[Mad Dawg]

Schadenfreude does, I think, more or less fall under Envy. I would, following Augustine ( more precisely Dorothy Sayers's explanation of Augustine in her notes to the Purgatorio) view the Deadlies as disorders, either in excess or in defect, of Love.

In that scheme envy is insufficient love of our neighbor's good, and certainly "rejoicing at the evil"(1 Cor 13 somewhere or other) is a severe case of failing to love my neighbor's good.

So Spitzer's downfall is a spiritual temptation, and we have, I think, to suppress the urge to cheer and instead to thank God that we have not been so tempted and not so succumbed and to pray that this calamity (for him) be an occasion of his turning to God in repentance.

Yeah, I know that sounds pious, but that's my current struggle as regards Bro. Spitzer.

[Appleby]

I am not whooping with joy over Mr. Spitzer’s being hoist with his own petard; sanctimony is also a sin.

However, I do have to (and in fact did) confess that I DID whoop with joy every time Michael Schumacher crashed out of a race, and was one of those enjoying his humiliation in Austria after he blatantly stole a race from his teammate and only realized that the entire racing world had seen him do it when he finished his “victory lap” and climbed out of the car.

I would like to say that I piously prayed it would be a lesson to him, but after all, he is German.