francis said.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, too many people today confuse a rightly formed conscience with personal preferences dominated by selfishness, the pope said in a video message to an Italian meeting on \u201cAmoris Laetitia,\u201d his exhortation on the family.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe contemporary world risks confusing the primacy of conscience, which is always to be respected, with the exclusive autonomy of the individual\u201d even when the individual\u2019s decisions impact his or her marriage and family life, the pope said.<\/p>\n

Repeating a remark he had made to the Pontifical Academy for Life, Pope Francis said, \u201cThere are those who even speak of \u2018egolatry,\u2019 that is, the true worship of the ego on whose altar everything, including the dearest affections, are sacrificed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Confusing conscience with selfishness \u201cis not harmless,\u201d the pope said. \u201cThis is a \u2018pollution\u2019 that corrodes souls and confounds minds and hearts, producing false illusions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The conference sponsored by the Italian bishops\u2019 conference was focused on \u201cconscience and norm\u201d in Pope Francis\u2019 apostolic exhortation.<\/p>\n

Diagnosing problems in the church\u2019s outreach to married couples and families, Pope Francis had written, \u201cWe have long thought that simply by stressing doctrinal, bioethical and moral issues, without encouraging openness to grace, we were providing sufficient support to families, strengthening the marriage bond and giving meaning to marital life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also find it hard to make room for the consciences of the faithful, who very often respond as best they can to the Gospel amid their limitations, and are capable of carrying out their own discernment in complex situations,\u201d he wrote in \u201cAmoris Laetitia.\u201d \u201cWe have been called to form consciences, not to replace them.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his message to the meeting Nov. 11 in Rome, Pope Francis said the Catholic Church must strengthen its programs \u201cto respond to the desire for family that emerges in the soul of the young generations\u201d and to help couples once they are married.<\/p>\n

\u201cLove between a man and a woman is obviously among the most generative human experiences; it is the leaven of a culture of encounter, and introduces to the present world an injection of sociality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Marriage and family life are \u201cthe most effective antidote against the individualism that currently runs rampant,\u201d he said, but it does not do one any good to pretend that marriage and family life are free from situations requiring difficult choices.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the domestic reality, sometimes there are concrete knots to be addressed with prudent conscience on the part of each,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is important that spouses, parents, not be left alone, but accompanied in their commitment to applying the Gospel to the concreteness of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conscience, he said, always has God\u2019s desire for the human person as its ultimate reference point.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the very depths of each one of us, there is a place wherein the \u2018Mystery\u2019 reveals itself, and illuminates the person, making the person the protagonist of his story,\u201d he said. \u201cConscience, as the Second Vatican Council recalls, is this \u2018most secret core and sanctuary of a man. There he is alone with God, whose voice echoes in his depths.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Each Christian, the pope said, must be \u201cvigilant so that in this kind of tabernacle there is no lack of divine grace, which illuminates and strengthens married love and the parental mission.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Cindy Wooden \/ CNS<\/strong><\/p>\n

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In his message to the meeting Nov. 11 in Rome, Pope Francis said the Catholic Church must strengthen its programs \u201cto respond to the desire for family that emerges in the soul of the young generations\u201d and to help couples once they are married.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vatican-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Ootw-8tG","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aranzazushrine.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/vatican_couplespope.jpg?fit=1000%2C800&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32592"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32594,"href":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32592\/revisions\/32594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}