The question of truth in the media is not a specialists' quarrel, nor a technical debate about tools. It is one of the great moral and social questions of our time. Every day, billions of human beings form their judgment about the world — about war, health, the economy, their neighbors, their Church — from what they read, see and hear on screens. If that information is true, it nourishes freedom and communion; if it is false, distorted or truncated, it slowly poisons the trust that holds a society upright. "There is no such thing as harmless disinformation," warns Pope Francis: "trusting in falsehood has serious consequences"[1].
The Catholic answer starts from a simple and demanding conviction. Human speech is not a neutral instrument that can be bent to any end: its "task is to communicate to others the truth known"[2], and to betray it is "real violence to another"[3]. Carried by the means of social communication — press, radio, television, and today digital networks — this speech acquires unprecedented power: it shapes the "public opinion"[4] of entire continents. That is why the Church, far from despising the media, regards them as an ambiguous and precious gift, subject like every human action to the moral law[5], and bearing a genuine social right: "Society has a right to information based on truth, freedom, justice, and solidarity"[6].
This article sets out the Catholic overview of truth in the media: what it is, on what biblical and doctrinal foundation it rests, what the magisterium has said about it from Inter Mirifica (1963) to Francis, what evils threaten it — disinformation, mass calumny, sensationalism, post-truth —, what duties follow for communicators, for the public and for public authorities, and what path of hope the Gospel proposes: a "journalism for peace" and free consciences. Neighboring topics have their own articles, to which we refer without duplicating them: lying in public life and transparency (corruption), deepfakes and automated communication (AI and Catholic doctrine), freedom of expression as such, and the isolation of hearts behind screens (modern loneliness).
What is "truth in the media"?
Before judging, we must name things exactly. The expression "truth in the media" does not first designate the material accuracy of an isolated fact — this date, that figure — but the uprightness of the whole chain of public communication: what is sought, verified, selected, shaped, broadcast and received. A piece of information can be "true" in each of its words and yet lie through its editing, its framing, its omissions or its intention. The truth the Church speaks of is at once a demand upon the content (the facts) and upon the manner (the way), as the Catechism says, quoting Vatican II.
"The proper exercise of this right requires that the content of the communication always be true and — within the limits set by justice and charity — complete. Furthermore the manner of communicating should be honest and decent." — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2494, quoting Inter Mirifica 5[7]
A moral and social question, not only a technical one
The problem is often reduced to technology: algorithms, fake images, robots doing the spreading. These tools matter, but they are only the amplifier of an ancient moral act — telling the truth or telling lies. The Catechism places all the matter of the media not in a chapter on technology, but under the eighth commandment, "You shall not bear false witness," that is, in the part devoted to truth and justice among men[8]. The media question is therefore first a question of virtue and of the common good, not of plumbing.
It is social in a strong sense: what is at stake is not only the conscience of a journalist, but the health of an entire society. Falsified information corrupts democratic deliberation, sets groups against one another, and ends by making common action impossible. Lying, says the Catechism, "is destructive of every society; it undermines trust among men and tears apart the fabric of social relationships"[9]. That is exactly what mass disinformation produces: not an isolated error, but an erosion of the common ground on which men can still speak to one another.
Three actors, three responsibilities
Catholic doctrine does not lay the whole burden on journalists alone. It distinguishes three actors, each with its own duties:
- Communicators (journalists, editors, content creators, platforms): "by the very nature of their profession… they have the obligation, in disseminating information, to serve the truth and not to offend against charity"[10].
- The public (readers, viewers, internet users): it is not a passive consumer. "Users should impose moderation and discipline upon themselves… They should endeavor to form an enlightened and correct conscience in order to resist the less honest influences with greater ease"[11].
- Public authorities: they have "to defend and safeguard true and just freedom of information," and to prevent "grave damage to public morals" from the misuse of the media[12].
This distribution is decisive: it forbids both fatalism ("nothing can be done") and the public shifting blame ("it is the media's fault"). Each, in his place, is a guardian of the common truth.
