# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1860_S119
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

A Contribution to Pastoral Casuistry. 119

may not be accused of impudence; but above all let him take care that
he himself is not caught in the same offense which he corrects in the
other, "for it is disgraceful for a teacher when his own guilt
condemns him."

3. With respect to the sin which is to be corrected. For no one
should be punished on mere suspicion or according to the rumor of the
great multitude, but something certain must be known about the sin.
Believe not everything thou hearest, says Sirach 19:15. Moreover, sins
are either public or secret. Public sins are first to be corrected
privately, by first sending several admonitions; if nothing is
accomplished, they are also to be corrected publicly, especially by
superiors, because several have been disturbed by such sins. This is
done according to the command of Christ: if thy brother sin against
thee, rebuke him between thee and him alone; if he hear thee, thou
hast gained thy brother; if he hear thee not, take with thee one or
two more, that every matter may be established on the testimony of two
or three witnesses. If he will not hear them, tell it to the church.
Matth. 18:16-17. So Paul writes: those who sin, rebuke before all,
that the rest also may fear. 1 Tim. 5:20.

Secret sins, of which one has no suspicion, even superiors should not
investigate too sharply, and a subordinate is not obliged to answer
one who inquires after secret sins. Secret sins which have been
confessed, if they redound to the harm of the whole state, or of many
fellow men, or also of a respected, eminent man — such as high
treason, the secret spreading of a heresy, and the like — are first to
be punished secretly; if those who sin are not bettered in this way,
they should be reported without delay to the authorities or to others
to whom danger is brought, as Mordecai disclosed the traitors and
assassins of Ahasuerus to the king, Esth. 2:22, and as Paul's nephew
reported the plot against him to the chief captain, Acts 23:17. If
secret sins harm only the one who commits them, then he should for
that reason be corrected secretly, so that his good name not be
injured; but if there is no hope that he will amend his life, then he
should also be reported to the superior, so that he may become ashamed
and cease to sin; for in this case it is better to help the conscience
than the good name of the neighbor.

4. With respect to other circumstances, especially of place and time:
that the drunken or the angry not be corrected while they are still
such; for drunkenness robs a man of his understanding, so that he does
not notice what is being done with him, and anger is a brief madness,
and many, when admonished and corrected at the wrong time, have only
become worse by it.

Finally, the right ultimate end of brotherly correction should not be a