The Catholic Church sees the Ten Commandments as one of the four pillars of faith, along with the Creed (the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed), the seven sacraments, and the Our Father. They’re called the pillars of faith because they’re the foundations upon which the Catholic Church is built, just as an altar would have four solid pillars to support itself. Each pillar represents a major component of Catholicism, and all four together establish the core of Catholic belief and practice. The Church treats the Ten Commandments as divine laws from God that the Church and pope can never change, add to, or subtract from.
The Church doesn’t see the Ten Commandments as arbitrary rules and regulations from the man upstairs but as commandments for protection. Obey them, and eternal happiness is yours. Disobey them and suffer the consequences.
The Ten Commandments have also been called the Decalogue (Greek) and the Debarim (Hebrew), both of which mean the Ten Words.
Many a preacher has said, “These are the Ten Commandments, not the Ten Suggestions.” True enough. Just as a prescription tells you how many pills to take and how often, the Commandments tell us what to do and what not to do in the moral life. Disregard the formula in the laboratory, and the chemicals you mix may explode. Ignore grandma’s favorite recipe and carelessly fail to measure the ingredients, and the end result won’t taste good. Likewise, disobey the Commandments now, and expect misery now or in the afterlife.
Demonstrating Love for God
The first three commandments focus on the individual’s relationship with God. The main objectives are to honor God, His name, and His day.
I: Honor God
The First Commandment is “I am the Lord your God, you shall not have strange gods before Me.” This commandment forbids idolatry, the worship of false gods and goddesses, and it forbids polytheism, the belief in many gods, insisting instead on monotheism, the belief in one God. So the obvious and blatant ways to break this commandment are to
Worship a false god, be it Hercules, Zena, or Satan
Consciously and willingly deny the existence of God, as in the case of atheism or having no religion whatsoever
The Catholic Church looks at the commandment — the letter of the law and the spirit of the law — and tries to apply it to daily life. Granted, in the 21st century, the Church doesn’t see many people worshipping idols like they used to do in pagan Greece and Rome. But refraining from building golden calves or statues of Caesar in your house aren’t the only ways you can obey the First Commandment.
Rejecting false belief systems
You can break the First Commandment by willingly and consciously being ignorant of what God has revealed in Sacred Scripture (the Bible) and Sacred Tradition (see Chapter 2), as well as by believing in and/or seriously using astrology (horoscopes), numerology, and dianetics, which refers to the Church of Scientology.
Another way to break this commandment is to become involved with New Age spirituality, which is an informal religion of no creed, no liturgy, no doctrine, and no church structure, leadership, or institution. This type of religion blends ancient paganism with the occult, superstition, Gnosticism, and so on. It’s extremely different from the three monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Dabbling in witchcraft, sorcery, devil worship, white or black magic, voodoo, spiritism (communicating with the dead), fortune telling (which is also known as psychic reading), tarot cards, Ouija boards, lucky charms, and such are all violations of this commandment, too.
Sacrilege, the desecration of holy objects, and simony, trying to buy or sell spiritual favors or graces, are also ways in which you can break the First Commandment. The Church believes that all these things are forbidden by the First Commandment because they don’t put the one, true God before all else — and many of them put credence in superstition.
Tuning out the distractions and putting God first
Today, we think the most common way that the First Commandment is broken is when you put someone or something before God. In other words, God isn’t your highest priority. According to Catholicism, when career, fame, fortune, comfort, pleasure, family, or a friend, for example, is your most important object, value, or priority, you’re violating the First Commandment.
Even though you’re not denying the existence of God or showing contempt for God or things symbolizing the divine, the Church believes that you’re showing disrespect by not making God your highest priority and most cherished relationship. When you’re too busy to go to church every week or going to church becomes too inconvenient, yet you have time to attend every soccer game for Susie, music recital for Johnny, and football game at your favorite college, then God’s no longer numero uno in your life.
The Bible, Jesus Christ, and the Catholic Church say that you’re to love God “with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27). So no one and no thing can be number one in your heart except God.
Spending QT with God
To the Church, the First Commandment implies that if God is the most important person in your life, you’ll want to honor Him, spend quality time with Him, and communicate with Him daily through prayer. Prayer enables you to speak to God with your heart and mind — vocally or mentally — and neglecting to pray, or intentionally not praying, violates the First Commandment.
