Catechism of the Catholic Church - The eighth commandment
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
III. OFFENSES AGAINST TRUTH
2475 Christ's disciples have "put on the new man, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."273 By "putting away falsehood," they are to "put away all malice and all guile and insincerity and envy and all slander."274
2476 False witness and perjury. Whit is made publicly, a statement contrary to the truth takes on a particular gravity. In court it becomes false witness.275 When it is under oath, it is perjury. Acts such as these contribute to condemnation of the innocent, exoneration of the guilty, or the increased punishment of the accused.276 They gravely compromise the exercise of justice and the fairness of judicial decisions.
2477 Respect for the reputation of persons forbids every attitude and word likely to cause them unjust injury.277 He becomes guilty:
- of
rash judgment who, even tacitly, assumes as true, without sufficient foundation, the moral fault of a neighbor;
- of
detraction who, without objectively valid reason,
discloses another's faults and failings to persons who
did not know them;278
- of
calumny who, by remarks contrary to the truth, harms the reputation of others and gives occasion for false judgments concerning them.
2478 To avoid rash judgment, everyone should be careful to interpret insofar as possible his neighbor's thoughts, words, and deeds in a favorable way:
