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Document Details :

Title: Gaudium et Spes and Dignitatis Humanae on Conscience
Subtitle: A Forgotten Concept of Vatican II?
Author(s): LAWLER, Michael G. , SALZMAN, Todd A.
Journal: Louvain Studies
Volume: 40    Issue: 2   Date: 2017   
Pages: 153-169
DOI: 10.2143/LS.40.2.3220912

Abstract :
This paper explores the authority and inviolability of conscience in Gaudium et Spes and Dignitatis Humanae. It then highlights three tensions in the texts, two models on the nature of conscience that result from these tensions, and argues that since Vatican II, during the pontificates of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, tradition’s claims on the inviolability of a well-formed conscience have been largely forgotten and, at times, even violated. It also proposes steps, which Pope Francis has initiated, that must be taken to regain the authority and inviolability of conscience and return it to its proper place in the Catholic tradition.

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