Skip to main content

8-28-18 Character Assassination

Character Assassination


News: Commentary
by Bradley Eli, M.Div., Ma.Th.  •  ChurchMilitant.com  •  September 28, 2018   

Abp. Viganò: Avoiding grave harm trumps keeping professional secrets

You are not signed in as a Premium user; we rely on Premium users to support our news reporting. Sign in or Sign up today!

The former papal nuncio to the United States is emphasizing the Catholic teaching that professional secrets may be revealed if keeping them would cause grave harm.
In his second public statement in a month, Abp. Carlo Maria Viganò on Thursday cited paragraph 2491 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church to explain when it is moral to break professional secrets.
[The] purpose of any secret, including the pontifical secret, is to protect the Church from her enemies, not to cover up and become complicit in crimes committed by some of her members. ... the Catechism of the Catholic Church states (par. 2491), the seal of secrecy is not binding when very grave harm can be avoided only by divulging the truth.

Paragraph 2491 of the Catechism does teach when it's morally proper to break such secrets.
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.
In his recent letter, Abp. Viganò expressed that his choice to reveal particular papal secrets was, for him, the "most painful and serious decision" he's ever made in his life. The archbishop said his decision was made "during a crescendo of continual news of terrible events, with thousands of innocent victims destroyed and the vocations and lives of young priests and religious disturbed."
After much prayer and reflection, he determined that keeping silent in the face of such grave harm was morally wrong: "The silence of the pastors who could have provided a remedy and prevented new victims became increasingly indefensible, a devastating crime for the Church."
The former nuncio makes it clear that he's not talking about the secrecy surrounding the sacrament of confession, which can never be violated for any reason.
"Only the seal of confession could have justified my silence," writes Viganò.
Watch the panel discuss how keeping secrets may cause grave harm in Friday's Download—Character Assassination. This week's topics on The Download include the gay clergy network and psychological warfare, among others.
Catch The Download live Monday–Friday at 10:30 a.m. ET at Church Militant. To view every episode, sign up for a Premium subscription and receive hundreds of hours of quality Catholic content.
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

9-16-23 Santa Staleness

Santa Staleness :: By Edwin Tan Published on: December 24, 2022 by RR10 Category:General Articles My one and only trip to Israel had more than a profound effect on my present-day psyche. It might have been three decades ago, but there is more than a lingering aftertaste. It happened smack in the last fortnight of the year. Surprisingly absent were the familiar sights and sounds of the Christmas most people are accustomed to. Hardly any Christmas decorations in downtown Tel Aviv, if not any of the shopping thoroughfares across the Holy Land. Hanukah was a breath of fresh air – not anything resembling a Christmas carol most people grew up with did surface. The Christmas Eve service in a small Protestant church not far away from Jerusalem’s Old City was awesome; songs that truly celebrated the virgin birth of our Lord, which though seemingly unheard of, were a welcome inspiration to many a soul. There was even one sung in Arabic! So it began, my overt disdain for the secular Christmas t...
Read more

9-25-23 The Farm Chronicles: One Christmas

The Farm Chronicles: One Christmas :: By Bill Wilson Published on: December 24, 2022 by RR10 Category:Bill Wilson, General Articles There are a lot of terrible things going on right now in the world. But we are at the time of the year when we, as Christians, celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. We can choose to be impacted by the world around us in its dimly lit arena, or we can choose to let our light so shine. I choose the latter. I want to tell you a little about the Christmas that I had growing up on our family farm in Ohio. I was blessed to be born into a horse and cattle farm that has been in our family for some 200 years. And Christmas, especially Christmas Eve, was a wonderful time for our family. December 24 was my Dad’s birthday. And my Dad was well-loved by his neighbors and friends, so we had a lot going on Christmas Eve. I remember one special Christmas Eve. I must have been about four years old. The night was falling, and the wind and snow were whipping across the barny...
Read more

9-15-23 Miracles 2

Miracles 2 :: By Jim Towers Published on: December 21, 2022 by RR10 Category:General Articles This story is a continuation of the exciting things God continues doing in my life. I was supposed to have died a while back, and sometimes I feel as though I may do so soon. But since I’m ready to meet my maker, I have no fear of death. In fact, my evangelistic zeal has only increased, especially as I see the fast approaching of the “Tribulation period” mentioned in the book of Revelation. Insofar as my acting career is concerned, I just finished filming a soliloquy featuring Melchior, one of the three Magi who followed the star to Christ lying in the manger, and am preparing to portray a Jewish Priest on stage. Like I said, God is working overtime in my life, and I will be appearing on stage singing Broadway show tunes sometime in March, so I have a lot of rehearsing to do. In the meantime, I will be signing Christmas carols acapella at a park here in Naples. Since it is a spontaneous th...
Read more