Q. 1. How does the Catholic Church define a "lax conscience?"

A. 1. On the subject of "lax conscience", the Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

# 1790 "A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. If he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn himself. Yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgments about acts to be performed or already committed."

# 1791 "This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man "takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin." In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits." ("Culpable" means being legally responsible for one's actions.)

In summary, a "lax conscience" does what is convenient versus obeying God's law, consequently the person committing venial and mortal sins by his actions. The "lax conscience" is a "careless person" who does not care about the fact that God is offended.

Examples:

• The Prime Minister of Canada has a lax conscience. He does not care if abortion is wrong, if same sex marriage offends God, if euthanasia is murder, his only concern is having people support him at the next election so he can serve another term as an immoral Prime Minister.

• A lady walks the street alone at night, dressed in seductive clothing which has the potential of drawing sex offenders who will mistake her as a Prostitute. Her conscience is nearly dormant and often disengaged, so that it can be seen as inviting sin.

• When a conviction is involved, blacks are more likely than whites to receive longer sentences. This is racism practiced by Court Judges who have laxed consciences.

• A person steals money from a charity, knowing very well that once these funds are gone, the planned program of the charity shall be cancelled. The lax conscience does anything regardless if it is bad for others who will suffer the consequences of his actions.