The vocabulary: information, disinformation, post-truth
The language of communication has gained a vocabulary that must be kept clear, lest distinct evils be confused. The table below summarizes the usual distinctions, in light of Francis's definition of fake news: "unfounded information, based on nonexistent or distorted data and aimed at deceiving and manipulating the reader"[13].
| Term | What it is | Intent to harm? | Catholic judgment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Information | Communication of verified facts at the service of the common good | No | A right of society (CCC 2494) |
| Error / misinformation | False information spread in good faith, with no will to deceive | No | A fault of negligence if verification was lacking |
| Disinformation / fake news | False or distorted information spread in order to deceive or manipulate | Yes | A social lie; "there is no such thing as harmless disinformation" |
| Malinformation | True information taken out of context or disclosed in order to harm (private life, doxxing) | Yes | An attack on reputation and privacy (CCC 2477, 2492) |
| Post-truth | A climate in which emotion and belonging count more than facts | — | Dissolution of the common relation to reality |
The distinction is no clerk's subtlety: it commands the moral response. Error in good faith calls for correction; disinformation calls for conversion; malinformation calls for respect for justice and private life. Pope Francis insists: what characterizes fake news is not only the falsity of its content, but the manipulative character of the communication — its aim is to capture attention and exploit prejudices, often relying on "a tinge of truth" that makes it credible[14].
The foundation: truth, the common good of speech
Why does the Church care so much about truth in communication? Because truth is not, for her, a mere social convenience, but the place where man meets God and his neighbor. True speech is the cement of all common life; false speech is its solvent.
"You shall not bear false witness": the eighth commandment
The biblical foundation fits in one sentence of the Decalogue: "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor"[15]. This commandment first targets public lying — false testimony before a tribunal, which can "condemn the innocent" or "exculpate the guilty"[16]. But the media have become the great tribunal of opinion: an accusation launched on a network or a channel reaches more people in a few hours than any ancient courtroom. Media false witness is thus false witness carried to a scale the authors of the Decalogue could not imagine, but whose malice is identical.
Truth according to the Bible: what is solid and trustworthy
In the Bible, truth is not first the accuracy of a statement, but the faithfulness of a being. Francis stresses this by going back to the Hebrew:
"The Greek term for truth […] The concept bears within it the sense of support, solidity, trust, as the root ['aman] makes clear, from which also comes the liturgical 'Amen.'" — Francis, message for the 52nd World Day of Social Communications, 2018[17]
Biblical truth, then, is "that upon which one can lean without falling"[18]. We then understand why lying is so grave: it removes solidity from speech; it makes language a shifting ground where nothing holds. Conversely, Christ presents himself not as the one who tells the truth, but as the one who is the Truth: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life"[19]. Christian truth has a face, and every true word shares in it from afar.
Lying, a "diabolical work" that tears the social fabric
Scripture gives lying an origin and a name. Jesus designates its source:
"You are of your father the devil… There is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies." — Gospel according to Saint John 8:44, quoted by the Catechism[20]
The Greek word diabolos means "the one who divides." Lying is never a purely private fault: it "contains the seed of discord and all subsequent evils"[21]. That is very exactly the effect of contemporary disinformation, which thrives by setting groups against one another, to the point of "discrediting the other, presenting him as an enemy, to the point of demonizing him in ways that foster conflict"[22].
The truth that sets free (Jn 8:32)
That is why Pope Francis placed his great 2018 message under a word of Jesus:
"You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." — Gospel according to Saint John 8:32[23]
Truth is not a prison or a constraint: it is the condition of freedom. A disinformed man is a manipulated man, and therefore a man deprived of part of his freedom. "To recognize the truth, we need to discern between all that promotes communion and fosters good, and all that instead tends to isolate, divide, and oppose," writes Francis[24]. Truth in the media is thus, in the proper sense, a work of liberation.
What the Church has said about the media: a continuous magisterium
Contrary to a common idea, the Church did not wake up late to the media question. From the invention of printing, then cinema, radio and television, the magisterium has produced a continuous teaching, whose great stages form a coherent line: the media are a gift of God for the communion of men, on condition of being subject to truth and the common good.
Inter Mirifica (1963): the media subject to the moral law
One of the first two documents promulgated by Vatican II was, remarkably, along with the constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, a decree on the media: Inter Mirifica ("Among the wonderful"), approved on 4 December 1963[25]. Short and sometimes judged cautious, it nevertheless lays down a principle that everything afterwards would develop: the means of communication "are not exempt from the moral law," and their use "must be regulated by what is morally good for individuals and for society"[26]. It is Inter Mirifica that institutes the World Day of Social Communications, celebrated each year, and that calls for a fuller pastoral instruction — which would come in 1971[27].
