FRATERNAL CORRECTION. - It is the private admonition of a person to turn him away from sin. The motive of fraternal correction is charity, its end the amendment of the sinner (Sum. Theol., 2ª-2ª, q. 33, n. 1); therefore it is distinguished from so-called judicial correction, carried out by a superior as such, for the purpose of safeguarding in the first place the good of the community and only indirectly of setting the erring one back on the path of good.
Fraternal correction proceeds from the natural law, being a special application of the love to which one is bound toward one's neighbor; but it has also been reaffirmed and perfected by the positive divine law (Mt. 18:15). To be obliged to fraternal correction, however, certain conditions must be met, namely: 1) to know that one's neighbor has fallen into a grave fault; 2) to hold that the correction will be effective; 3) to hold also that the sinner will not rise again unless he is admonished; 4) that the fraternal correction not be, for the one who must carry it out, excessively burdensome (Sum. Theol., 2ª-2ª, q. 33, n. 3).
The order to be observed in fraternal correction is that taught by Jesus Christ himself (Mt. 18:15): let it be done in secret; if this does not help, one should proceed to denounce it to superiors. Such an order must be observed so as not to compromise the reputation of the neighbor whom one is bound to admonish; however, one may depart from it when the sin or the evil is already public or close to inevitable publicity; and one must depart from it when otherwise third parties or the community would suffer harm. Fraternal correction must always be done with gentleness and charity, with humility and mildness; never therefore with a spirit of vengeance or out of ill will to humiliate the fallen or erring brother.
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Igino Tarocchi