Ruben Rosario: "Clear" Conscience? Even in Resignation, Nienstedt Fails Once More

By Ruben Rosario
Pioneer Press
June 19, 2015

http://www.twincities.com/crime/ci_28345131/ruben-rosario-clear-conscience-even-resignation-nienstedt-fails

I've never met a Catholic without a guilty conscience. That includes yours truly, the wretched sinner, the practicing Catholic without the blinders on who is still practicing to get it right one of these days. My GC meter was installed at baptism.

I felt guilty when I and a few grammar school classmates placed tacks on the pews in front of us as a prank and got caught by Mother Superior. We were going to pull them back before other classmates sat down, but the thought itself was sin enough.

I felt guilty when I sneaked sips from the sacramental wine before Mass as an altar boy. I felt guilty when I got scolded by a nun in front of the class for not reading "Jane Eyre" as part of a book assignment.

"I just did not have the time to read it, Sister," I remember saying. I fibbed. I did not want to admit that I found the book to be boring and girlish.

"You did not make time," she snapped. She was right. I feel guilty about that, too, even now. Someone let me know how the book ended.

Possessing a healthy guilty conscience is a good thing for everyone, regardless of religious or non-religious belief. There is a moral code that is universal. My guilt meter still operates much like the race track rubber guards that help bounce the errant kiddie car back on course.