Honoring, not idolizing, Mary and the saints
According to the First Commandment, only God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are entitled to and deserve worship and adoration. Worshipping or adoring anyone or anything else is idolatry and forbidden. Yet Catholics are sometimes accused of idolatry for the prayer and honor they give to the saints — especially the highest honor and respect they give to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. While worship of anyone or anything other than God is idolatry, adoration is only one form of prayer. Intercessory prayer addressed to the Virgin Mary and the Saints isn’t worship, but spiritual communication.
In Catholicism, the devotion to and veneration of Mary and the saints aren’t considered idolatry because devotion, honor, and veneration aren’t considered the same as worship and adoration. The Fourth Commandment, “Honor your father and mother,” shows the faithful that honoring a human being, like mom or dad, is permissible — even commanded — because honor isn’t adoration or worship. And in the Gospel, even Jesus showed honor to dead people, such as Abraham and Moses, speaking of them with great respect.
Catholics believe that if humans can and must honor their parents, then it’s only logical to honor the faithful servants of God who lived holy lives on earth and are now in heaven before the throne of God.
II: Honor God’s name
The Second Commandment, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain,” tells the faithful to honor the name of God, which goes hand in hand with the First Commandment saying to honor the person of God by not worshipping anyone else. It makes sense that if you’re to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, then you’re naturally to respect the name of God with equal passion and vigor.
Avoiding blasphemy
Imagine a man using his fiancée’s name whenever he wants to curse. How can he say that he loves his girlfriend if he shows contempt for her very name? A person’s name is part of who that person is, and respect for the name is respect for the person. Disrespect and contempt for the name equal disrespect for the person.
So Catholics believe that using God’s name — especially the name Jesus Christ — to swear and curse when, say, a car cuts you off in traffic, a bird leaves a little surprise on your new suit, or a stranger waves with his middle finger is disrespectful to God. It’s using the sacred name of the Lord and Savior to show anger and hostility. It’s ironic that many who claim to be followers of Christ show their anger and animosity by using His name. Think about it. When was the last time you heard someone say Jesus Christ? Was it in prayer or shouted from an open window?
Using God’s name in a disrespectful manner is blasphemy, and it’s the essence of the Second Commandment.
Respecting holy things and holy oaths
Any act of disrespect to anything holy — be it a holy image, place, or person — is considered a sacrilege, and it’s forbidden by the Second Commandment. The Church believes that you’re being irreligious when you show contempt for God, such as by desecrating a holy object or place. When a house of worship — a church, temple, synagogue, or mosque — is vandalized, the Church maintains that the sin of sacrilege has been committed; a house of God was desecrated, and contempt was shown not solely for those who attend the house’s services but also and preeminently for the person the place was built for.
You’re also violating the Second Commandment if you make jokes, watch movies, or read books that are disrespectful to God or anything considered holy. So for a Catholic, if you ridicule or laugh at a Jewish man for wearing a yarmulke (skull cap), a Muslim woman for wearing a khimar (head covering), a nun for wearing her religious habit, or a priest for wearing a cassock (a long, close-fitting garment, usually black), you’re being irreligious. Human beings wear certain things out of religious tradition, or they perform certain rituals as an external way of showing their love for God. When others make fun of religious garb or religious practices, it’s an insult to the one being honored by them, in other words, God Himself.
The Second Commandment also forbids false oaths and perjury. So to place your hand on the Holy Bible and swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, “so help me God,” and then tell a lie is considered perjury and a serious violation of this commandment. Also, when a couple plans to get married, they meet with a priest or deacon and fill out papers that ask questions, such as “Were you ever married before?” and “Do you intend to enter a permanent, faithful, and, God willing, fruitful union?” They’re asked to sign this document, and by doing so, they’re placing themselves under oath and saying that they’ve answered all the questions truthfully. Lying about any of the questions is considered a false oath — a mortal sin. (See Chapter 9 for more about mortal sin.)
III: Honor God’s day
The Third Commandment is “Remember to keep holy the Lord’s day.” The Jewish celebration of Sabbath (Shabbat) begins at sundown on Friday evening and lasts until sundown on Saturday. So, basically, Saturday is the Sabbath Day. It’s the last day of the week, the seventh day, the day (according to the Book of Genesis) on which God rested after six days of creation. Even modern calendars have Saturday as the last day of the week and Sunday as the first day of the new week.
