The Eighth Commandment
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
The section in the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the eighth commandment
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begins with this summary: “The eighth commandment forbids
misrepresenting the truth in our relations with others. This moral
their God who is the truth and wills the truth. Offenses against the truth
express by word or deed a refusal to commit oneself to moral upright-
undermine the foundations of the covenant.” (CCC 2464)
Offenses against the eighth commandment include false witness and perjury,
or lying under oath; rash judgment, believing the worst of another
and failings to persons who did not know them; calumny, lying about
another to harm their reputation, and boasting or bragging.
And of course the most direct offense against the truth, lying. The Catechism
number 2484 tells us, “The gravity of a lie is measured against
the nature of the truth it deforms, the circumstances, the intentions of the
one who lies, and the harm suffered by its victims. If a lie in itself only
constitutes a venial sin, it becomes mortal when it does grave injury to
the virtues of justice and charity.”
Finally, we are called to right the wrongs we have done through offenses
to the eighth commandment, what the Catechism refers to as “the duty
of reparation.” “This reparation, moral and sometimes material, must
conscience.” (CCC 2487)
For further study:
CCC 2464-2513
Matthew 5:33-37