Amoris Laetitia Develops the Subjective Conscience from Veritatis Splendor

The subjective and objective aspects of conscience often exist in tension in Catholic theology: there is a need to affirm that an objective law exists by which proper conscience formation is judged, while acknowledging a subjective aspect in each person, obliged to follow her, even erroneous, conscience. Although not the focus of either Veritatis Splendor or Amoris Laetitia , these two papal documents demonstrate these dual aspects of conscience well and allow a better understanding of conscience together than they could apart. Reading each in light of the other provides a fuller view and illuminates the tension between the two aspects of conscience. Veritatis Splendor provides a clear explanation of the objective aspect of conscience while briefly mentioning the subjective. Amoris Laetitia briefly reaffirms the objectivity of conscience and then dramatically expands on its subjectivity, spending significant time on mitigating factors and the formation of conscience as both a starting point and an end goal. This paper analyzes these documents in dialogue with Charles Curran as contrary view to the two popes.