Moral Theology Part 98

(b) The private good of innocent parties may be preferred to the fame of one who enjoys a false reputation. One may reveal secret defects for one's own defense; for example, a person whose life, honor or property is being unjustly attacked may reveal sins of the guilty in order to deter them or weaken their authority; a person who has been injured by his superior or another party may speak of this to a friend for the sake of obtaining consolation, or to a confessor, a lawyer or other adviser for the sake of obtaining counsel or a.s.sistance. One may also reveal secret defects for the protection of others; for example, one should put unsuspecting persons on their guard against seducers, impostors, quacks; one should reveal impediments that stand in the way of a marriage, or should warn a young woman that the man to whom she is engaged is a criminal or diseased; one should make known the true author of a crime for which an innocent person is about to suffer; one should tell the truth to inquirers about the incompetency of servants or other persons whom one has employed.

(c) The higher good of the person whose faults are revealed may also be preferred to the lower good of his false reputation; for it is to his interest that his higher good be promoted, even at the expense of an inferior good. It is lawful to tell parents about the misdeeds of their children (e.g., that a daughter is involved in a scandalous liaison), in order that the latter may be corrected; or to speak to the friends of wayward persons about the misconduct of the latter in order that prayers may be said for their conversion.

2069. Unlawful Attack on Another's False Reputation.--If the false reputation of another is not the unjust cause of a loss that is feared, it is not right to deprive him of his good name. Examples: (a) It is not lawful to accuse a person who is about to be promoted to some office or dignity of which he is worthy, if the motive of the accusation is to secure the honor for oneself or one's friend; otherwise ambitious persons would be encouraged to practise spying, manufacturing of evidence, etc., and the public peace would be greatly disturbed. (b) It is not lawful to accuse a person who is giving one no offense, if the motive of the accusation is to distract attention from oneself or to make oneself shine by the comparison.

2070. Conditions that Justify Revelation of Another's Defects.--In revealing defects on account of some necessary good, one must observe the conditions for an act of double result (see 103).

(a) Thus, the action itself must not be evil, and hence one may not break the seal of secrecy to which one is bound (as will be said in the next Article in discussing violations of secrets), nor make use of knowledge unjustly acquired, nor reveal more or to more persons than the case demands, nor reveal anything, if a warning to the offender will suffice (see 1286).

(b) The good result must be intended, and the evil result of detriment to fame must be only permitted. Those who a.s.sign pious motives (pity, zeal, sincerity) for talk against a neighbor, but who are really actuated by hatred, revenge, ambition to defeat a rival, or other like pa.s.sion, sin on account of their wrong intention. A hypocritical form of defamation is practised by some persons exteriorly devout, who under the pretext of asking prayers for their neighbor's conversion spread stories about those whom they dislike.

(c) The reason for permitting the evil must be sufficiently weighty.

Hence, the good result intended must be one that is likely to follow on the revelation, and it must be of some importance; for it would be cruel to throw away a neighbor's good name on the mere possibility that a considerable good would be secured, or on the certainty that only a slight benefit would be obtained. It does seem, however, that the good which is hoped for must be of an equal dignity with the good of fame, since the innocent and the guilty party are not on the same footing, and furthermore all admit, for example, that the fame of an employee who is stealing from his employer is not to be preferred to the goods of the employer. In doubt about the seriousness of the evil following on revelation, the innocent party is to be favored.

2071. Revelations about Public Officials or Candidates for Public Office.--(a) These are lawful when the public good calls for them (e.g., when a man has used corrupt practices in order to be elected, or when he is incompetent, or when he has been guilty of malfeasance in office), and the conditions of the previous paragraph are observed.

(b) These revelations are unlawful when the public good suffers from them (e.g., when the safety or dignity of society itself would be injured by attacks on the head of government), or when the due conditions are not observed (e.g., when one resorts to personalities about a deserving public official, or practises muckraking because of mere prejudice or partisanship). The law permits fair comment on public persons or works, but it also grants an action for criticism that contains unfair aspersions of personal character or unjust accusations about public conduct.

2072. Revelations about Historical Personages.--(a) These revelations are not lawful unless there is a proportionate reason that justifies them. For historians there are sufficient reasons to narrate impartially the crimes as well as the virtues of those who appear in their pages. These reasons are: the nature of history as a record of facts and causes ("the first law of history is that it dare not tell any untruth, that it fear not to tell any truth," Leo XIII); the rights of the persons who are treated in the annals (e.g., it is often impossible to understand the deeds of one character in history or to do him justice unless the secret crime of another character is revealed); the rights of the readers (e.g., the reader has the right to know that the persecutors of religion have been wicked in their personal lives).

