Moral duty to correct superiors

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Do Catholics have a moral duty to instruct superiors if something they are doing constitutes grave matter?

Is there anything about this in the Catechism or any other official Church teaching?

Thanks!
 
We have a moral duty to instruct those who are under our authority (our children, if we are a teacher our students, if we are a priest our parishioners). We are to give respect to those placed in authority over us.

Catechism Catechism of the Catholic Church - Paragraph # 2197

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

He was obedient to them.

The Lord Jesus himself recalled the force of this “commandment of God.” The Apostle teaches: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother,’ (This is the first commandment with a promise.) 'that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth.”’

2197 The fourth commandment opens the second table of the Decalogue. It shows us the order of charity. God has willed that, after him, we should honor our parents to whom we owe life and who have handed on to us the knowledge of God. We are obliged to honor and respect all those whom God, for our good, has vested with his authority.

2199 The fourth commandment is addressed expressly to children in their relationship to their father and mother, because this relationship is the most universal. It likewise concerns the ties of kinship between members of the extended family. It requires honor, affection, and gratitude toward elders and ancestors. Finally, it extends to the duties of pupils to teachers, employees to employers, subordinates to leaders, citizens to their country, and to those who administer or govern it.

This commandment includes and presupposes the duties of parents, instructors, teachers, leaders, magistrates, those who govern, all who exercise authority over others or over a community of persons.
 
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Instruct superiors is not a clear enough term. Your boss at Walmart, the CEO of a company, an army general, parents, a parish priest, a bishop or the Pope himself? I suppose when we are in a position to correct we can. A son could instruct his pregnant mother that abortion is wrong. A woman could tell the Pope to go back to his seat in Rome.
 
Do Catholics have a moral duty to instruct superiors if something they are doing constitutes grave matter?
Sure. Hardly a day goes by on this very forum when folks don’t “correct” papal teaching on a variety of topics . . .:roll_eyes:😱:roll_eyes:
 
You’d have to be very sure you’re talking about a grave moral wrong …
 
The OP said parents which begs an interesting question. Surely when we are children our parents are superior to us. And even when grown we owe them honor but in no way is my mother a moral or theological superior to me.
 
The fact is I am unsure if they would believe me that this is still grave matter, or how I would go about telling them, “hey, that’s a mortal sin”
 
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