So why, then, do Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Christians go to church on Sunday, treating it as the Lord’s Day instead of Saturday? In general, Catholicism and Christianity moved the celebration of the Lord’s Day from Saturday to Sunday because Jesus Christ rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. In other words, Sunday has become the Christian Sabbath, the day of rest, to honor the day Christ rose from the dead. Jesus said in the Gospel that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So, Christians who wanted to honor their Risen Lord on the day of the week that He rose from the dead made Sunday their day of worship instead of the former day of Saturday, which the Hebrews had honored from the time of Moses.
Catholics are also bound to attend a Catholic Mass on each and every Sunday or the Vigil Mass on Saturday of every weekend in the calendar year. To miss Mass on Sunday is considered a mortal sin unless the person has a legitimate excuse, such as serious illness.
Ever wonder why some Catholics go to Mass on Saturday evening instead of Sunday morning? Using the Hebrew method of time reckoning, after sundown on Saturday evening is actually the beginning of Sunday, so the Church allows parishes to offer a Saturday evening Vigil Mass to satisfy the Sunday obligation.
But just going to a Christian Sunday worship service isn’t good enough. In order for Catholics to satisfy and fulfill the Third Commandment, they must attend a valid Catholic Mass. Going to another denomination for a Sunday worship service is nice, but Catholics must also attend Mass the evening before or sometime during the day on Sunday. The reason is that the Church maintains that only the Mass has the real, true, and substantial presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. Even if a Catholic doesn’t receive Holy Communion, she still satisfies the Sunday obligation by attending and participating at Mass.
The Third Commandment also forbids doing any servile work — unnecessary hard labor — on the Lord’s Day, because it’s a day of rest. And Pope John Paul II wrote a document about Sunday, Dies Domini (Latin for Day of the Lord), in which he reminded Catholics of the serious obligation to attend Mass each and every weekend and to refrain from doing unnecessary manual work.
To meet this obligation, all Catholics would optimally have Sunday off, so they’d have the opportunity to go to church and spend time with family. But in reality, some people must work frequently on Sundays — doctors, nurses, pharmacists, police officers, firefighters, and so on. Pastors can transfer the obligation to another day, but only on an individual basis and only for serious reasons.
Loving Your Neighbor
The last seven of the Ten Commandments focus on the individual’s relationship with others. The main objectives are to honor your parents, human life, human sexuality, the property of others, and the truth.
IV: Honor your parents
The Fourth Commandment, “Honor your father and mother,” obliges the faithful to show respect for their parents — as children and adults. Children must obey their parents, and adults must respect and see to the care of their parents when they become old and infirm.
Therefore, the Catholic Church believes that adult children who abandon, abuse, or neglect their elderly parents are violating the Fourth Commandment as much as teenage children who refuse to show respect or obedience to their parents. Likewise, being ashamed or embarrassed of your parents is considered as much a sin as disobeying them when you’re a child or harboring feelings of hatred or revenge for them even if they weren’t the parents they should have been.
This commandment is meant to protect the dignity and integrity of the family, which consists of a father, a mother, and their children. Obviously, some families are headed by a single parent because of the death or illness of the absent parent or because the absent parent was abusive or delinquent; in such sad circumstances, some people manage to do a terrific job at parenting solo. However, many single-parent households exist simply because the parents never married in the first place. Catholicism teaches that this commandment frowns on the option of freely and willingly choosing to establish a single-parent family. Voluntary single parenthood is considered an abuse because, all things being equal, a child deserves both a loving mother and a loving father.
Whether it’s adopting a child or having your own, parenthood should be sought and tried within the context of the family, which means a husband and a wife to be the mother and the father, rather than just being a parent by yourself. Just as the Church discourages parenthood outside of marriage, she also condemns artificial insemination — especially from donors not married to the potential mother.
According to the Church, children deserve (if possible) to have both parents. The Church also believes that even if the children are adopted, parenthood means both genders. So two men or two women can’t replace the divine plan that everyone deserves — a father and a mother. Check out Chapter 14 for more details on these touchy, but important, family matters.
The Catholic Church believes this commandment means more than just keeping order in the home and preventing the kids from establishing anarchy. It also entails and implies a respect and honor for everyone in legitimate positions of authority — be they civilian, military, or ecclesiastical (church-related). Teachers, employers, police officers, and so on have some degree of authority over others, and the Fourth Commandment requires that respect be shown to those given the responsibility of taking care of others. Whether you like or dislike the person who was elected president or prime minister, for example, the office demands some respect and dignity if, say, the prime minister enters the room. To show contempt or disrespect is considered sinful.