The historian, therefore, may search for material bearing on the lives and deeds of historical personages of the past, he may collect similar material relating to current events, he may narrate defects or delinquencies of the past that were unknown or forgotten. But matters of a purely private character that have no bearing on public events do not belong, according to some moralists, to the legitimate province of the historian; for otherwise there would be an end to the rights of the dead over their fame. Moreover, there is the risk of calumny and of violation of elementary justice, since the historian is a self-appointed judge and the person condemned is not able to defend himself.

(b) These historical revelations are not lawful unless the conditions mentioned in 2070 are observed. Thus, a historian should not write down details that were told him in confidence by a person long since dead; he should not be swayed either by unreasonable likes or unreasonable dislikes in the expression of his views; he should not publish what will cause harm rather than good, such as circ.u.mstances in the lives of persons recently deceased which, if revealed, will be detrimental to living persons.

2073. It is not always easy to determine whether more harm is likely to result if the persons whose glory is dimmed are high in public esteem on account of the prestige of their office or their great exploits.

Much will depend on circ.u.mstances and on the author's manner of treatment.

(a) Thus, _per se_, or from the nature of things, it does not cause greater harm to narrate truth about the imperfections of great men, for only error or prejudice or evil has reason to fear the truth. The inspired Scriptures themselves deal candidly with the public failings of personages who were high in religious or civil position, for example, the hesitation of Moses, the infidelity of Aaron, the fall of King David, the disobedience of the prophet Jonas, the denials of Peter, the doubts of Thomas, the treason of Judas. These histories are not harmful, but, on the contrary, contain most useful lessons of instruction, warning and direction.

(b) _Per accidens_, or on account of special conditions, it may be more harmful to write of the failings of the great (cfr. 1001). Thus, the cla.s.s of persons for whom one is writing may be immature (e.g., a textbook of history for children would give scandal if it spoke openly of s.e.xual crimes), the conditions of the time may be unfavorable (e.g., a new historical production might lead to injury to some cla.s.s of persons at a time of great prejudice against them), the total effect of a book may be bad (e.g., chronicles of scandals, historical biographies or novels or plays written in a seductive manner). The cla.s.s of modern writers known as "debunkers," whose aim it is to destroy all hero-worship, offend against truth and ideals by the prominence they give to evil, while the so-called psychological historians are frequently purely subjective as well as immoral.

2074. Revelations about Persons Who Figure in the News of the Day.--(a) If the matters revealed are of a public nature, the lawfulness or unlawfulness of the revelation will depend on the reasons for it and the manner in which it is given. In discussing political affairs, a newspaper has the right to call attention to mistakes and faults of public men, since the freedom of the press in this respect is a protection to liberty and to progress, and those who enter public life implicitly consent to criticism of their conduct; in reporting the news, a newspaper has the right to speak of murders, robberies and other public crimes that have been committed, since the common good requires that the authors of public offenses be known as such. But if this kind of news is disserviceable in any instance to the order, peace or dignity of the community, or if the news is obtained in unjust or dishonorable ways, or if the motive is merely to gratify curiosity, to indulge prejudice, or to make money, the newspaper management is morally guilty, even though it may be legally within its right. Yellow journalism and "tabloidism" are reprehensible because they are injurious to the minds and morals of their readers on account of the undue prominence given to crime, even of the most disgusting sort, and the appeal made to sense and emotion rather than to thought.

(b) It the matters revealed are of a private nature, the morality of the revelation has to be judged by the principles given in 2067 sqq. It would be wrong to make a practice of spying into the private life and affairs even of public persons merely to add interest to one's columns; but if there is some really important advantage to the public or to a private person that will be served, and if the other conditions are observed (see 2070), one may publish even private defects that are real and certain.

2075. Injustice in Professional Critics.--(a) Injustice is done by professional critics (such as book reviewers, dramatic and art critics, and the like) to the persons who rely upon their opinion, if there is a compact with them to give a competent and unbiased judgment and the compact is not lived up to by the critic with resultant damage to the client (see 1793). If there is no compact, the critic is nevertheless guilty of deception and uncharitableness, if he performs his office carelessly (e.g., by eulogizing a worthless book or play or picture).

(b) Injustice is done the person criticized, if his work is undervalued purposely (e.g., because the critic is jealous, or in an ill humor or is hired by others to dispraise), or if uncalled-for personalities are indulged in at the expense of the person's fame. A carping critic may by the stroke of the pen spoil the work of years, and hence ignorance does not excuse those censors who practise wholesale and unfair denunciations (see 905).

