Is a lie ever justified?

[GraceSofia]

Out of curiousity, what do you mean by “apparently”…Is the bold statement your opinion or your understanding of Catholic teaching? I would refute this assertion as I don’t believe murderers have the right to know the truth which would aid them in effecting a murder. We do not have an obligation to tell the truth in this instance and I believe the Vatican was correct in falsifying documents to save lives. No harm was done to the one who “had the right to know” and that is the major reason that God does not want us to lie because lying violates justice and harms our neighbor, neither of which would apply to murderous Nazis. If the Vatican can “lie” to save lives then we can in good conscience learn from her example.

FNDRB,
This thread was started almost a year ago, and for some reason Cam came back to revive it.
I’m just saying, don’t be surprised if Wilf doesn’t answer.

 

[Cam_Wilkinson]

Unfortunately, “Veritatis Splendour,” Aquinas, Augustine and the principle of double effect don’t concur. The issue originally came up because an individual with a long term illness and consequent medical and insurance screwups was confronted with the choice of falsifying his resume to get a job or never working again and dying in the missions.

This is an actual case, unlike the the artificial ones in “Difficult Moral Cases” by Germaine Griisez. Nevertheless, that fact still doesn’t affect the invariance of the underlying moral principles.

More later. I have to go to bed. I only responded yesterday because I received a belated forum email.