This is the Art of Catholic.

Welcome to the Art of Catholic, I'm Matthew Leonard.

And today, well I got a tough one for you.

And we all know that lying is a sin.

But I'm going to say a few words about when telling the truth is actually a sin.

And to be honest, this is probably one of the biggest issues we have when it comes to our

conversations. And though maybe you don't want to after hearing this, you can find a written

version of this in the blog at scienceofsainthood.com. So let's do it.

While most of us know we're supposed to watch what we say, a lot of us haven't yet realized

there are times when it's actually a dreadful sin to tell the truth.

No joke.

There's line through your teeth, and then there's line through your truth.

What am I talking about?

Well in traditional Catholic teaching, the two big sins of the tongue are calumny and detraction.

And while calumny sounds like some kind of creamy organic age-defying lotion, it's

essentially telling a lie about someone.

You damage someone's reputation by saying they committed some crime or have a fault of

which they are innocent.

Then there's detraction.

That's when we damage someone's reputation

by revealing some fault or some crime they committed

that actually happened.

...