Conscience safeguards crucial to human dignity, Arizona bishops say

Published: 2008-05-01

TUCSON, Ariz. (CNS) -- Declaring that conscience is "at the heart of human dignity and freedom," two Arizona bishops have issued a call for support in facing up to the challenges posed by laws that threaten "the freedom to act upon our moral convictions." In a pastoral statement on behalf of the Arizona Catholic Conference, Tucson Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas and Phoenix Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted said, "Just because something is legal ... doesn't mean it is something morally good." Titled "Freedom of Conscience," the pastoral letter released April 21 said, "Today in our state and elsewhere in our nation, health care professionals and institutions find themselves struggling to preserve their rights of conscience, especially in matters that would involve the taking of human life." The rights of people to follow their religious beliefs and moral convictions are being "compromised, undermined and increasingly disregarded today" by some, the bishops said. Society benefits, they said, "when people are free to live by their conscience."

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