APPENDIX: ON THE VIOLATION OF A SECRET

539. • A secret in general is called whatever is hidden: as regards our matter, we call secret whatever either from its own nature, or from a special contract, ought to be kept hidden.

A threefold secret is distinguished:

1° Natural, which, without any contract, arises from the mere nature of the thing, as if you cannot manifest it without harm to another, either in estimation, or in goods, etc.

2° Promised, which someone, hearing from another or learning by chance, promises by the gratuitous contract of promise to preserve.

3° Committed, if someone manifests something to another, and at the same time tacitly or expressly demands silence from him concerning it.

540. Principles. - I. A natural secret in a grave matter obligates of itself under grave sin, and indeed from justice, unless a just cause excuses. The reason is that from the revelation of the secret there follows of itself damage to the neighbor, who has the right not to be harmed without reasonable cause.¹

II. A promised secret obligates of itself gravely or lightly according to the quality of the matter (which namely would demand a natural secret apart from any promise), and the nature of the obligation undertaken, which, unless it is clear concerning the intention of the one promising wishing to obligate himself from justice, for the most part is from fidelity alone. The reason is that the contract is contained in a simple promise, which of itself obligates only from fidelity and according to the intention of the one promising, as was said concerning a vow.⁴

III. A committed or communicated secret, which is also called rigorous, obligates of itself under grave sin from justice, and indeed more strictly than a merely natural secret, and also than a promised one; because beyond the natural obligation there urges also the obligation from an onerous contract expressly or tacitly undertaken.⁵

541. Questions. - Quaer. 1° What are the just causes of manifesting a secret?

Resp. 1° The rightly presumed consent of him whose interest it is that the secret be concealed. - 2° Divulgation of the matter arising from elsewhere. - 3° Damage to the Republic or to private persons that is going to follow from the secret. Yet if there is question of damage already inflicted, you cannot licitly reveal a committed secret, until the one causing the damage himself is bound to betray himself. And in this a committed secret differs from a merely promised one: that in this latter the one promising did not receive knowledge of the matter by force of his promise, but gratuitously promises secrecy about knowledge received in whatever way. Moreover, while afterward he promises this, even with an oath added, he cannot by his promise exempt himself from an obligation by which he is already held. Therefore since each one questioned legitimately by a judge is bound to open the truth, the promise of secrecy cannot be extended to the case of the judge legitimately questioning. But the contrary happens in a committed secret. For the common good demands that men not, from fear of revelation, be deprived of the convenience of seeking necessary counsel or help, which nevertheless they would never seek unless they were certain of secrecy to be observed. Therefore the common good demands that as long as the one committing can licitly preserve his secret, he retains the right that the other not betray it. Hence the reason why physicians, advocates, midwives, theologians consulted, etc., are not bound to open to even a judge questioning the matter known by a committed secret; indeed why they are bound not to open it, which nevertheless, insofar as it concerns physicians, surgeons, and midwives, is not acknowledged by our common law, nor can it be demanded by those committing, since this disposition of law is judged known to them.

Quaer. 2° Can you reveal a secret if you promised to preserve it even with loss of life?

Resp. 1° In the affirmative, if the common good demands it, because a promise made against the common good is null.

Resp. 2° In the negative, if there is question of your own damage simply grave, because it is better to preserve a secret promised by this special contract. In the negative also, very probably, if there is question of your extreme damage, because you have expressly renounced your right, nor is it illicit to omit the conservation of life, that you may keep a promise. - Thus Lugo, Lacroix, and St. Alphonsus.² - Yet St. Author deservedly says the opposite also is sufficiently probable.

542. • Quaer. 3° Does he sin gravely who reveals a secret to one or another upright man under the same secret?

Resp. In the negative, probably, of itself; because in this case a grave injury toward another does not seem to be committed, provided it is not revealed to a person to whom the one committing the secret to you is deservedly presumed to have specially wished it to be concealed.¹

I said, of itself; because in practice, on account of the circumstances, revelation of a secret easily becomes grave, namely when you suppose too lightly that the persons to whom you commit a received secret are so discreet that they will certainly preserve it, especially if there is question with women. For a secret was committed to you because you were thought discreet; but if you violate it, do you think another, in whom you confide, will be more discreet than you yourself?

Quaer. 4° Does he sin gravely who opens or reads the letters of another?

Resp. In the affirmative of itself, or from its own genus. The reason is that by natural right and by the law of nations there is an obligation of leaving the secrets of letters unharmed; otherwise human commerce would be ruined. - St. Alphonsus,² and others commonly. And indeed in this way there will be committed in genus a sin against justice and against charity; but only mortal against charity, if it is thought that matters of small moment are contained in the letters, and he to whom or by whom they are sent is to be gravely saddened by it. - The same is valid for those who, against the master's will, read another's writings by stealth, and probably for those who join and read letters torn into small pieces. - But damage perhaps inflicted against justice must be repaired.

Except the following cases: 1° if the tacit or presumed consent of him who writes, and of him to whom the letters are sent, is present; 2° if it is known or presumed that the letters contain matters of slight moment; 3° if it is done from a just cause, for example, for averting public or private damage even of another, provided one has the right of opening the letters for driving away that evil, and reads no more than is necessary for this end. In what cases one enjoys that right, see above n. 518. - 4° If the letters are opened from levity or from some inadvertence.³

543. You will resolve. - 1° A promised secret obligates in no way whenever otherwise you were held to manifest the matter, for example if you are legitimately questioned by a Superior or by a judge.¹

2° A committed secret must generally be preserved by you, even if you are questioned by a Superior or judge, etc.; but you must answer that you know nothing about this; since you have knowledge of this sort just as if you did not have it.²

3° A secret only implicitly or tacitly committed must be preserved in the same way as if it had been expressly committed. Thus, strictly speaking, counselors of Princes, leaders of war, advocates, physicians (concerning physicians cf. what was said for this region n. 541, question 1° at the end), theologians consulted concerning some question, and universally all to whom a secret is committed for the sake either of counsel or of solace or of help, are bound to secrecy.

4° A religious Superior licitly opens the letters of his subjects or of others sent to them either by the statute of the Religion, or by custom, or from prudent suspicion that they contain something less right.³

5° Yet the Superior cannot open and read letters which subjects send to mediate Superiors and in turn those Superiors to subjects; for the right manner of governing demands that supreme Moderators be able to communicate freely with all subjects.¹

6° "He who by culpable revelation of a secret has harmed another must repair every damage, whether of reputation or fortune, which he at least foresaw in a confused way as going to arise therefrom for another, by title of damage unjustly inflicted."

7° "There is given an obligation of justice, grave from its own genus, of not seeking out the secret of another unwilling person without sufficient cause, neither by deed, namely by observing from a hidden place the things which others secretly do, nor by words, namely by scrutinizing and questioning others who know hidden things. Because each one has a strict right in his own secret, as in a thing of his own. - It is said: without sufficient cause, because it is licit to seek out another's morals, even secret ones, for avoiding one's own or another's damage, for example where Matrimony is to be contracted. It is said: grave from its own genus: hence the things which according to what has been set forth above excuse from grave fault, or from all fault, the revelation of a secret, also fall upon the one fishing out the secret itself; therefore also he who seeks out a secret with the intention of betraying it to no one does not seem to sin mortally, unless the other feels from this some other grave damage, or wishes to conceal it in a special way."