Calumny and detraction--what's the difference?

Today I was reading about the strange case of Fr. John Corapi, a Catholic priest I used to hear occasionally on the radio.  He was an excellent, challenging speaker, yet one day in 2011 he just disappeared.  Is his case calumny or detraction? Frankly, I don't know that I still understand the difference, and no one seems to know what has happened to Father Corapi.

"To put it in simple terms, calumny is the telling of a lie about someone, almost always with malicious intent—for instance, to damage his reputation. Detraction, on the other hand, is the telling of the truth about someone to a third party who has no right to that truth. Detraction is often done with malicious intent as well, but not always.

In more common terms, most of what we call gossip is detraction; most of what we call backbiting is calumny. The Catechism of the Catholic Church classifies detraction and calumny as "offenses against the truth" (and specifically, as the venerable Baltimore Catechism notes, both are violations of the Eighth Commandment). Both are sins, which can be either venial or mortal, depending on their intent and effects. Even when committed carelessly, without malicious intent, detraction and calumny can cause grave damage to the person being discussed, and the person guilty of detraction or calumny has an obligation to try to repair the damage done by his action."

You look just like your mother

When my college roommate met me at the Seattle airport in 1996 after many years of not being together, I said to her, "You look just like your mother," and she said to me, "And you look like yours." Both our mothers were younger (mid to late 30s) when we first met, so that shows you how "elderly" mid-life adults look to children. Reading G. Campbell Morgan this morning made me realize how much we Americans look like our mother, England. He is preaching from that passage in Amos, which is a powerful word from God to the people of Israel of that time, but resonates down through the centuries to all peoples, Amos 8:11-13. Amos tells of a famine not of bread, but of the word of the Lord, a famine that will hit the young and healthy the hardest. And so a hundred years ago, early in the 20th century, Morgan is preaching on this passage to Londoners, citizens of the most powerful country in the world. The sun had not yet set on the Union Jack when he said this--the tiny island still ruled India and much of Africa, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and parts of Asia and the annihilation of generations of its sons in WWI and WWII was yet to come

"The prophet of today will see quite clearly the cruelty of Russia, the frivolity of France, the rationalism of Germany, the civic corruption of America. But the prophet cannot forget the relation of privilege and responsibility, and he cannot forget the fiery, burning, searching words of his Lord, that it is to be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for the cities that heard his voice. . . Russia will have a far better chance in the final judgment of the nations than England, because England has had infinitely more light. . . we are living in the midst of a great famine, not of bread, but of the Word of God, what is this famine? It is a curse upon our idolatries. . . The curses of God are the harvests of man's own wrongdoing.

If we have lost our sense of the Word, and
our love for the Word, and
our confidence in the Word, and
our appreciation of the Word,
why is it?
It is God's judgement, but it is an effect following a cause. . .

So Morgan challenges the people of England to first give up the idolatry, then turn to the Word, and then there will be no famine.

The other morning I heard Father John Corapi on EWTN speaking on the culture of death and anti-life forces in America say we Americans have been "educated into embicility" and we are "slaves to our culture." Physical poverty is a terrible thing to see, he said, but if we had eyes to see the spiritual misery of our nation, we would die of fright.

Father John Corapi

If they are not praying to saints or Mary, or saying the rosary, I love to listen to Catholic radio. And Father John Corapi is one of the best. I heard a stunning sermon this morning in the car, rushed into the house leaving the groceries, and turned on the kitchen radio. It was all about his profligate past in Hollywood outrunning the police with cocaine in the trunk of his Ferrari and hanging out with starlets. I think he said he was at a party with John Belushi the night he died. Here's what catholic-tube says about him

A soldier, investment banker, multi millionaire real estate investor, cocaine addict, and Catholic Priest. It’s said that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. So too, is the path of Father John Corapi, now famous for his touring the world to spread the good news of Jesus Christ and his Church. Fr. Corapi’s past has led to a great witness that has led many back to the church. He has put together many series that have aired on EWTN, including his famous series on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can find out more about the ministry of Father Corapi by visiting his website.

And I always thought it was the Baptists that had the great testimonies, but his is hard to beat. And he has a great voice.