2076. Coperation in Defamation.--Not only the defamer sins, but also those who coperate with him. Among the coperators with defamation are those who give orders for defamation, those who show how it can be done, those who protect defamers, and those who partic.i.p.ate in defamation by directing the conversation to a certain subject or by joining in the criticisms. The most ordinary form of partic.i.p.ation in defamation is that of the listener, for no one defames successfully unless he has a sympathetic listener. Those who listen to detraction in such a way as to consent to what is said share in the guilt of the detraction. This happens as follows:

(a) the listener consents directly to defamation when he spurs the speaker on (e.g., by saying, "Tell us about So-and-So," by insincerely praising an absent person in order to excite dispraise, by nodding approvingly, cheering, or smiling, by showing great marks of favor to those who bring him news against others or of disfavor to those who refuse to do this), or when he rejoices internally at the defamation he hears, because he hates the victim:

(b) the listener consents indirectly to defamation when he does not spur the speaker on nor approve of what is said, but omits to stop the defamation or to protest against it, when he could and should do one or the other of these things.

2077. Sinfulness of Direct Consent to Defamation.--The listener who consents directly shares in the guilt of the defamer according to the words of St. Paul: "They who do such things (detractors, etc.) are worthy of death, and not only they that do them, but they also that consent to them that do them" (Rom., i. 32), Indeed, St. Bernard says that it is not easy to say which is more deserving of condemnation, to defame or to listen to defamation. But we may distinguish as follows:

(a) he who spurs the defamer on is more guilty than the defamer. This listener sins against the detractor whom he scandalizes by inducing to sin, against the detracted whom he deprives of his good name. Thus, he is both uncharitable to the detractor and unjust to the detracted, and is the moving cause of all the harm that is done (cfr. 2065);

(b) he who hears the defamer willingly may be more guilty internally than the defamer, since his hatred of his neighbor and his love of injustice may be more intense; but externally his sin is less, since, as is supposed, he is not bound to resist the defamation and he does not give any coperation to the external injustice. He sins against justice affectively (i.e., in wish), but not effectively (i.e., in word or deed).

2078. Persons Who Listen from Curiosity.--What of those listeners who hear defamation willingly, not because they approve of the harm or evil that is being done, but because they are unusually curious or the speaker is unusually interesting?

(a) If these listeners could and should stop the defamation, they consent to it indirectly by their silence and thus are guilty (cfr.

2079).

(b) If these listeners are not able or are not bound to stop the defamation, some would nevertheless hold them guilty of grave sin, since they wish to hear something only because the knowledge will give them pleasure, knowing all the while that this knowledge cannot be had except at the expense of the good opinion they have of a neighbor. But the general view is that in this case there is no grave sin; for the listener does not approve of the moral evil (he is interested only in the graceful or eloquent or witty manner of the speaker, or the strangeness of the things related, or he is only concerned to hear the latest news, cfr. 234), and what he hears does not cause the lowering of his neighbor in his own opinion. But here it is supposed that the listener in no way encourages the defamation and that he is not bound to stop it. Curiosity about things that do not concern one is, however, a venial sin.

2079. Sinfulness of Indirect Consent to Defamation.--The listener who consents indirectly to defamation by not impeding it as he should is also guilty of sin, and in Scripture his conduct is strongly forbidden: "Have nothing to do with detractors" (Prov., xxiv. 21); "Hedge in thy ears with thorns, hear not a wicked tongue" (Ecclus., xxviii. 28).

(a) It is commonly admitted that the listener in question sins doubly against charity, and grievously if the defamation is seriously harmful; for he sins against the detractor by refusing to give a brotherly correction (see 1258 sqq.), and he sins also against the one detracted by refusing to raise his voice in behalf of the absent who cannot defend himself.

(b) It is also commonly admitted that, if the listener is the superior of the defamer or of the person defamed, he sins more gravely, since he is specially bound to correct his subject who is detracting in his presence, or to defend his absent subject who is being defamed. If the listener is a private person not responsible for the defamed person's reputation, he does not sin against justice by his indirect consent to the defamation. Indeed, the inferiors or equals of the defamer rarely sin gravely by their neglecting to oppose his defamatory remarks.

2080. Guilt of Superior Who Consents to Defamation.--Is the superior who indirectly consents to defamation of a non-subject by a subject guilty thereby of injustice?

(a) As regards the spiritual injury (i.e., the guilt of sin incurred by the defamer), the superior is guilty of injustice towards his subject, if by reason of his office or contract he is bound to correct faults and neglects to do so. Thus, a bishop or pastor is supported by his people, and there is at least an implied agreement that he will direct them in spiritual matters and reprove their faults. Hence, it seems that a spiritual superior of this kind is unjust, if he fails to correct a subordinate who carries defamatory tales to his ears.

(b) As regards the temporary injury (i.e., the detriment to fame incurred by the person maligned), all depends on whether the superior is bound by reason of his office or contract to prevent injury to non-subjects by those who are his subjects. If the superior exercises his authority in the temporal order and has an agreement with those not subject to him to protect them against defamation by his subjects, he is bound in justice to abide by his agreement. But the common opinion is that a superior in the spiritual order is not responsible _ex officio_ for the fame or other temporal welfare of those not subject to him.

