Ends not justifying means

[PeterMuz]

If it is permitted it is NOT due to the intention. The Church is very clear that the a good intention or circumstance can not make an intrinsic evil into a good. PERIOD.

If it is permitted…it would have to be due to the nature of the ‘to lie’ as an object.
Perhaps it is then not a lie for some reason…rather it is something else.

If someone asked you a yes or no answer and you intentionally gave them false information then that is a lie or “false witness”, with is one of the ten commandments. I fail to see how this is not a lie. I understand your point below about the how serious the sin would be and how culpability can be reduced due to certain things. But in regards to the quote from the Catechism… Is it at all possible that the “circumstances reduce the agent’s responsibility” to where choosing to lie, which is evil, is acceptable/permissible? The part of the paragraph that I am questioning is “such as acting out of a fear of death”.

Or it is just that yes it is a lie…but it would be venial sin …and the circumstances CAN then REDUCE the culpability even further…so that it is a very very very slight sin.

one that God ‘understands’ (given our fallen world…our weakness and difficulty with making up a good mental reservation…and he knows the evil that we overcame)…and one that is wiped away in a second with the mere raising of the heart to God…

Catechism:

1754 The circumstances, including the consequences, are secondary elements of a moral act. They contribute to increasing or diminishing the moral goodness or evil of human acts (for example, the amount of a theft). They can also diminish or increase the agent’s responsibility (such as acting out of a fear of death). Circumstances of themselves cannot change the moral quality of acts themselves; they can make neither good nor right an action that is in itself evil.

vatican.va/archive/catechism/p3s1c1a4.htm#II

So let’s use the Nazi Germany example… If you knew that if you told the truth that the Jews you were hiding in your house would be killed, just like the millions of other, would you have lied to save a life?

 

[davidv]

If someone asked you a yes or no answer and you intentionally gave them false information then that is a lie or “false witness”, with is one of the ten commandments. I fail to see how this is not a lie. I understand your point below about the how serious the sin would be and how culpability can be reduced due to certain things. But in regards to the quote from the Catechism… Is it at all possible that the “circumstances reduce the agent’s responsibility” to where choosing to lie, which is evil, is acceptable/permissible? The part of the paragraph that I am questioning is “such as acting out of a fear of death”.

So let’s use the Nazi Germany example… If you knew that if you told the truth that the Jews you were hiding in your house would be killed, just like the millions of other, would you have lied to save a life?

The Catechism says this:

2489 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 discreet 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.

This means to me that we are not obligated to reveal the truth in all cases. To not do so is not “lyng” in the case where the person asking has no right to the information.