In the same line of thinking, this commandment also involves respect and love for your country. Patriotism isn’t the same as nationalism. The former is a healthy love and respect for your country, but the latter is blind, total, and unrestricted support for any and all legislation, policies, or activities of a nation. Nationalism is the extreme, whereas patriotism is the goal, because good patriots know when to challenge their political leaders, laws, and policies when they become unjust or immoral.
For Catholics, this commandment recognizes the natural right of the family and of the state to form society. The family is the primary and fundamental building block from which comes the civil union of many families into a local and national government. And the family is the basis for the faith community of the Church, which is the family of God and the union of all the natural families around the world.
V: Honor human life
In English, the Fifth Commandment is read as “You shall not kill,” but the Hebrew word ratsach (murder) was used rather than nakah (kill), so the better translation would be “Thou shalt not murder.” And St. Jerome used the Latin word occidere (to murder) instead of interficere (to kill) when he translated the Hebrew into the Latin Vulgate, which was the first complete Christian Bible combining the Old and New Testaments in one volume and translated.
It’s a subtle distinction but an important one to the Church. Killing an innocent person is considered murder. Killing an unjust aggressor to preserve your own life is still killing, but it isn’t considered murder or immoral by any means. The use of deadly force is morally permitted only if it’s the last resort and if the person isn’t innocent — he or she must be guilty of a most serious offense or threatening to commit such horrible evil.
Forbidding unjust killings
The Catholic Church believes that murder is the sin prohibited in the Fifth Commandment. Killing in self-defense has always been considered justifiable and morally permissible. This distinction is the reason that when God ordered the Israelites to kill sometimes in the Old Testament, it wasn’t a violation of the Fifth Commandment. Only unjust killing (taking innocent life) or murder is forbidden. Likewise, police officers and soldiers may have to use deadly force in certain well-defined and restricted circumstances. Again, this is morally permitted. Yet the legitimate taking of life isn’t casual, unlicensed, unrestricted, or uncontrolled. The Church sees it as only a last resort — rare rather than common.
In broader terms, the Church believes that the intentional taking of innocent life includes murder (homicide or manslaughter), abortion, euthanasia, suicide, in most cases the death penalty, and even the old custom of dueling. The Church also condemns terrorism, violence, and any unjust war or physical abuse.
Taking issue with capital punishment
Capital punishment, whereby the death penalty is inflicted on someone guilty of a grisly murder, is obviously not the same as the murder of an innocent person. The pope and the Catechism acknowledge the theoretical right of the state (civil government) to resort to this extreme measure, but its actual implementation must be morally done across the board.
Because capital punishment is not currently performed universally, uniformly, equitably, and only as a last resort, the Church claims that very few if any circumstances or situations today fulfill the moral criteria to allow the death penalty to be carried out. Because some countries outlaw it and others do not; some states and provinces allow it and others do not; location has plenty to do with capital punishment. How just is it to put criminals to death based on where the crime took place? Is life more or less sacred in one location than another? Also, several means of capital punishment are more humane than others. Does making it painless make it more acceptable?
Finally, it’s often the poor who get executed because the rich and famous can hire expensive lawyers to appeal their cases. The poor people are given public defenders and don’t have the money to make appeals. Based on the inequities of place, diversity of means, and unfairness of economics as to who has access to aggressive attorneys and long appeal processes, the reality of the death penalty overrules the theory that some criminals can be morally executed as a last resort. Although not totally condemning capital punishment, the Catechism does strongly discourage it. Whenever an innocent life is unjustly taken, it is always condemned as murder.
Recognizing other violations
More subtle violations of this commandment, according to the Church, include growing angry in your heart with your neighbor, harboring feelings of hatred or revenge, being criminally negligent (such as refusing to save someone’s life when you’re able to do so), and committing personal abuse (which is intentionally neglecting to take care of your own health and safety).
Abusing drugs and alcohol is considered breaking the Fifth Commandment because it recklessly endangers the user’s life and potentially endangers others if someone under the influence becomes violent and irrational. Drunk driving is considered a violation because drunk drivers are jeopardizing their own lives and the lives of others by using an auto under the influence.