Communio et Progressio (1971): the right to information and public opinion
This instruction, Communio et Progressio ("Communion and Progress"), drawn up "by special mandate" of the Council, is the most developed text of the magisterium on communication[28]. It affirms the right of all to information and to the free expression of ideas with a view to forming a sound public opinion, recognizes the "rightful independence" of journalists' work, and makes communication a service of communion among men — the ideal being, in the text's words, that communication tend toward unity after the image of the perfect communication which is Christ himself[29]. It is from this source that the Catechism would draw its teaching.
The Catechism: a right to information that is true, free, just, and marked by solidarity
The 1992 Catechism condenses this heritage into seven paragraphs (§§ 2493–2499) of great density. Their heart is the social right to truth:
"The information provided by the media is at the service of the common good. Society has a right to information based on truth, freedom, justice, and solidarity." — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2494[30]
And it at once draws the consequences: the duty of truthfulness and completeness for communicators (§ 2497), the duty of moderation and discernment for the public (§ 2496), the duty of protection for public authorities (§ 2498), and finally a clear condemnation of all manipulation: "Nothing can justify the use of false information to manipulate public opinion through the media"[31].
From John Paul II to Francis: the Internet, networks, artificial intelligence
The magisterium has followed technical change step by step. In 1992 John Paul II devoted the instruction Aetatis Novae to the era of the new media, and in 2002 the Pontifical Council for Social Communications published The Church and Internet and Ethics in Internet, which hail the promises of the network while warning against the commercialization of information and the risk of fracture[32]. Benedict XVI, the first pope of the social-network era, accompanied the rise of these new means with his annual messages for the World Day of Social Communications. And Francis has made truth in communication one of his constant themes, from the message on fake news (2018) to those on listening, encounter and — more recently — the challenges of artificial intelligence, treated separately in our dedicated article. The line never varies: technology changes, the duty of truth remains.
The evils of communication
The Church does not stop at principles: she names the concrete evils that wound truth in the media. They are not new in their nature — they are the old offenses against truth of the eighth commandment — but the media give them unprecedented scope and speed.
Disinformation: "no fake news is harmless"
Disinformation is the most visible evil. Francis gives a penetrating analysis of it: it is effective precisely because it is plausible. It knows how "to capture attention" by leaning on widespread stereotypes and prejudices, and it exploits emotions — fear, indignation, contempt — to spread faster than any verification[33]. Its effect, let us repeat, is never nil:
"There is no such thing as harmless disinformation; trusting in falsehood has serious consequences." — Francis, 2018 message[34]
"The serpent's tactics": the first fake news
Francis's strongest image goes back to the beginning. The first liar of sacred history is not a man, but the serpent of Genesis:
"The first to use [disinformation] was 'the father of lies' (Jn 8:44) who, at the beginning of humanity, became the author of the first 'fake news' (cf. Gen 3:1–15)." — Francis, 2018 message[35]
The serpent does not lie crudely: it distorts a truth ("You will not die… you will be like gods"), it flatters a desire, it sows suspicion against God. That is "the serpent's tactics, capable of hiding everywhere and biting"[36]. Every disinformation campaign, the Pope observes, repeats its strategy: a foundation of plausibility, flattery of the passions, a target to demonize.
Calumny, detraction and rash judgment on a mass scale
The media amplify three classic offenses that the Catechism carefully distinguishes[37]:
- Rash judgment: "assuming as true, without sufficient foundation, the moral fault of a neighbor" — the reflex of the indignant comment before any verification.
- Detraction: "disclosing, without objectively valid reason, another's faults and failings to persons who did not know them" — true but harmful and gratuitous.
- Calumny: "by remarks contrary to the truth, harming the reputation of others" — false and harmful.
"Detraction and calumny destroy the reputation and honor of one's neighbor. Honor is the social witness given to human dignity, and everyone enjoys a natural right to the honor of his name, to his reputation and to respect." — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2479[38]
In the age of networks, these faults go viral: a rumor shared millions of times can no longer be caught, and a destroyed reputation cannot be rebuilt. The Catechism yet recalls that every fault against truth and justice "calls for reparation," including material reparation, "measured by the extent of the damage caused"[39] — a demand almost impossible to honor when the harm has spread without borders.
