ADULATION. — Excessive and unreasonable praise directed toward others for interested motives. Adulation always arises and is fueled by some hidden passion, such as love of money, vanity, ambition, or fear; sometimes even by a wicked spirit, especially when it reaches the point of excusing the adult’s vices or praising his wicked actions. Sacred Scripture openly reproves it: “It is better to be reproved by the wise than to be deceived by the adulation of the wicked” (Eccles. 7:6). St. Augustine considers it a kind of persecution and a familiar vice among the powerful and political men (Expos. in Ps. 59). St. Gregory the Great compares the flatterer to the scorpion, which, though seemingly peaceful in its movements, stings with its tail (Expos. in Ez. 1, 2).
Adulation is in itself a venial sin; but it can become grave according to the importance of the action or thing praised, with regard to the end for which it is done, and in relation to the occasion it gives the adult to err or sin.