Posted on 04/04/2012 4:22:37 AM PDT by cleghornboy
LifeSiteNews.com is reporting that actor Martin Sheen is defending his position in favor of redefining marriage despite his Catholic faith, saying that "my religion's highest standard is conscience." Apparently the long-time actor hasn't spent as much time studying Catholic teaching as he has with his other endeavors. If he had taken the time to actually read Pope John Paul II's Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, for example, he would have read that: "Conscience, as the judgment of an act, is not exempt from the possibility of error. As the Council [Vatican II, which, sadly, Sheen is also not familar with] puts it, 'not infrequently conscience can be mistaken as a result of invincible ignorance, although it does not on that account forfeit its dignity; but this cannot be said when a man shows little concern for seeking what is true and good, and conscience gradually becomes almost blind from being accustomed to sin.'" (Veritatis Splendor, No. 62, citing Gaudium et Spes, 16).
Pope John Paul II continues: "Conscience is not an infallible judge; it can make mistakes....Conscience, as the ultimate concrete judgment, compromises its dignity when it is culpably erroneous, that is to say, 'when man shows little concern for seeking what is true and good.." (VS, Nos. 62, 63, citing Gaudium et Spes, 16).
Can anyone honestly say that Martin Sheen isn't aware of the Church's teaching or that he does not have the resources to seek what is true and good?
The actor is quoted as having said that, "The Church is a conduit, and it is a spiritual journey, but it is not the end of the journey," said Sheen. "The church is an institution, primarily of men, at least they are the major authorities. And so they are flawed, obviously. And so they are not authorized from preventing any member from following their conscience no matter what that is. You can’t get between a person’s conscience and their God. Nobody can do that."
Martin Sheen suffers from that sickness described by then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger now Pope Benedict XVI during his Keynote Address of the Fourth Bishops' Workshop of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, on "Moral Theology Today: Certitudes and Doubts," delivered in February of 1984 , "In the Psalms we meet from time to time the prayer that God should free man from his hidden sins. The Psalmist sees as his greatest danger the fact that he no longer recognizes them as sins and thus falls into them in apparently good conscience. Not being able to have a guilty conscience is a sickness...And thus one cannot aprove the maxim that everyone may always do what his conscience allows him to do: In that case the person without a conscience would be permitted to do anything. In truth it is his fault that his conscience is so broken that he no longer sees what he as a man should see. In other words, included in the concept of conscience is an obligation, namely, the obligation to care for it, to form it and educate it. Conscience has a right to respect and obedience in the measure in which the person himself respects it and gives it the care which its dignity deserves. The right of conscience is the obligation of the formation of conscience. Just as we try to develop our use of language and we try to rule our use of rules, so must we also seek the true measure of conscience so that finally the inner word of conscience can arrive at its validity.
For us this means that the Church's magisterium bears the responsibility for correct formation. It makes an appeal, one can say, to the inner vibrations its word causes in the process of the maturing of conscience. It is thus an oversimplification to put a statement of the magisterium in opposition to conscience. In such a case I must ask myself much more. What is it in me that contradicts this word of the magisterium? Is it perhaps only my comfort? My obstinacy? Or is it an estrangement through some way of life that allows me something which the magisterium forbids and that appears to me to be better motivated or more suitable simply because society considers it reasonable? It is only in the context of this kind of struggle that the conscience can be trained, and the magisterium has the right to expect that the conscience will be open to it in a manner befitting the seriousness of the matter. If I believe that the Church has its origins in the Lord, then the teaching office in the Church has a right to expect that it, as it authentically develops, will be accepted as a priority factor in the formation of conscience." In the same address, Cardinal Ratzinger explains that, "Conscience is understood by many as a sort of deification of subjectivity, a rock of bronze on which even the magisterium is shattered....Conscience appears finally as subjectivity raised to the ultimate standard."
This is precisely what Martin Sheen is advancing: subjectivity raised to the ultimate standard. For the confused actor, the Church, which teaches in Jesus’ name and with His authority, “is not God.” But by advancing a subjectivist conscience over and above the teaching Church, he is suggesting that man is God.
If you put Martin Sheen’s brain in a bird...it would fly backwards.
invincible-ignorance alert.
This gives added perspective to his recent role as a fallen away Catholic in “The Way”. He did seem quite natural and comfortable in the part.
Careful Marty, blasphemy is not cool actor man.
Martin Sheen is his own god.
Comes from the second oldest lie in The Book.
“ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
~ The Serpent in Genesis 3:5
The oldest lie in the book is ...
“Ye shall not surely die:”
~ The Serpent in Genesis 3:4
In other words, “It ain’t gonna kill ya.” I’ll venture you’ve heard that lie many times in your lives. “Here, try this. It ain’t gonna kill ya.”
Hey, Martin Sheen. The Lord Jesus Christ has something to say to you.
“I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
~ Jesus in Luke 13:3, and again in Luke 13:5
Unless he Mr. Sheen repents, he’s in for a very unpleasant surprise when he exits this life.
-—”my religion’s highest standard is conscience.”-—
Then you have no religion.
This problem has been ubiquitous in the Church since the sixties, and demonstrates the consequences of error and poor catechism.
Ah, the fruit of the fall ... ever since we ate from that tree in the garden we've taken the decision about "good and evil" into our own hands.
When will the church implement church discipline?? When Sheen essentially says that Man is God, will the church take him to task??
Had Mr. Sheen continued to read, he may have found this:
(Jer 17:9 NIV) The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Our best thoughts are often corrupt; that’s why we have a Bible to rely on rather than our own thinking.
Sheen was on the show that traces ancestor. Not suprisingly they supplied the prison populations of Ireland and Spain.
I guess that would be his priest’s job, but chances are Martin doesn’t listen to anyone.
Since Catholic schools are now run by well-meaning, but poorly trained laity, priests must teach regularly from the pulpit.
Prior to Vatican II, half of all homilies were devoted to religious instruction. This is the Church’s only remaining means of instruction, outside ministries like Catholic Answers.
There is a reason why CA is so popular.
It is not Catholicism, because sheen rejects the teachings of the Church that conflict with his views.
This is nothing new, being a Faithful person is hard and sheen chooses not to do the heavy lifting.
It is easy to say, "I'm a Catholic, but..." you can add anything that makes you feel good after the but.
I can’t wait until this pompous ass stands before the creator of the universe and explains his religious viewpoints.
Sheen is not Martin’s real surname. He took the name Sheen from Archbishop Fulton Sheen whom he admired greatly.
Fun things to know and tell!
Really surprised I didn’t read that he is convinced HE is GOD.
The aggravating thing about Sheen is that he's been in some fine movies (and a few stinkers, too). "The Way" is an excellent film, and it would seem that Emilio Estevez is the only one in the family with his head screwed on at least half-straight.
Thank God we have Martin Sheen to explain God to us. /sarcasm
Sounds like Martin is going the way of his son.
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