Moral Reservation

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WonderAndAwe

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So I recently saw someone argue that moral reservation is like Catholic Taqiya (that Muslim lying doctrine thing) and it was employed and endorsed during that heinous clergy sex abuse scandal and it’s proof why the church doesn’t care about truth and can write lying as being “moral from a certain point of view.”

How do I answer this, explain it isn’t the same, and counter claims that until it was uncovered, the cover up of the scandal was considered “moral?”
 
Presumably you mean *mental *reservation.

One important point regarding mental reservations is that they may not be used when there is a right to the truth. They are only used when there is no right to know the truth and are used instead of an outright lie in such circumstances.

With regard to clergy sex abuse, there is no need to try to defend the indefensible.
 
I take it you are not obliged to enter the discussion. We sometimes forget that is the strongest card in ordinary folks’ hands.

I admit to studying this situation. It appears there is a certain amount of validity in that (vaguely put). To be fair one has to be certain of how much it isn’t happening, put yourself in their shoes and think whether that will appear a credible thing of you to say in the context.

There were murky policies in some places for some periods. It wll take 150 years to put right.

Leave the leaders’ battles to the leaders but pray for them.

If you care about truth ask God that another human being on earth will also care about truth. Then you will know that you are not alone.
 
I haven’t done the research, but I wouldn’t be surprised if mental reservation was used as an excuse to keep secrets. It would not be the same as lying though. Lying is saying something that is not true. With mental reservation, the truth is said but maybe not the whole truth. No lie is told, but some information is withheld. In case of the clergy abuse scandal, I think lies were actually told, but many church leaders convinced themselves it was the truth. For one, they believed that priests that had abused could be cured. We know these days most people that have abused will abuse again if the opportunity arises. Second, they knew how huge of a betrayal it was to find that priests had committed these sins and feared the Church would collapse if it came out. Unfortunately, they didn’t see that the damage to the Church would be much worse the longer it was kept secret.
 
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