A possible alternative might be to consider a version of authority that isn't exclusively Catholic. How about "Thou shalt not kill"? Both Christians and non-Christians have no trouble accepting that there is something special enough about human life to accept this one.
So how does conscience line up with this commandment?
There are laws and various moral authorities responsible for protecting the sanctity of human life. For the most part, we also expect that our private judgments about, for example, murder, will line up with the authorities. There is disagreement in some cases to be sure and there are also cases where the authorities were clearly wrong (OJ Simpson was guilty). But there are hundreds of murders every year and we accept the way legal authorities handle those without hesitation. So much so that when I learn that Richard X of no fixed address has been arrested for murder I take it for granted that the authorities have acted correctly, that he is guilty and that even in the unlikely case that there has been a miscarriage of justice the courts will fix the problem. We are so confident of this that we don't even bother informing ourselves further about the case.
So here we have a parallel case where there are individual consciences and a central moral/legal authorities. Does it make sense to say, as Hogan says elsewhere, that this means that "there is an immediate and inevitable tension" between the two? No it doesn't. It's a little ridiculous to even try and think of examples. "Why are you hassling me about shooting the piano player."
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