Pope Francis reaffirms primacy of conscience amid criticism of ‘Amoris Laetitia’ by Nicole Winfield - Associated Press November 11, 2017 Pope Francis is silhouetted after his private audience with President of Sierra Leone Ernest Bai Koroma, at the Vatican, Saturday, Nov. 11, 2017. (Tony Gentile/Pool Photo via AP) VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Saturday reaffirmed the “primacy” of using one’s conscience to navigate tough moral questions in his first comments since he was publicly accused of spreading heresy by emphasizing conscience over established church teaching. [https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/11/11/pope-francis-reaffirms-primacy-conscience-amid-criticism-amoris-laetitia/] Pope John Paul II explained where this teaching leads to: " individual conscience is accorded the status of a supreme tribunal of moral judgment which hands down categorical and infallible decisions about good and evil ... But in this way the inescapable claims of truth disappear. " ...