Sensationalism, the attention economy and passivity
Another evil is subtler: not lying, but the deformation of attention. The economy of the media rewards what shocks, divides and outrages, because that holds the gaze and sells. The Catechism had anticipated the risk: the media "can give rise to a certain passivity among users, making them less than vigilant consumers of what is said or shown"[40]. Post-truth, the "filter bubbles" that expose each person only to what confirms him, images faked by artificial intelligence (deepfakes) extend this evil: they do not deny truth head-on; they make it indifferent or unfindable. On the link between this permanent capture and screen dependence, see our article on addictions; on the isolation it feeds, modern loneliness.
Everyone's duties
To each actor, doctrine assigns precise duties. This is where truth in the media ceases to be a lament and becomes a moral program.
Communicators: serving truth without offending charity
The journalist's duty is twofold, and the two sides are inseparable: "serving the truth" AND "not offending against charity"[41]. The Catechism spells out the demanding balance:
"They should strive to respect, with the same care, the nature of the facts and the limits of critical judgment regarding persons. They should not stoop to defamation." — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2497[42]
Serving truth alone, without charity, can become cruelty (relentlessness, pillorying); serving charity alone, without truth, becomes complacency and lying by omission. The good communicator holds both. That is also why the Church distrusts the "attention-grabbing slogans" and "emphatic statements" that Francis denounces[43]: they sacrifice truth to effectiveness.
The public: moderation, discipline and an enlightened conscience
The reader is not innocent. By sharing without verifying, by clicking on outrage, by rewarding the sensational with his attention, he becomes a co-producer of disinformation. The Catechism asks of him a true asceticism of attention:
"Users should impose moderation and discipline upon themselves with regard to the mass media. They should endeavor to form an enlightened and correct conscience in order to resist the less honest influences with greater ease." — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2496[44]
Concretely, this discipline has a modern name: verify before sharing. Going back to the source, distinguishing fact from opinion, distrusting whatever flatters one's own prejudices too neatly, accepting not to have an immediate opinion on everything — so many small practices which, on the scale of a people, dry up the terrain of fake news.
Public authorities: protecting true freedom of information
The State, too, has a duty — but a delicate one. It must "defend and safeguard true and just freedom of information"[45], punish "violations of everyone's rights to reputation and to the privacy of personal life," and itself give "timely and honest information concerning the general good." The same page condemns state propaganda with particular force:
"Morality condemns the plague of totalitarian states which systematically falsify the truth, exercise political dominion over opinion through the media, 'manipulate' defendants and witnesses in public trials, and imagine that they secure their tyranny by strangling and repressing everything they consider 'thought crimes.'" — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2499[46]
The balance is demanding: fighting disinformation without falling into state censorship, which is itself a falsification of truth. On the frontier between freedom of speech and its abuses, see our article on freedom of expression.
The right to truth is not unconditional
A capital counterpoint, often forgotten: informing does not mean telling everything. The Catechism sets a limit that the media constantly overstep:
"The right to communicate the truth is not unconditional. Everyone must conform his life to the Gospel precept of fraternal love." — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2488[47]
There is truth one has no right to publish: people's private lives, professional secrets, whatever brings nothing to the common good and only feeds curiosity or malice. "No one is bound to reveal the truth to someone who does not have the right to know it"[48]. Respect for truth therefore includes respect for silence, discretion and intimacy — which media voyeurism systematically despises[49].
The journalism for peace: Francis's proposal
Faced with "the serpent's tactics," Francis does not first propose regulations, but a conversion of the profession and of the gaze. He coins an expression: "journalism for peace."
"I would like to invite everyone to promote a journalism for peace […] a journalism that is truthful and opposed to falsehoods, rhetorical slogans and sensational headlines; a journalism created by people for people, and which is at the service of all." — Francis, message for the 52nd World Day of Social Communications, 2018[50]
It is not a wishy-washy journalism that would refuse to look evil in the face, he at once specifies, but a journalism without complacency, opposed to dramatization and the race for scoops, attentive to causes and solutions as much as to dramas[51].