Mutilation and torture of human or animal life is also considered breaking the Fifth Commandment. Using animals for medical and scientific research is permitted as long as no suffering or unnecessary death is involved. To boot, psychological or emotional abuse is considered forbidden because such abuse attacks the victim with unjust consequences.
Because the natural moral law (see Chapter 11) tells anyone with the use of reason that the intentional, direct taking of innocent life is immoral and wrong, the Fifth Commandment is no secret nor is it a change from general human experience. In the Bible, Cain knew it was wrong to murder his brother Abel, even though it was centuries before Moses ever received all Ten Commandments. And the Nazis who were convicted of war crimes, such as genocide, were found guilty not by reason of the Fifth Commandment but because of the natural moral law, which also outlaws such atrocities.
VI and IX: Honor human sexuality
The Sixth Commandment is “You shall not commit adultery,” and the ninth is “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.” Both deal with honoring human sexuality.
The Sixth Commandment forbids the actual, physical act of having immoral sexual activity, specifically adultery, which is sex with someone else’s spouse or a spouse cheating on his or her partner. But this commandment also includes fornication, which is sex between unmarried people, prostitution, pornography, homosexual activity, masturbation, group sex, rape, incest, pedophilia, bestiality, and necrophilia.
The Ninth Commandment forbids the intentional desire and longing for immoral sexuality. To sin in the heart, Jesus says, is to lust after a woman or a man with the desire and will to have immoral sex with that person. Committing the act of sex outside of marriage is sinful, and wanting to do it is immoral as well, just as hating your neighbor is like killing him in your heart (Matthew 5:21-22). Just as human life is a gift from God and needs to be respected, defended, and protected, so, too, is human sexuality. Catholicism regards human sexuality as a divine gift, so it’s considered sacred in the proper context — marriage.
Taking the cake: Marriage
The Church believes that sexual intercourse was ordained by God and designed exclusively for a husband and wife. Marriage is the best, most sacred, and most efficient union of man and woman because God created marriage. It’s a sign of the permanent, faithful, and hopefully fruitful covenant that’s made on the day that the man and woman make their vows and exchange consent. Human sexual activity is designed to promote love (unity) and life (procreation). And whenever that formula is altered or divided, the Church believes that sin enters the equation.
Only sex between a husband and wife is considered moral, and even then, the couple must be mutually respectful of each other. If the sole objective is personal pleasure and nothing more, then even a husband or wife sins by reducing his or her partner to a sex object or just a means to self-gratification. For example, using pornography or any kind of sex toy is strictly forbidden in the eyes of the Church.
So married sex is considered holy and sacred when it focuses on the unity of the couple as husband and wife — two human people who deserve dignity, respect, communication, honesty, fidelity, and compassion. To the Church, human sexuality isn’t an end but a means to an end — the greater unity between husband and wife and the possibility of new life.
Planning a family the natural way
Catholicism doesn’t teach that married couples must have as many children as biologically possible. It allows for Natural Family Planning (NFP), which is not the old, archaic, and unreliable rhythm method. So responsible parents can morally decide how large or small a family they can reasonably afford, raise, and maintain, as long as moral means are employed to do so.
Contraceptive sex, the Church says, divides the bond of love and life, unity and procreation — isolating the dimension of human sexuality that unites two people from the possible procreative level. Likewise, any form of human reproduction that results from anything other than sexual intercourse, such as surrogate mothers, sperm banks, in vitro fertilization, human cloning, and all methods of artificial conception are equally sinful because they isolate and separate the God-intended bond of the unitive and procreative. Sex outside of marriage and conception outside of sex are considered violations of the unity within human sexuality. For more info about the Church’s stand on these and other sticky issues, turn to Chapter 14.
Cheating and philandering don’t cut it
The Church teaches that sex outside of and/or before marriage is considered sinful and immoral, but strictly speaking, adultery is having sex with someone else’s spouse or cheating on your own spouse by having sex with someone else. Catholicism says that adultery is primarily a sin against justice because all married couples make a solemn oath, a sacred covenant, to be faithful to each other until death. So marital infidelity is an injustice as well as a selfish and irresponsible sin of the flesh. Don Juans and desperate housewives needn’t apply.
