452 FALSE WITNESS

YOUCAT Lesson 452, August 22, 2015

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

The Eighth Commandment: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

452  What does the Eighth Commandment require of us?

The Eighth Commandment teaches us not to lie.  Lying means consciously and intentionally speaking or acting against the truth.  Someone who lies deceived himself and misleads others who have a right to know the truth of a matter.  [2464, 2467-2468, 2483, 2485-2486]

“Often a campaign will use outside organizations, such as lobby groups, to launch attacks. These can be claimed to be coming from a neutral source and if the allegations turn out not to be true the attacking candidate will not be damaged if the links cannot be proven. Negative campaigning can be conducted by proxy. For instance, highly partisan ads were placed in the 2004 U.S. presidential election by allegedly independent bodies like MoveOn.org and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.”

“Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, formerly known as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth(SBVT), was a political group (527 group) of United States Swift boat veterans and former prisoners of war of the Vietnam War, formed during the 2004 presidential election campaign for the purpose of opposing John Kerry's candidacy for the presidency. The campaign inspired the widely used political pejorative "swiftboating", to describe an unfair or untrue political attack. The group disbanded and ceased operations on May 31, 2008.”—Wikipedia

Every lie is an offense against justice and charity.  Lying is a form of violence; it introduces the seed of division into a community and undermines the trust on which every human community is based.

  

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”   

 “Misusing words means despising people”.  Dag Hammarskjold (1905-1961, Swedish U.N. General Secretary, mystic)

[2464, 2467-2468, 2483, 2485-2486]

  

THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT

  

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (Exodus 20:16; compare Deuteronomy 5:20.)²⁵³

It was said to the men of old, "You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn." (Matthew 5:33.)²⁵⁴  –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

2464 The eighth commandment forbids misrepresenting the truth in our relations with others. This moral prescription flows from the vocation of the holy people to bear witness to their God who is the truth and wills the truth. Offenses against the truth express by word or deed a refusal to commit oneself to moral uprightness: they are fundamental infidelities to God and, in this sense, they undermine the foundations of the covenant. --CCC

--Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

 I.            LIVING IN THE TRUTH

 2467 Man tends by nature toward the truth. He is obliged to honor and bear witness to it: "It is in accordance with their dignity that all men, because they are persons . . . are both impelled by their nature and bound by a moral obligation to seek the truth, especially religious truth. They are also bound to adhere to the truth once they come to know it and direct their whole lives in accordance with the demands of truth." (Dignitatis Humanae 2 § 2.)²⁶² –CCC

 2468 Truth as uprightness in human action and speech is called truthfulness, sincerity, or candor. Truth or truthfulness is the virtue which consists in showing oneself true in deeds and truthful in words, and in guarding against duplicity, dissimulation, and hypocrisy. –CCC

2483 Lying is the most direct offense against the truth. To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead someone into error. By injuring man's relation to truth and to his neighbor, a lie offends against the fundamental relation of man and of his word to the Lord. –CCC

2485 By its very nature, lying is to be condemned. It is a profanation of speech, whereas the purpose of speech is to communicate known truth to others. The deliberate intention of leading a neighbor into error by saying things contrary to the truth constitutes a failure in justice and charity. The culpability is greater when the intention of deceiving entails the risk of deadly consequences for those who are led astray. –CCC

2486 Since it violates the virtue of truthfulness, a lie does real violence to another. It affects his ability to know, which is a condition of every judgment and decision. It contains the seed of discord and all consequent evils. Lying is destructive of society; it undermines trust among men and tears apart the fabric of social relationships. --CCC