Conscience and Truth in the writings of Blessed John Henry Newman
Fr. Hermann Geissler FSO
John Henry Newman’s statements about conscience are among the most beautiful and relevant texts which he left to us. Not by coincidence, he is sometimes called Doctor conscientiae – teacher of conscience.
In the context of a symposium in 1990, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – Pope Benedict XVI – told the audience how in his early years at Freising Major Seminary he became familiar with Newman through the Prefect Alfred Läpple. Among other things he said, “For us at that time, Newman’s teaching on conscience became an important foundation for theological personalism,
Quo ego vado, non potes Me modo sequi, sequeris autem postea.
Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, when He came on earth in our flesh, made a perfect atonement, “sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.” He was born of a woman, He wrought miracles, He fasted and was tempted in the desert, He suffered and was crucified, 
St Paul is engaged, in the chapter from which these words are taken, in humbling the self-conceit of the Corinthians. They had had gifts given them; they did not forget they had them; they used, they abused them; they forgot, not that they were theirs, but that they were given them. They seem to have thought that those gifts
And this anticipation is confirmed by the history of our Lord’s temptation in the wilderness. It began, you will observe, with an attempt on the part of the evil one to make Him break His fast improperly. It began, but it did not end there.
“Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants.” (Luke 15:18, 19)