Bretzke and Conscience

James Bretzke did not take the position that Richard describes. Father Bretzke maintains, as did Aquinas and the Catechism, that a person is morally bound to follow his or her conscience. He does not maintain that following one’s conscience is a guarantee of correctness. As he puts it, “It is the constant teaching of the Church that an individual always follow his or her conscience, even when that conscience might be in “objective” error on what is morally right.” He, of course, recognizes the obligation to form and inform our consciences and discusses the obligation at some length. What he rejects is the view (which he attributes to Grisez) that we are obliged in virtually every situation to follow the Magisterium instead of our conscience.