There is no offense, however serious, that the Church

cannot forgive. “There is no one, however wicked and guilty, who

may not confidently hope for forgiveness, provided his repentance

is honest.”

Rayne Larson

education in the faith

of children, young

people, and adults which includes especially the teaching of Chris­tian doctrine imparted, generally speaking, in an organic and

systematic way, with a view to initiating the hearers into the

fullness of Christian life.”
Conner Crousillac

“Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which

he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice,

ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil,

sounds in his heart at the right moment. . . . For man has in his heart

a law inscribed by God. . . . His conscience is man’s most secret core

and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes

in his depths."1777

Moral conscience,

48 present at the heart of the person,

enjoins him at the appropriate moment to do good and to avoid

evil. It also judges particular choices, approving those that are good and denouncing those that are evil.

49 It bears witness to the authority of truth in reference to the supreme Good to which the human

person is drawn, and it welcomes the commandments. When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking.

1778 Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed. In all he says and does, man is obliged to follow

faithfully what he knows to be just and right. It is by the judgment

of his conscience that man perceives and recognizes the prescriptions of the divine law:

Rayne Larson

“I believe in God”: this first affirmation of the Apostles’

Creed is also the most fundamental. The whole Creed speaks of

God, and when it also speaks of man and of the world it does so in

relation to God. The other articles of the Creed all depend on the

first, just as the remaining Commandments make the first explicit.

The other articles help us to know God better as he revealed himself

progressively to men. "The faithful first profess their belief in God" 
J'Nyria Kelly

not make it an absolute value. It rejects a neo-pagan notion that

tends to promote the

cult of the body,

to sacrifice everything for its sake, to idolize physical perfection and success at sports. By its

selective preference of the strong over the weak, such a conception

can lead to the perversion of human relationships.
Conner Crousillac

The desire for God is written in the human heart, because

man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw

man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness

he never stops searching for it. 
J'Nyria Kelly

envy that death entered the world”
Nikki Hanchett

“God created us without us: but he did not will to save us

without us.”

116

To receive his mercy, we must admit our faults. “If

we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not

in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive

our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Rayne Larson

natural right to be recognized as a free and responsible being. All

owe to each other this duty of respect. The

right to the exercise of

freedom,

especially in moral and religious matters, is an inalienable

requirement of the dignity of the human person. This right must

be recognized and protected by civil authority within the limits of

the common good and public order.

Conner Crousillac

The passions are natural components of the human psy-

che; they form the passageway and ensure the connection between

the life of the senses and the life of the mind. Our Lord called man’s

heart the source from which the passions spring.
J'Nyria Kelly