Fr. Rutler makes distinctions which are necessary.
The capacity of consciences for freedom is realized when they conclude in what the universal conscience of the Church has been inspired to teach. Were the Church "it", and nothing but an institution, "it" would be arbitrarily didactic and "its" wisdom would be like the rabbinical debates in the porches of earthly Jerusalem. Because the Church is "she," a life-giving mother, she is the means of freedom by virtue of an authority higher than her earthly licenses and systems; the Church is "Jerusalem from on high, which is free, our mother" (Gal 4:26). Conscience is never conscientious when it is isolated and accountable only to the self; then it would be a pseudo-science but not a conscience. I can follow my own conscience. I may not follow it wherever I want. Should pride persuade me that what I can do is what I should do, or that I cannot do what I do not want to do, I will follow my own conscience straight to Hell.
--The Seven Wonders of the World/Temple of Diana
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