1. Personal and Moral Responsibility

2. Choices?
What are the choices available to a bystander in each of the following situations?
Do nothing (remain in your seat)
Take action yourself (move to front left corner of room)
Take action by calling a third party (e.g. police, parents, teacher etc.)(move to front right corner of room)
You need to be able to justify your decision!

3. Basic Options
A group of young men on a train continually ridicule, harass and frighten each passenger in turn.
Do nothing (remain in your seat)
Take action yourself (move to front left corner)
Take action by calling a third party (move to front right corner)

4. Basic options
A drugged girl lies, apparently dead, on a street corner.
Do nothing (remain in your seat)
Take action yourself (move to front left corner)
Take action by calling a third party (move to front right corner)

5. Basic options
The wrong person is blamed for starting a fight in the schoolyard and is threatened with suspension.
Do nothing (remain in your seat)
Take action yourself (move to front left corner)
Take action by calling a third party (move to front right corner)

6. Basic options
Day after day a beautiful treed are in the school grounds in covered in litter by the end of lunchtime.
Do nothing (remain in your seat)
Take action yourself (move to front left corner)
Take action by calling a third party (move to front right corner)

7. Basic options
A year 11 student who is on L-plates pressures friends to come for a drive in the family car as his parents are away.
Do nothing (remain in your seat)
Take action yourself (move to front left corner)
Take action by calling a third party (move to front right corner)

8. Write this into your books!
Christianity
Write this into your books!
A Christian understanding of the human person says that people have a natural sense of what they should or should not do.

9. Write this into your books!
Conscience is…
Write this into your books!
Conscience is the whole person, body, soul and intellect, trying to make judgments about right and wrong. It involves judgments about who one ought to be and what behaviour one ought to choose or reject.
the internal sense of what is right and wrong that governs somebody’s thoughts and actions, urging him or her to do right rather than wrong.

10. Write this into your books!
Conscience is …
Write this into your books!
Behaviour in compliance with what your internal sense of right and wrong tells you is right.
A shared concern for moral issues.

11. Summarise this into your books!
Conscience is …
Summarise this into your books!
Click the picture to find out what the Second Vatican Council defined conscience as.

12. Write this into your books!
Conscience is …
Write this into your books!
Conscience is the voice of the true self, and it must be followed. It reflects values and convictions that direct the person to integrity of life and action.

13. It’s Easy to Go Wrong! Decisions of conscience are complex.
Because conscience is part of the human make-up, it can be:
Limited, or weak or uninformed
Clear, strong and knowledgeable
Therefore each person must develop and inform his or her conscience, so that the choices the person makes are the best that they can be.

14. Catechism of the catholic church
Summarise this into your books!
The are 3 sections of the Catechism concerned with conscience:
Judgment of Conscience - Click HERE
Formation of Conscience – click HERE
To Choose in Accordance with Conscience – click HERE

15. Moral truth
To make a good decision it is necessary to have as much information as possible.
A person is free to follow his or her conscience if a genuine effort has been made to search out the moral truth in a situation.

16. Need more information??
For each of the following situations indicate what information is needed in order to make the best moral judgment.
Click on the picture to read the scenarios.

17. Scenario 1
A soldier in wartime is ordered to go into a village and kill all the civilians there because they are enemy sympathisers.

18. Scenario 2
A woman who is pregnant with a disabled child is advised by her doctor to have an abortion.

19. Scenario 3
A boy wonders how he can best help his friend who is becoming addicted to heroin.

20. Scenario 4
A teenage L-plater is asked, in an emergency, to drive a seriously ill person to hospital.

21. Scenario 5
A secondary school student who knows who is responsible for many thefts of property at the school.

22. Scenario 6
A student’s friend suggest that in order to pass a HSC subject that is causing difficulty, he or she could cheat on the exam.

23. Beyond Reasonable doubt
Clip 1 – The Crime?
Clip 2 – verbal confession?
Beyond Reasonable doubt
The case of ronald ryan

24. Self directed investgation
Ronald Ryan
Self directed investgation

25. Conscience Matures Stages of conscience development:
Fear of punishment
Motivated by gain
Seeking approval
Accepting a higher authority
Decision based on the consensus of society or group
Demands of justice

26. Catholic Teaching on Moral Issues
An informed Catholic conscience is an educated conscience that knows in any given situation:
What the moral wisdom of the tradition says about the issue.
What the words and deeds of Jesus Christ suggest (WWJD)
What is suggested in the writings of the Apostles and evangelists.
What the church teaches about the issue and why.
What Christian values and virtues apply in the situation.

27. How informed is your conscience?
Answer the following questions:
What do the words and deeds of Jesus Christ teach about violent behaviour?
What does the Catholic Church teach about the value of human life?
List at least 5 basic human rights?
What does the Gospel teach about forgiveness?

28. The 10 Commandments List the 10 commandments.
Give an example of a moral
Statement in today’s world to which
one of them applies.
What do the 10 commandments have to say about hurtful gossip?
Worksheet

29. The Beatitudes Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Click on the picture to read the Beatitudes.
Worksheet

30. Virtues
Theological Virtues
Moral Virtues

31. Catechism What does the Catholic teach about the following topics:
Abortion
Alcohol
Drugs
Euthanasia
Index of topics

32. Moral decision making- the process
Step 1  Determine the nature of the issue.
Look at the facts – what is happening?
To whom?
Where?
Why is this happening?
Step 2 Seek guidance and advice.
The issue has been defined. Who can help? It is worthwhile looking to an range of sources including:
Scripture
Church teaching
Parents
Friends
Teachers
professionals

33. Moral decision making – the proces
Step 3  Consider the possible effects and consequences.
Think of the consequences that may result in taking action, and in not taking action. What might be the effects for the individual involved in the issue? The community? For yourself?
Step 4  Decide and Act
The final step is to make a decision and act on it. If a genuine attempt has been made to examine the issue and Christian teachings, and to consider the consequences, the decision can be made responsibly and with confidence.

34. Case studies
Apply the decision making process to a range of case studies.
Make sure that you seek guidance from scripture and Catholic teachings!