Primacy of conscience

{{Short description|Concept in Catholic moral theology}}

Primacy of conscience is a concept in Catholic moral theology that holds that a person must obey their conscience above all else, even the dictates of Catholic dogma, so long as that conscience is "well-formed". A "well-formed" conscience is one that has considered Catholic dogma deeply and seriously, and in good faith.{{cite book | last=Melina | first=Livio | title=The Oxford Handbook of Catholic Theology | chapter=Virtue and Catholic Moral Theology | publisher=Oxford University Press | date=2019-03-28 | isbn=978-0-19-956627-3 | doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199566273.013.35 | url=https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/28110/chapter/212231111 | access-date=2025-05-12 | page=372–387}}{{cite web | last=OP | first=Archbishop Anthony Fisher | title=“Conscience, Relativism and Truth: The Witness of Newman” | website=Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney | date=2019-10-11 | url=https://www.sydneycatholic.org/addresses-and-statements/2019/conscience-relativism-and-truth-the-witness-of-newman/ | access-date=2025-05-12}}https://lira.bc.edu/files/pdf?fileid=831de797-ef3e-411d-8dd7-8eb04b2181c5

The concept is cited in Cardinal Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua. It found expression in papal teaching in Pope Paul VI's Gaudium et spes, part of the constitutions of Vatican II. It was also expanded upon in the Winnipeg Statement of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1968.

Then-Cardinal Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI summarised the concept in his Commentary on the Documents of Vatican II, published in 1968:

"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."{{cite web | last=Hooper | first=John | title=Pope Benedict XVI: in his own words | website=the Guardian | date=2010-09-16 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/16/pope-benedict-xvi-own-words | access-date=2025-05-12}}