The most rigid authoritarian of the past never dreamed of the sort of interior assent demanded by today's papolators -- that we take every word coming from the Pope as infallible, that we submit to every finding of every Vatican academy or advisory board. (This attitude has a secular analog in abject obedience to experts.)
Underneath all this is a real crisis of understanding conscience, which is simply put, prudence, a cardinal virtue everyone must have in order to be fully man. Putting so much emphasis on authority obliterates the soul. Man has freedom and his conscience can and will guide him. This is a central teaching of the Church, all but lost.
There are many reasons for this that I'd like to explore as we go on. One is certainly the (erroneous) response to those who claim that conscience can relieve them from doing what is good and right.
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