Within Catholicism there have long been different schools of thought about the primacy of conscience.  The foundation of the primacy of conscience is in its relationship to the Divine.  It is not in "the sacred and certain doctrines of the Church."

Religious beliefs, doctrines, creeds and practices are culturally and historically relative, adaptable, and functional.  They can never be absolute and immutable because they are enshrined in institutions which evolve with changes in knowledge, culture and history.  Doctrines can be turned into a sacralization of vested interests, a system of ideas designed to conceal and justify a reality the people[often the hierarchy] prefer not to change, and that is in direct opposition to the values one claims to uphold.


It is an illusion by Archbishop Sample that the current teachings of the church is able to arrive at all eternal truths whose veracity is guaranteed by God for all circumstances, for all people, for all history.