[528] We can call it the immediate awareness of the ethical principles in ourselves. From this immediate awareness they distinguished the human conscience, which may be erroneous, but which acts on the basis of this awareness. Now this includes a lot of important consequences. The one is that it is possible for the philosopher or theologian to develop, in terms of pure reason, the laws and principles of natural law^a, the law of morals^b---freedom^c, equality, justice to everybody, and many others.

On the other hand, human knowledge is limited and can also produce concepts [such] as concepts of natural law, which are really natural law, and forget others which really are. [?] Therefore one needs an authority^d above the analysis of the human mind, and this authority of course is the Roman Church^e. This is the famous doctrine of the natural law, in Roman Catholicism^f. The modern and very interesting elaboration of it, you can find in Maritain's book on natural law. This natural law^g goes very deeply into the concreteness of life. And if there are discussions which cannot be solved by reason alone---which they can in principle--- then the authority^h of the Church gives the ultimate judgment. Now for instance, one of the most discussed consequences which Roman theology finds in terms of natural law is the anti-conceptuals [i.e. contraceptives]. Roman Catholic theology declares that this is against the natural law, and therefore, however great the misery which follows from the non-use of anti-conceptuals in a family or in a whole nation, they are forbidden by natural law. Now this is an example which I use because it is of such an importance for innumerable practical cases

in the Western world and for the whole support America gives, for instance, to India, which, if the anti-conceptual ideology is NOT accepted by the Indian people---if Rome had its way--- would lead to a corresponding increase of the population and other permanency of the misery. Therefore the whole problem is not a theoretical problem alone; it's a problem of practical decisions of greatest importance for world historyⁱ as well as for the misery and happiness of