Free Republic

Francis meets priests, nuns and seminarians and leaves aside his written speech, “When you want to bad-mouth somebody, bite your tongue. What a nice thing to see the elderly nuns with eyes shining with joy and peace after a life spent serving”

Every now and then I’m reminded of just how clever Satan can be, especially during Lent.Consider, for example, a pernicious little sin that seems to have taken root and grown in the age of social media: detraction. I’ve been seeing it more and more. Nobody really talks about it or the harm it inflicts — though the pope has stressed, often, the inherent evil of its close cousin,  gossip. (The pontiff has even compared gossip to terrorism.)So what’s the big deal? Let me count the ways.First, the catechism teaches that detraction is a sin against the eighth commandment: 2477 Respect for the reputation of persons forbids every attitude and...

Featured Term (selected at random):DEFAMATION Unjust injury of a person's good name. It consists in telling facts that harm another's reputation. In defamation, there is at least an implicit intention to harm the reputation of another, who is absent and therefore not a witness to being defamed. Defamation may be committed in tow ways: by spreading injurious facts that are true but not publicly known, or by saying things that are false. Since defamation violates commutative justice, it involves the duty of making reparation for the foreseen injury inflicted. Hence the defamer must try, not only to repair the harm...