(c) There must be a reasonable expectation that the admonition will do good; there is no obligation to do what is useless. Neither should it be given if it is doubtful whether it will do good or harm.
(d) As charity does not bind with relatively serious inconvenience to one's self, there will be no obligation to correct another if this cannot be done without serious inconvenience. This rule applies to such as are bound only out of charity to correct others fraternally; Bishops and priests are bound to do so also in justice, which obliges more strictly than does charity.
3. Our Lord not only inculcated the duty of fraternal correction, [1] but he taught that in the first instance it was to be done in private, then in the presence of witnesses, and finally the delinquent was to be denounced to the public authorities in order that public morality might be safeguarded and the sinner more effectually corrected. This order should, of course, be followed per se, for charity and justice demand that our neighbour's secret fault should not be made known to others except in special cases and for good cause. However, cases are not infrequent in which it is lawful to denounce a delinquent immediately to the superior without first attempting to correct him fraternally. Such cases are the following:
(a) If the sin be public, the sinner's reputation is not injured unjustly by at once informing the superior, which accordingly may be done.
(b) If the paternal admonition of the superior will in all likelihood be more sure and efficacious than the fraternal correction of a private person, the superior may be immediately informed as a father, whose duty it is to correct his children for their good, not as a judge, whose duty it is to safeguard public interests by punishing crimes.
(c) If harm threatens the community from the action of the delinquent, and it can only be effectually prevented by the intervention of the superior's authority.
(d) If the delinquent be one of a religious community whose members have voluntarily renounced their rights in this matter, and agreed that anyone who becomes aware of their faults may straightway inform the superior, such a one suffers no injury if the rule be acted on. However, even in this case there must be good reason for making the fault known to the superior, such as the sinner's correction, the good name of the community, the preservation of discipline. If the sin was
- ↑ Matt. xviii 15.
