I have work to do, so I shouldn’t have really clicked on EWTN’s live feed of the USCCB. Because I did, and instead of the boring stuff I expected to hear, I catch Bishop Aquila of Fargo exhorting the body, in the discussion on the Faithful Citizenship document to replace language referring to “spiritual well-being” with “salvation”. Why? He says simply because it is the language of the Church and when one chooses intrinsic evil, such a choice does impact the state of one’s soul. Bishop Morlino of Madison is now speaking in support of Aquila, saying that too many of us have a mistaken notice of “conscience.” His point is that if conscience is a center point of the document, it should be clear what proper use of conscience means and what is at stake – salvation. Now Archbishop Lipscomb of Mobile is also speaking in support – if a choice for intrisic evil is made, the consequences of that should be laid out clearly.
Bishop DiMarzio (in charge) argues that they didn’t want to give the impression that one vote would put someone’s immortal soul in danger…
Voice vote was inconclusive, they’re going to their “clickers” (as they called them.) Let’s see what happens:
Amendment failed, but by a close vote: 51-48. Which is interesting.