Day 322: Respect for Truth (2488-2499)

• It’s Day 322!!

• RESPECT FOR THE TRUTH

• The ways in which we appropriate the truth and approach other people with the truth is governed by the truth itself and also by love and fraternal charity

• Paragraph 2488 says, “The right to the communication of the truth is not unconditional. Everyone must conform his life to the Gospel precept of fraternal love. This requires us in concrete situations to judge whether or not it is appropriate to reveal the truth to someone who asks for it.”

• We will also look at the seal of the Sacrament of Reconciliation where the priest may not reveal what was ever spoken in Confession

• THE USE OF THE SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA

• What is the right to communicate?

• What authority and responsibility do civil authorities have when it comes to the communication of the truth in the media

• Let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we ask you to please, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, send your Holy Spirit to be with us, to guide our lives and guide our days, guide our each moment. Lord God, guide our speech in so many ways. We ask you to, please, set a guard over our lips that we will only speak the words that people need to hear, things that will really help them. Help us to be men and women who are not only filled with the truth, but walk in the truth, live the truth, and speak the truth. For you, Lord Jesus Christ, are the way, and the life, and the truth. And we make this prayer in your name. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• Paragraph 2488 says, “The right to the communication of the truth is not unconditional. Everyone must conform his life to the Gospel precept of fraternal love. This requires us in concrete situations to judge whether or not it is appropriate to reveal the truth to someone who asks for it.”

• You don’t always have to say what you think

• You don’t always have to say the truth

• Paragraph 2489 says, “Charity and respect for the truth should dictate the response to every request for information or communication. The good and safety of others, respect for privacy, and the common good are sufficient reasons for being silent about what ought not be known or for making use of a discrete language. The duty to avoid scandal often commands strict discretion. No one is bound to reveal the truth to someone who does not have the right to know it.”

• I don’t have to say everything that I even know to be true

• What do you do if you are hiding Jews in your basement and the Gestapo stops by?

• No one is bound to reveal the truth to someone who does not have a right to know it

• Paragraph 2490 says, “The secret of the sacrament of reconciliation is sacred, and cannot be violated under any pretext. ‘The sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore, it is a crime for  a confessor in any way to betray a penitent by word or in any other manner or for any reason.”

• This is a big deal

• It is essential for the sake of the confidence that people have to have when they come before the Lord with their worst

• It is laid at the foot of the Cross and it stays there

• Jesus deals with it

• Paragraph 2491 says, “Professional secrets-for example, those of political office holders, soldiers, physicians, and lawyers-or confidential information given under the seal of secrecy must be kept, save in exceptional cases where keeping the secret is bound to cause very grave harm to the one who confided it, to the one who received it or to a third party, and where the very grave harm can be avoided only by divulging the truth. Even if not confided under the seal of secrecy, private information prejudicial to another is not to be divulged without a grave and proportionate reason.”

• There is such a thing as secrets that need to be kept

• Why?

• Out of respect for the dignity of others

• Out of respect for the common good

• Out of respect for the individuals

• Paragraph 2492 says, “Everyone should observe an appropriate reserve concerning persons’ private lives. Those in charge of communications should maintain a fair balance between the requirements of the common good and respect for the individual rights. Interference by the media in the private lives of persons engaged in political or public activity is to be condemned to the extent that it infringes upon their privacy and freedom.”

• This is within the requirements of the common good and respect for individual rights

• Just because someone is in the public eye does no mean that everything about their life ought to be made public 

• We have to ask ourselves if we need to know this

• So what is your thing?

• Is it tabloid or gossip magazines?

• Is it gossip podcasts?

• Even gossip news stations that think if you are in the public eye, then we get to know everything about you

• If you are a singer, we want to know about all of your relationships, who you are dating, who you broke up with

• Is this something that is good for us as human beings?

• The fact that we can call it gossip journalism highlights the fact that this is something we don’t need to know

• This requires discernment especially if these are people in authority like political figures

• Are they a person of character?

• Are they a person of honor?

• Are they a person who can keep their promises in secret and in public?

• Even with regard to news

• The news can dominate a person’s life

• We all have family members who always have some news channel going on in the background

• Paragraph 2496 says, “The means of social communication (especially the mass media) can give rise to a certain passivity among users, making them less than vigilant consumers of what is said or shown. Users should practice moderation and discipline in their approach to the mass media. They will want to form enlightened and correct consciences the more easily to resist unwholesome influences.”

• Paragraph 2499 says, “Moral judgment must condemn the plague of totalitarian states which systematically falsify the truth, exercise political control of opinion through the media, manipulate defendants and witnesses at public trials, and imagine that they secure their tyranny by strangling and repressing everything they consider ‘thought crimes.’”

• This is the history of humanity

• As long there has been journalism and social communications media, this has been a temptation for many people

• Not everyone does this and not everyone is accused of doing this

• But it can and has happened 

• We have to try to be wise as we walk through this world

• We have to realize that just because someone says something does not make it true

• IN FACT…

• The temptation for people who have power or people who want power is how can they get people to stay on their side?

• How can they manipulate people through dissemination of information or disinformation?

• That is a real thing

• We need to recognize that there are thoughts that we do not like and there are thoughts we think are not true

• There are statements we do not like

• There are philosophies we do not like

• The way forward is not to hide them away or make them illegal to say out like

• The BEST way to arrive at the truth is to bring the true statement to the light

• The best way is to examine the philosophy rather than try to hide it away

• It is a dangerous road to call certain things “thought crimes”

• That is the road of the totalitarian

• That is the road of the tyrant

• We are made to be a free people

• A free people have to risk being wrong 

• A free people has to risk offending people

• A free people have to risk disturbing people when telling the truth or in the pursuit of the truth

• That is what is going to happen in a world where we are all searching for the truth

• Some people want power more than truth

• So we have to be on guard against that

• Not only in public life

• Not only in our society

• BUT…

• Also in our relationships and in ourselves

• When I find myself clinging to power more than to truth, then I need to do some self-evaluation and some repentance

• All these things bring us back to this place where the Lord can convict us

• “Lord, help me to not only grasp the truth, to apprehend the truth, to know the truth, but also to live the truth that I know and to walk in freedom. And help my brothers and sisters to walk in truth and in freedom, as well.”

• That is an act of grace

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT…