Delation

DELATION. - The disclosure of a person's actions, made to another, for the purpose of arousing or nourishing in the latter's mind feelings of hatred and revenge against the former. Thus d. is inspired by the hatred or personal interest of the detractor; it aims at hatred against the person denounced and often at harming him in his good name or in his property; it employs every means, even the basest, such as slander, calumny, the violation of secrets, which ought instead to be respected. Denunciation is quite another thing.

The morality of d. is deduced from the general principles of morals. Because of the hatred which it always seeks and by which it is often inspired, d. is always a fault against charity and is generally a grave fault, because it wounds one's neighbor's soul with grave displeasure. It is almost always also a fault against the virtue of justice, both because of the unjust means it employs and because of the harm it directly inflicts or indirectly causes. If there is injustice, besides the moral wrong there exists the obligation of repairing the damages. The gravity of these measures the gravity of the injustice and of the corresponding obligation of reparation.

Anonymous d. must never be taken into consideration; but it does not thereby exempt the detractor from his moral responsibilities. These, at least by reason of cooperation, are shared also by whoever accepts the d., in addition to those other responsibilities which he may have incurred through acts of his own initiative.

Leonardo Azzolini