Case 6. Reading Another's Letters

Caia, a Catholic, often reproaches Caius, her Protestant husband, concerning his excessive familiarity with Bertha, who instructs their children in the first elements (governess). At length, after some time, by her just complaints Caia brings it about that Bertha is dismissed from the house and employment. A little afterward Caia observes a letter written in Bertha’s hand brought to Caius in the morning with others. She secretly takes it, opens and reads it, and throws it into the fire. Afterward, however, in order to quiet her conscience, she asks a confessor whether she sinned or not by acting thus. Hence it is asked:

1. What is a secret, and how is it divided?

2. Is it lawful to open and read the letters of another?

3. What is to be said of the case?

1. This question is answered on p. 337.

2. Is it lawful to open and read another's letters?

As a general rule it is not, and it will be more or less against justice if the letters contain secrets which the owner of the letters is rightly unwilling that others should know. The gravity of the sin will depend on the seriousness of the injury or offence done by opening the letters. They may, however, be opened for good reason by the authority of the State, and by private persons to protect their own rights if they have a well-grounded suspicion that those rights are imperiled.¹

1 St. Alphonsus, book v, no. 70.

3. The case. Caia had good grounds for objecting to secret communications between the late governess and her husband. She did not therefore commit a sin when she opened Bertha’s letter; she was justified in protecting her rights. It must be presumed that there was something objectionable in the letter to cause Caia to throw it into the fire. She need have no scruples of conscience now on what she had done.