Fame

FAME. - By this term is meant "the good opinion that is held of a person in a certain environment because of the qualities with which he is believed to be endowed." It therefore requires some measure of diffusion, unlike esteem, which may even be limited to a single person. It may concern moral qualities (that is, those founded on the use of freedom) as well as physical and intellectual qualities; it may be common or special, depending on whether qualities usually possessed in a certain time and place are attributed, or exceptional qualities.

Fama can be acquired either by the dissemination of good qualities actually possessed, or by the dissemination of fictitious qualities. The same must be said of its loss. The attribution of bad qualities that one does not have constitutes the specific sin of calumny; the attribution of real defects is called detraction (v.) and sometimes also slander. All this can be done even with merely a gesture, a pause, a silence, a smile, a movement of the head, shoulders or eyes, a question, an insinuation; but the great instrument of reputation or of defamation always remains the word, whether oral or written, especially with the power of diffusion permitted by the press, cinema, radio and the whole complex of advertising and propaganda forms. To this end, the numerous biblical passages concerning the tongue and its efficacy in building up or destroying fama should be reread and re-meditated.

Its importance is very great, both in itself and because of the social and economic consequences it can have. Scripture says that a good name is preferable to riches (Prov. 22:1); hence it exhorts one to take great care of it: " hoc enim magis permanebit tibi quam mille thesauri pretiosi et magni. Bonae vitae numerus dierum: bonum autem nomen permanebit in aevum " (Prov. 41:15a). This holds especially for professions founded essentially on trust (for example, that of the physician, the priest, the lawyer, etc.). A good or bad fama can determine respectively the fortune and the ruin of a person. In any case it is an indispensable condition of influence and a necessary element of success.

For these reasons even the most elementary reflection allows one to conclude that everyone has a right to fama and that consequently whoever destroys it or puts it in danger sins gravely or lightly according to the various ways and the measure of the injury. In this sense speak Sacred Scripture (cf., for example, Ps. 14:3; 33:14; Prov. 20:19; 30:10; Wis. 1:11 agg.; I Tim. 3:2; Rom. 1:30; II Cor. 12:20; Inc. 4:11, etc.) and patristic tradition (especially the Fathers' commentaries on the cited biblical passages).

Such affirmations have an absolute value insofar as they refer to and exclude calumny; for detraction, however, they presuppose that the preservation of a person's good reputation is not harmful to others. Casuistry has abundantly developed this last point, giving a long series of situations in which it is lawful to manifest the defects of others (manifestation to parents or superiors of the defects of children or subjects in order to make their correction easier; manifestation to fiancés, to one who intends to entrust certain persons with positions of trust, manifestation to experts in order to obtain advice, etc.).

The social importance of good reputation has led the legislator to protect it with the force of law.

In the CIC it is said: " Si quis... verbis vel scriptis vel alia quavis ratione... bonam famam læserit, non solum potest ad normam can. 1628, 1938 cogi ad debitam satisfactionem praestandam damnaque reparanda, sed praeterea congrue poenia ac poenitentia puniti, non exclusa, si de clericis agatur et causa ferat, suspensione aut remotione ab officio et beneficio " (can. 2355). The Italian Penal Code deals with it in arts. 595-599. In these it is said that "whoever... by communicating with several persons, offends the reputation of another is punished with imprisonment up to one year or with a fine up to ten thousand lire" (art. 595). Excluded are only "offenses contained in writings presented or in speeches delivered by the parties or their counsel in proceedings before the judicial Authority or before the administrative Authority, when the offenses concern the object of the case or of the appeal" (art. 598). The penalties are increased "if the offense consists in the attribution of a determinate fact," or "if the offense is committed by means of the press or by any other means of publicity, or in a public act," or "if the offense is committed against a political, administrative or judicial Body, or against a representation thereof, or against an Authority constituted as a college" (art. 595). Such crimes "are punishable upon complaint of the offended person..." (art. 597) and for them "the guilty party... is not admitted to prove, in his defense, the truth or the notoriety of the fact attributed to the offended person" (art. 596).

Giovanni Battista Guzzetti