2081. Is the superior who indirectly consents to defamation of a subject guilty thereby of injustice?

(a) If the superior has authority in the temporal order, he is unjust by his inaction, in so far as law, custom or agreement hold him to prevent the defamation of his subject. Thus, a guardian entrusted with the care of his ward's reputation is unjust if he makes no effort to prevent defamation of the latter.

(b) If the superior is in the spiritual order, some believe that he is unjust by inaction, since fame is closely connected with spiritual goods, being necessary for moral influence over others and useful for personal perseverance in virtue. But others--and it seems more commonly--deny this, and state that the relation between fame and spiritual goods is only accidental.

2082. Circ.u.mstances Which Lessen Guilt of Indirect Consent.--Indirect consent to defamation is often only a venial sin. (a) Thus, by reason of the lightness of the matter, as when only trivial defects are mentioned by the defamer; (b) by reason of insufficient reflection, as when the listener is distracted in mind and does not clearly advert to the sinfulness of the words he hears; (c) by reason of insufficient consent, as when the failure to stop or protest against the defamation is due to slight laziness, to bashfulness, or to fear of the speaker, at least when the defamation is not extremely harmful to fame or other good, or gravely slanderous.

2083. Inaction in the Face of Defamation.--Inaction in the face of defamation of a third party is sometimes no sin at all.

(a) Thus, there is no sin when one is unable to act (e.g., when a slanderous speech is being delivered by a person in authority who will not suffer any interruption to be made), or is unable to act with any success (e.g., when the attempt to correct would provoke worse defamation, when the listener is too unskilled to refute or remonstrate). Scrupulous persons should not attempt to correct, since they are not suited for this. Their attempts to defend an absent person would generally make them ridiculous, and would often be unjust to the person whom they suspected of defamation.

(b) There is no sin when one is not obliged to act (e.g., when interference will expose one to very serious evils, when the defamation is not grave or is not taken very seriously, when the listener is uncertain whether the speaker is really guilty of defamation or whether he himself is bound to intervene). It is sometimes unwise to interrupt a defamatory story, for many such story seems to promise dire disclosures at its beginning, but when heard to the end is seen to be an affair of no importance or to contain little that is new or startling or credible.

2084. Ways of Opposing Defamation Made in One's Presence.--(a) Positive resistance is made by a command to the defamer to be silent, or by refutation of his words if they are false, or by a rebuke if his words are true. This mode of correction is generally required if the listener is the superior of the defamer, and is sometimes suitable if he is the latter's equal.

(b) Negative resistance is made by leaving the company, by having no share in the conversation, by changing the subject, by showing displeasure or at least gravity in one's looks or acts: "The north wind driveth away rain, as doth a sad countenance a backbiting tongue"

(Prov., xxv. 23). This mode of resistance is usually the proper one for an inferior, and as a rule is found more satisfactory even between equals (see 1267).

2085. Rest.i.tution for Defamation.--Rest.i.tution for injuries committed is necessary (see 1759), and hence it is required of the defamer. In the language of Scripture (Prov., xiii. 13), he that speaks ill of his neighbor obliges himself for the future. The two injuries to be repaired are: (a) the unjust taking, that is, the fame of which he has deprived his neighbor; (b) the unjust damage, that is, the detriment to fame or the losses that resulted from the defamation (such as failure to obtain or keep a position, decline of business, etc., which were foreseen at least in a confused manner). It is clear there is no duty of rest.i.tution, if in spite of talk against a neighbor he suffered no loss (e.g., if the listeners gave no heed or credence to the talk).

2086. Gravity of Obligation of Rest.i.tution.--The obligation of rest.i.tution for defamation is grave or light according to the degree of injury done, and the grave obligation binds even at the expense of serious inconvenience, the light obligation at the cost of small inconvenience. But the following points should be noted:

(a) the injury is not necessarily grave if the defect imputed to another is grave, for many circ.u.mstances have to be considered (e.g., blasphemy is a serious charge, but it would not be very harmful to a man publicly known as very impious, see 2053 sqq.);

(b) the injury is not necessarily slight if the defect imputed is slight, for circ.u.mstances may make the injury considerable (e.g., it is not very defamatory to say that a woman is very talkative, or unable to speak or spell correctly, but this would be very damaging if it lost the woman a very lucrative position as secretary).

2087. Conditions Which Entail Duty of Rest.i.tution.--Rest.i.tution is not obligatory unless one is the unjust and efficacious author of the damage (see 1763). Hence, disclosures unfavorable to the reputation of others entail the duty of rest.i.tution only when the following conditions are present:

(a) the detriment to fame or other loss must be unjust objectively, and hence those who have a just reason for exposing the vices of others are not held to rest.i.tution;