The best antidote: not strategies, but persons
The Pope moves the solution from technical ground to spiritual ground. No algorithm, no law will suffice if hearts remain greedy and closed:
"The best antidotes to falsehoods are not strategies, but people: people who are not greedy but ready to listen, people who make the effort to engage in sincere dialogue so that the truth can emerge." — Francis, 2018 message[52]
That is the central teaching: truth in the media is, in the last analysis, an affair of saints as much as of technicians. A society protects itself from disinformation less through filters than through truthful men.
The voice of the saints and Fathers
The Catholic demand for truth in public speech does not date from social networks. The Fathers and Doctors thought it through with a precision from which our contemporary debates could profitably draw inspiration.
Saint Augustine: "speaking falsehood with the intention of deceiving"
It is to Saint Augustine that the Catechism borrows its very definition of lying, in his treatise De mendacio:
"Lying consists in speaking a falsehood with the intention of deceiving." — Saint Augustine, De mendacio 4, 5, quoted by the Catechism § 2482[53]
Augustine had devoted two entire treatises (De mendacio and Contra mendacium) to showing that one may never lie, even for a good cause — were it to save a life or win a soul. This intransigence grounds the Catholic refusal of every "state truth" or "useful lie" in communication: good is not served by the false.
Saint Thomas Aquinas: truthfulness, a debt of justice
Saint Thomas places "truthfulness" (veritas as a virtue) among the parts of justice: telling the truth is not an optional politeness, it is rendering to another what is his due, because social life would be impossible if men could not mutually trust one another's word[54]. This insight illuminates the social dimension of our whole question: lying to crowds through the media is stealing from them a good that belongs to them in justice — the truth they need in order to live and decide.
Saint Paul: "putting away falsehood, speak the truth"
The Apostle Paul gives the positive rule, aimed explicitly at the life of the community:
"Therefore, putting away falsehood, let every one speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another." — Saint Paul, Epistle to the Ephesians 4:25[55]
The motive is admirable: we owe one another truth because we are one body. Social lying is self-mutilation. Saint Peter, for his part, asks us to "put away all malice and all guile and insincerity and envy and all slander"[56] — exactly the passions that keep the disinformation machine running.
Saint Francis de Sales, patron of communicators
It is no accident that the Church celebrates the World Day of Social Communications around 24 January, the feast of Saint Francis de Sales (1567–1622), proclaimed patron of journalists and Catholic writers[57]. Bishop of Geneva in the days of the violent polemics of the Reformation, he chose the weapon of gentle, reasoned little tracts rather than invective — in the words attributed to him, you catch more flies with a spoonful of honey than with a hundred barrels of vinegar[58]. His method — truth and gentleness, firmness on substance and charity in form — is the exact portrait of the communicator the Catechism calls for.
Living truth in the media today
What remains is the essential: how, concretely, can a Christian — and every man of good will — be a craftsman of truth in the world of screens? Doctrine issues in a few simple but demanding attitudes.
Verify before sharing, and accept keeping silent
The first asceticism is that of sharing. Before relaying, ask: who says it, when, on what sources, and why now? Accepting not to have an immediate opinion, refusing to spread a rumor even an indignant one, correcting publicly when one was wrong: these are the ordinary gestures of justice in the digital age. And since "the right to truth is not unconditional"[59], knowing also how to keep silent about what does not concern the common good — refusing online gossip, unhealthy curiosity, the exposure of others' lives.
Building communion rather than division
The ultimate criterion, given by Francis, is limpid: discerning "between all that promotes communion and fosters good, and all that instead tends to isolate, divide, and oppose"[60]. Speech that brings men together in truth is of God; speech that sets them against one another, even dressed in facts, follows "the serpent's tactics." This discernment holds for the great media outlet as for the simple message shared within a family.
Praying to become an "instrument of peace"
Francis entrusted this mission to a prayer, modeled on that of Saint Francis of Assisi, which sums up the whole article:
"Lord, make us instruments of your peace. / Enable us to recognize the evil that lurks in a communication that does not build communion. / Make us capable of removing the venom from our judgments. / Help us to speak about others as brothers and sisters. […] / Where there is shouting, let us practice listening; / where there is confusion, let us inspire harmony; / where there is ambiguity, let us bring clarity; / […] where there is sensationalism, let us use sobriety; / […] where there is falsehood, let us bring truth." — Francis, closing prayer of the 2018 message[61]
Truth in the media is therefore not only a matter of professional ethics or laws: it is a field of spiritual combat and a place of charity. Where the serpent divides through lying, the disciple of Christ is called to rebuild communion through truth spoken with love — veritatem facientes in caritate, "living the truth in love" (Eph 4:15).
