St John tells us in the third chapter of his first letter, "If our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God."
Many bad Catholics often justify their dissent from Church teaching by claiming they are following their conscience. However, the conscience does not decide for or against absolute moral truths (the conscience cannot decide whether or not murder or lying or adultery etc is wrong), but only determines how those moral precepts apply in particular situations (i.e. the conscience determines that this or that particular act is or is not murder, etc).
If a ship captain were to decide that a different star were the north star and navigated accordingly, he would lead the ship off course. Similarly, if a man invokes is "conscience" to reject objective moral truths, he will not attain salvation.
St John also reminds us, "let us love not in word or speech, but in deed and truth." Bad Catholics (that is, Catholics who actively reject Church teachings and obstinately persist in manifest grave sin) often insist "I am a good Catholic!" But we aren't good Catholics just because we say we are, or especially because the secular media says we are -- we must make sacrifices to live our faith and to conform our lives to God's law. Even if he says he is a good Catholic and even if the Associated Press calls him a devout Catholic, President Joe Biden is a terribly bad Catholic.
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