Today's issues demand our response. Even positive developments in our society are ambiguous. These new situations demand fidelity to the Church's magisterium. This kind of service requires courage and integrity and can also involve pain. Ignatian obedience, in accord with the tradition of Catholic theology, has always recognized that our first fidelity must be to God, to the truth, and to a well-formed conscience.
Obedience includes prayerful discernment.
There are times to speak out and times to remain silent. We make this teaching our own and recommend it to the whole Society. Our role is to speak or keep silent prudently and with humility and a genuine respect and affection for the pastors of the Church while striving for honesty to acknowledge the grace of their guidance. We cannot limit action to dismissive condemnation of abuses to the Church, but must communicate and defend the truth even while acknowledging conflicts and polarities. We must cooperate with the media so that the Church's true face can appear and the Gospel be inculturated in this new mass culture as well.