To go further
This article belongs to the series Social and Moral Doctrine › Social Questions. For neighboring topics, see the dedicated articles, which extend or complete this one without duplicating it:
- Corruption — lying in public life and the demand for transparency.
- Artificial intelligence and Catholic doctrine — deepfakes, automated content and discernment.
- Freedom of expression — the frontier between freedom of speech and its abuses.
- The culture war — polarization and the instrumentalization of information.
- Modern loneliness and Addictions — the effect of screens on the heart and attention.
- Technology and man — the place of the tool at the service of the person.
Notes and References
Francis, Message for the 52nd World Day of Social Communications (24 January 2018), "'The truth will set you free' (Jn 8:32). Fake news and journalism for peace," section on the consequences of disinformation: "There is no such thing as harmless disinformation; trusting in falsehood has serious consequences." Full text on vatican.va (francesco/en/messages/communications) and eglise.catholique.fr.
1Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2485: "By its very nature, lying is to be condemned. It is a profanation of speech, whereas the purpose of speech is to communicate known truth to others." French edition (read in the PDF of Benoît's Library, "The Eighth Commandment" section).
2Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2486: "Since it violates the virtue of truthfulness, lying does real violence to another. […] It contains the seed of discord and all subsequent evils. Lying is destructive of every society; it undermines trust among men and tears apart the fabric of social relationships."
3 9 21Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2493: "Within modern society the communications media play a major role in information, cultural promotion, and formation. This role is increasing, as a result of technological progress, the extent and diversity of the news transmitted, and the influence exercised on public opinion."
4Vatican II, decree Inter Mirifica (4 December 1963), nos. 4–5: the means of social communication are not exempt from the moral law; their use must be regulated by what is morally good for persons and society. Summarized from vatican.va and the Wikipedia article on the decree.
5 26Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2494, quoting Inter Mirifica 5: "The information provided by the media is at the service of the common good. Society has a right to information based on truth, freedom, justice, and solidarity. The proper exercise of this right requires that the content of the communication always be true and — within the limits set by justice and charity — complete. Furthermore the manner of communicating should be honest and decent, that is, in acquiring and making known news, the moral laws, the legitimate rights and the dignity of man must be absolutely respected."
6 7The Catechism treats the means of social communication (§§ 2493–2499) within its exposition of the eighth commandment ("You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor"), sections II–III of the third part devoted to truth, which at once places the media question on the ground of the virtue of truthfulness and of justice, not of technology.
8Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2497: "By the very nature of their profession in the press, its members have the obligation, in disseminating information, to serve the truth and not to offend against charity. They should strive to respect, with the same care, the nature of the facts and the limits of critical judgment regarding persons. They should not stoop to defamation."
10Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2496: "The communications media (in particular the mass media) can give rise to a certain passivity among users, making them less than vigilant consumers of what is said or shown. Users should impose moderation and discipline upon themselves vis-à-vis the mass media. They should endeavor to form an enlightened and correct conscience in order to resist the less honest influences with greater ease."
11Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2498, quoting Inter Mirifica 12: "Special obligations fall upon civil authorities by reason of the common good. Public authorities have to defend and safeguard true and just freedom of information." The paragraph adds: "Nothing can justify the use of false information to manipulate public opinion through the media."
12Francis, 2018 Message: the expression fake news "refers to unfounded information, based on nonexistent or distorted data and aimed at deceiving and manipulating the reader." Noted word for word.
13Francis, 2018 Message: disinformation is effective because it mimics real news, knows how "to capture attention," leans on stereotypes and prejudices, and often contains "a tinge of truth" that makes it credible and persuasive. Faithful paraphrase.
14 33Book of Exodus 20:16 (Decalogue): "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." Cf. also Dt 5:20.
15Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2476: "False witness and perjury. When it is uttered publicly, a statement contrary to the truth takes on a particular gravity. Before a tribunal it becomes false witness. […] Such proceedings contribute either to condemning the innocent, exculpating the guilty, or aggravating the sentence of the accused."
16Francis, 2018 Message: on the biblical sense of truth, "the concept bears within it the sense of support, solidity, trust, as the [Hebrew] root 'aman makes clear, from which also comes the liturgical 'Amen.'" The Pope refers to the Hebrew term 'emeth. Noted on eglise.catholique.fr.
17Francis, 2018 Message: "The truth has to do with our whole life […]. The truth is something one can lean on, so as not to fall." Noted word for word.
18Gospel according to Saint John 14:6: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life."
19Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2482, quoting Saint Augustine, De mendacio 4, 5 (PL 40, 491) and Jn 8:44: "The Lord denounces lying as a work of the devil: 'You are of your father the devil… there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.'"
20Francis, 2018 Message: "The tragedy of disinformation is the discrediting of the other, presenting him as an enemy, to the point of demonizing him in ways that foster conflict." Noted word for word.
22Gospel according to Saint John 8:32: "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Verse chosen by Francis as the title of his 2018 message.
23Francis, 2018 Message: to recognize the truth, we need to "discern between all that promotes communion and fosters good, and all that instead tends to isolate, divide, and oppose."
24Inter Mirifica was approved by the Second Vatican Council and promulgated by Paul VI on 4 December 1963 (final vote 1,960 for, 164 against); it was, with the constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, one of the first two documents promulgated by the Council. Sources: vatican.va; Wikipedia article Inter mirifica.
25Inter Mirifica (no. 18) institutes an annual day devoted to social communications (World Day of Social Communications) and requests (no. 23) a fuller pastoral instruction, which would be Communio et Progressio (1971).
27Pontifical Council (then Commission) for Social Communications, pastoral instruction Communio et Progressio (23 May 1971), drawn up "by special mandate" of the Second Vatican Council in application of Inter Mirifica. It is the most developed magisterial document on social communication. Source: vatican.va.
28Communio et Progressio develops the right to information, the free formation of public opinion, the "rightful independence" of journalists, and presents communication as a service of communion among men, after the image of Christ the "perfect communicator." Summary from the text.
29Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2494 (first sentence, quoted alone here for emphasis) — see note [^cec2494] for the full text and the reference to Inter Mirifica 5.
30Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2498: "Nothing can justify the use of false information to manipulate public opinion through the media." (see note [^cec2498]).
31Pontifical Council for Social Communications: pastoral instruction Aetatis Novae (22 February 1992) on social communications twenty years after Communio et Progressio; documents The Church and Internet and Ethics in Internet (22 February 2002). These texts hail the promises of the new media while warning against the commercialization of information and the digital divide. Sources: vatican.va.
32See note [^francois-inoffensive] — same message, on the absence of harmlessness in all disinformation.
34Francis, 2018 Message: "The first to use [this strategy] was 'the father of lies' (Jn 8:44) who, at the beginning of humanity, became the author of the first 'fake news' (cf. Gen 3:1–15), which led to the dramatic consequences of sin." Noted word for word.
35Francis, 2018 Message: he invites us to "unmask what could be called the 'serpent's tactics,' capable of hiding everywhere and biting." Noted word for word.
36Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2477: one is 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; of calumny who, by remarks contrary to the truth, harms the reputation of others and gives occasion for false judgments concerning them."
37Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2479: "Detraction and calumny destroy the reputation and honor of one's neighbor. Honor is the social witness given to human dignity, and everyone enjoys a natural right to the honor of his name, to his reputation and to respect. Thus, detraction and calumny offend against the virtues of justice and charity."
38Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2487: "Every offense committed against justice and truth calls for reparation, even if its author has been forgiven. […] This reparation, moral and sometimes material, must be evaluated in terms of the extent of the damage inflicted. It obliges in conscience."
39Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2496 (first sentence) — see note [^cec2496] for the full text.
40Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2497 — "serving the truth and not offending against charity" (see note [^cec2497]).
41Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2497 (continued) — see note [^cec2497] for the full text.
42Francis, 2018 Message: call for a journalism "truthful and opposed to falsehoods, rhetorical slogans and sensational headlines." Noted word for word (see also note [^francois-journalisme2]).
43Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2496 — "Users should impose moderation and discipline… an enlightened and correct conscience" (see note [^cec2496]).
44Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2498: "Public authorities… will take care to ensure that the misuse of the media does not cause 'grave harm to public morals and to the progress of society.' They will punish violations of everyone's rights to reputation and to the privacy of personal life. They will give timely and honest information concerning the general good." (quoting Inter Mirifica 12).
45Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2499: "Morality condemns the plague of totalitarian states which systematically falsify the truth, exercise political dominion over opinion through the media, 'manipulate' defendants and witnesses in public trials, and imagine that they secure their tyranny by strangling and repressing everything they consider 'thought crimes.'"
46Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2488: "The right to communicate the truth is not unconditional. Everyone must conform his life to the Gospel precept of fraternal love. This requires us in concrete situations to judge whether or not it is appropriate to reveal the truth to someone who asks for it."
47Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2489: "Charity and respect for the truth should dictate the response to every request for information or communication. […] No one is bound to reveal the truth to someone who does not have the right to know it" (cf. Sir 27:16; Prov 25:9–10).
48Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2492: "Everyone should observe an appropriate reserve concerning the private lives of others. […] The interference by the media in the private lives of persons engaged in political or public activity is to be condemned to the extent that it infringes upon their privacy and freedom."
49Francis, 2018 Message: "I would like […] to invite everyone to promote a journalism for peace […], a journalism that is truthful and opposed to falsehoods, rhetorical slogans and sensational headlines; a journalism created by people for people, and which is at the service of all, especially of those — and there are many in our world — who have no voice." Noted word for word.
50Francis, 2018 Message: he specifies that the journalism for peace is not wishy-washy or complacent, but a journalism opposed to dramatization and the race for the sensational, attentive to the deep causes of conflicts and to paths of solution. Faithful paraphrase.
51Francis, 2018 Message: "The best antidotes to falsehoods are not strategies, but people: people who are not greedy but ready to listen, people who make the effort to engage in sincere dialogue so that the truth can emerge." Noted word for word.
52Saint Augustine, De mendacio (On Lying) 4, 5 (PL 40, 491): "Lying consists in speaking a falsehood with the intention of deceiving" (mendacium est falsa significatio cum voluntate fallendi). Quoted by the Catechism § 2482. Augustine also devotes the treatise Contra mendacium to showing that one may never lie, even for a good.
53Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II–II, q. 109 (De veritate / truthfulness as a virtue), a. 3: truthfulness is a potential part of justice, for by it man renders to another "what is due to him" — faithfulness of speech, without which common life would be impossible. Summary from the Leonine edition / docteurangelique.free.fr.
54Saint Paul, Epistle to the Ephesians 4:25: "Therefore, putting away falsehood, let every one speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another." Cf. also Eph 4:15: "living the truth in love" (veritatem facientes in caritate).
55First Epistle of Saint Peter 2:1, quoted by the CCC § 2475: Christians are to "put away all malice and all guile and insincerity and envy and all slander."
56Saint Francis de Sales (1567–1622), Bishop of Geneva and Doctor of the Church, was proclaimed patron of journalists and Catholic writers by Pius XI (encyclical Rerum omnium perturbationem, 26 January 1923). The liturgical feast of 24 January explains why the annual message for the World Day of Social Communications is traditionally published on that date.
57Saint Francis de Sales, traditionally reported saying: "You catch more flies with a spoonful of honey than with a hundred barrels of vinegar." The saying illustrates his method of apostolate through gentleness (notably the leaflets distributed in the Chablais). Attributed saying.
58See note [^cec2488] — CCC § 2488, on the non-unconditional character of the right to communicate truth.
59See note [^francois-discernement] — Francis, 2018 Message, on discerning between what builds communion and what divides.
60Francis, 2018 Message, closing prayer modeled on the prayer attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi: "Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Enable us to recognize the evil that lurks in a communication that does not build communion. Make us capable of removing the venom from our judgments. Help us to speak about others as brothers and sisters. […] Where there is shouting, let us practice listening; where there is confusion, let us inspire harmony; where there is ambiguity, let us bring clarity; […] where there is sensationalism, let us use sobriety; […] where there is falsehood, let us bring truth." Full text noted on eglise.catholique.fr.
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