Calumny
calumny
(Latin: calvor, to use artifice, deception)
Any deception of another, especially in judicial matters, commonly used to mean unjust damaging of another’s character by imputing to him something of which he is not guilty. It is an act which varies in sinfulness according to the gravity of the fault or crime imputed and the damage done. It calls for retraction and for reparation of the damage done, provided this had been foreseen. In canon law , the oath taken to attest that the litigation on both sides is in good faith is called juramentum calumnire (oath disclaiming calumny).
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Calumny
(Lat. calvor, to use artifice, to deceive)
Etymologically any form of ruse or fraud employed to deceive another, particularly in judicial proceedings. In its more commonly accepted signification it means the unjust damaging of the good name of another by imputing to him a crime or fault of which he is not guilty. The sin thus committed is in a general sense mortal, just as is detraction. It is hardly necessary, however, to observe that as in other breaches of the law the sin may be venial, either because of the trivial character of the subject-matter involved or because of insufficient deliberation in the making of the accusation. Objectively, a calumny is a mortal sin when it is calculated to do serious harm to the person so traduced. Just as in the instance of wrongful damage to person or estate, so the calumniator is bound to adequate reparation for the injury perpetrated by the blackening of another’s good name. He is obliged (1) to retract his false statements, and that even though his own reputation may necessarily as a consequence suffer. (2) He must also make good whatever other losses have been sustained by the innocent party as a result of his libellous utterances, provided these same have been in some measure (in confuso) foreseen by him. In canon law the phrase juramentum calumniae is employed to indicate the oath taken by the parties to a litigation, by which they averred that the action was brought and the defence offered in good faith.
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JOSEPH F. DELANY Transcribed by Gerald M. Knight
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IIICopyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, November 1, 1908. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Calumny
The law of the early Church enjoined a heavy penalty upon those guilty of perjury. By can. 73 of the Council of Eliberis, “He that bears false witness against another, to the loss of his life or liberty, is not to be received to communion even at his last hour.” In a lighter case, he was to do penance for five years, before he was reconciled and perfectly restored to the peace of the Church. Bingham, Christ. Antig. bk. xvi, c. xii, 15. SEE DETRACTION; SEE SLANDER.