Moral Dilemma #2 -sorry

[louisville]

okay, i was watching a movie called the mission. whether or not you have seen it is not important but it brought up a question. To what point must a priest, who is under the vow of obedience, obey his bishop if he were to order you to do something which is immoral? In the movie for example, a bishop ordered these Jesuit missionaries to leave a missionary which was about to be attacked and later destroyed. If they did not leave they would be excommunicated by this bishop. Not only the lives but the souls of the native people at the missionary were at stake, so the Jesuits decided to stay. How should a priest respond if he were to be put in this or any other similar situation. Thanks.

[Pio Nono]

JMJ
12/20 - Fourth Monday of Advent

louisville,

Under no circumstances are we to ever follow an order that we believe to be sinful. If my bishop orders me to steal a million dollars and give it to the poor, I'm obliged to [i]not[/i] steal as stealing is sinful. I've never seen the movie to which you refer, so I can't address it directly - however, if the bishop's orders were to drive the Jesuits into sin, then they were obliged to disobey. Hope this helps.

Yours,
Pio Nono

P.S.: Tell Bill Vagenas I said to be good.