TRUE OBEDIENCE TO THE HOLY SPIRIT / PARAMATMA, THE LORD OF THE HEART
Ultimately try to grasp the profound Catholic Doctrine of the individual’s ‘Primacy Of Conscience’! This Doctrine derives, of course, from the Church’s teaching of the Divine Revelation of the Holy Spirit’s (Param-Atma’s) Personal Presence-to, and Relationship-with Every Finite (Jiva Atma) Soul-Self.
Even the very so-called conservative Pope Benedict the 16th famously taught the Universal Ccatholic Apostolic (Jesus Christ’s Guru-Shastra-Sadhu Sampradaya) Doctrine of the ‘Primacy of Conscience’.
IS POPE FRANCIS A SO-CALLED ‘LIBERAL’ OR A CONSERVATIVE’, OR SOMETHING ELSE?
IN 1968 POPE BENEDICT XVI WROTE:
“Over the pope as the expression of the binding claim of ecclesiastical authority there still stands one’s own conscience, which must be obeyed before all else, if necessary even against the requirement of ecclesiastical authority. Conscience confronts [the individual] with a supreme and ultimate tribunal, and one which in the last resort is beyond the claim of external social groups, even of the official church.”
HERE IS THE ABOVE QUOTE IN CONTEXT…
…One might ask the same questions about our emeritus pope, Benedict XVI. Notorious among progressives in the Catholic Church as “God’s Rottweiler” during his tenure as prefect of the C.D.F., he was beloved by Catholic traditionalists. But if those traditionalists in the United States were Republicans, they probably did not like (or ignored) the fact that he was the most environmentally friendly pope in history, often called “The Green Pope” for his support of government legislation and policies to curb environmental devastation. Similarly, those who remember him as a doctrinal enforcer sometimes forget that he also once wrote the following:
Over the pope as the expression of the binding claim of ecclesiastical authority there still stands one’s own conscience, which must be obeyed before all else, if necessary even against the requirement of ecclesiastical authority. Conscience confronts [the individual] with a supreme and ultimate tribunal, and one which in the last resort is beyond the claim of external social groups, even of the official church.
Read that again. Joseph Ratzinger wrote that in 1968. What is going on here? Was Pope Benedict XVI actually Hans Küng in disguise?
So this very clear statement of the ‘cCatholic ‘Doctrine of the Faith’ affirms that “over the Pope” Himself, the Catholic Devotees of Jesus Christ must first obey their own ‘conscience’! If this was followed, no initiated Devotees would be ‘sinning against the Holy Spirit’ by following the illicit orders of a false or fallen Guru. It is the same for Soldiers, who must not follow the illegal orders of their Superiors. A competent adult’s ‘informed conscience’ must be obeyed, because as an individual they have a personal moral responsibility for their sins of commission or omission. No one can excuse their sins by saying the Devil or the Pope or their Commanding Officer ‘told them to do it’. No one escapes their personal responsibility by saying that what they did was ordered or sanctioned by their corrupting Guru, Superior Officer or Boss!
Justice demands that any mitigating circumstances, which have modified the individual’s culpability, must be considered. Thus Divine Justice and Divine Mercy are both equally served when any mitigating circumstances have been properly considered.
Sinning in the Holy Name of God, who only desires to be worshiped in the Sattvic and Benevolent ‘Mode of Goodness’, is an abomination that drives Souls away from God, True Holiness and Religiosity. Cultivating one’s personal relationship with the Holy Spirit / Param-Atma, means developing one’s personal sensitivity to what God wants, His Desire for the Good in All Things. Param-Atma, the Holy Spirit of Hari, God-Who-Is-Love, is the Lord of the Heart (Hrid, Hridaya, Hari-Daya) and the ‘Holy’ conscience of every well-motivated person. Thus one must give obedience to the ‘Primacy’ of this Holy Spirit or ‘Conscience’ Above All Else!
Collected Works Archive of Bhakti Ananda Goswami 