Abbot Matthew with Bishop Gelineau of Providence at graduation (1970s)

As this article first appeared in the Portsmouth Bulletin in 1974, we now reprint it for its fiftieth anniversary. Addressing the fraught political environment of 1974, Abbot Matthew’s insights seem no less applicable today. They are particularly pertinent as we begin again the season of Lent, 2024.

DEAR FRIENDS OF PORTSMOUTH:

The celebration of Lent this year has been preceded by a fresh concern for a morality in public affairs brought on by the disclosure of illegality and suspected illegality in our government. There has also been an announcement from the Holy See of the new Rite for Penance or Confession of Sins. These two matters of current interest seem to me to be not unrelated. The Season of Lent is a time in which the Church acknowledges its sinfulness and failure to live after the model set us by our Lord. The individual Christian should also at this time examine his life, note where he has failed as a follower of Christ, and seek forgiveness and reconciliation through the Sacrament of Penance. Our problems with immorality and illegality in the government should remind us of our own obligation to inform our conscience as to what is right and to strive then to do that thing which is right. It is especially important for those of us who are parents, teachers, and clergy to take this obligation with a seriousness which was encouraged by what an older Catholic vocabulary called Examination of Conscience. There is now in this country a widespread neglect of the Sacrament of Penance and this could be dangerous in so far as it might mean that we are no longer so careful to evaluate our lives in the light of Christ’s teaching.

Abbot Matthew at abbatial installation (Dom Leo van Winkle to his left)

The Church upholds the primacy of the individual’s conscience. To act against one’s conscience is sinful and, as Cardinal Newman said, we drink first to conscience and then to the See of Peter, yet we should recall that in the past forty years of the history of the world many great crimes have been committed and we also know that in many cases the perpetrators of those crimes were not troubled in their consciences. It was not too long ago in this country that many people’s consciences told them it was right to discriminate against Black people and it was believed that lynching and other crimes could be committed against these people and one’s conscience might rest easy. If we do not examine our principles and actions from time to time and lay them before the judgment of another, there is some chance we will follow an erroneous and ill-formed conscience. If we are to have public morality, we must first have private morality. We Catholics should recognize that in the Sacrament of Penance we have not only a ready means of grace but also a way to develop our consciences and to guard against the dangers of setting aside our standards of personal morality. We should when judging the real faults of others, also take occasion to judge ourselves as exactly.

Portrait of Abbot Matthew Stark