Playing footsie with fire
Even though the average Joe may think nothing of experimenting with sex before marriage, the Church says that true love means wanting what’s best for the other person — body and soul. Having sex before or outside of marriage, whether it’s a one-night stand or a long-term shack-up, isn’t sanctioned or blessed by God and lacks respect for the people involved. True love and respect mean you’d never want to lure the one you love into a sinful situation any more than you’d intentionally lead that person into a scenario that would endanger his or her life or health. So having sex supposedly just to show your love is considered a lie.
Engaging in sexual intercourse without a lifelong commitment blessed by God is also dishonest. Having sex before or outside of marriage is considered dishonest because the people involved deserve only the best, and the best is the total gift of self — lifelong commitment, fidelity, and openness to the possibility that God may use this couple to bring a new human life into the world.
VII and X: Honor the property of others
The Seventh Commandment, “You shall not steal,” and the Tenth Commandment, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods,” focus on respecting and honoring the possessions of others.
The Seventh Commandment forbids the act of taking someone else’s property, and the Tenth Commandment forbids wanting to do so.
Explicitly, these two commandments condemn theft and the feelings of envy, greed, and jealousy in reaction to what other people have. The Catholic Church believes that, implicitly, these commandments also denounce cheating people of their money or property, depriving workers of their just wage, or not giving employers a full day’s work for a full day’s pay. Embezzlement, fraud, tax evasion, and vandalism are all considered extensions of violations of the Seventh Commandment. Showing disrespect for the private ownership of someone else’s property — be it money or possessions — occurs when these sinful acts take place.
In addition, the Church believes that governments have no right to usurp private property and nationalize businesses, and they do have an obligation to protect private property and to help individuals and other nations in great need.
The Church maintains that personal property is a fundamental right, but it’s not considered an absolute right. If a person owns more food than he needs, and someone comes along who is starving, the person with more food than he needs is obligated to share with the one who’s starving. In the same way, governments and corporations have no right to deny the individual his inalienable right to private property. But although private property is a right, it’s subservient to higher values, such as human life and national security.
VIII: Honor the truth
The Eighth Commandment, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor,” condemns lying. Because God is regarded as the author of all truth, the Church believes that humans are obligated in the Eighth Commandment to honor the truth. The most obvious way to fulfill this commandment is not to lie, to intentionally deceive another by speaking a falsehood.
Figures of speech, metaphors, hyperboles, fairy tales, and such aren’t considered lies because the listener isn’t expecting accurate facts or exclusive truth, and the speaker isn’t intending to deceive but to make a point.
Keep reading, because you haven’t heard it all yet. Mental reservation is considered a means by which you can withhold some aspects of the truth without telling a lie, usually by not telling all the details. The Church believes it can be used in very limited circumstances:
When someone isn’t entitled to know all the facts and seeks to know them for evil purposes
To protect the safety of self or others
To protect confidentiality of penitent and confessor, doctor and patient, or attorney and client
This line of thinking is why the Church considers it moral to keep certain secrets confidential. For example:
Catholicism regards the secrecy of the confessional as absolute, and no priest can ever reveal who went to confession or what was confessed. This is what’s known as the Seal of the Confessional. Yet a priest can’t lie to protect the penitent because the ends can never justify the means. He can and must simply remain silent rather than tell a falsehood.
Doctor-patient and lawyer-client confidentiality is considered close to, but not synonymous with, the Seal of Confession and priest-penitent secrecy.
The government can have secrets to protect the national security of the country and all its citizens, but just like the individual, the government isn’t allowed to tell a lie even to save lives. Governments can use mental reservation to keep strategic information from enemies.
Concealing the truth (or some details of it) is different from distorting it, which would be a lie. Telling bedtime stories, writing fiction, using figures of speech, and using mental reservation are all permissible acts when done in the proper context. But intentionally lying is always considered sinful, even if the reasons may be noble. According to the Church, God created the human intellect to know the truth, just as He made the human will to seek the good.
Coming Out Even Steven
Certain differences exist between the Catholic and Lutheran version and the Protestant version of the Ten Commandments. The content is just the same, but the numbers differ. See Table 12-1 for a side-by-side comparison.
TABLE 12-1 Comparing the Catholic/Lutheran and Protestant Ten Commandments
Catholic/Lutheran
Protestant (Reformed)
1. I am the Lord your God, you shall not have strange gods before Me.
1. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
2. You shall not make unto you any graven images.
3. Remember to keep holy the Lord’s day.
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
4. Honor your father and mother.
4. You shall remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
5. You shall not kill.
5. Honor your father and mother.
6. You shall not commit adultery.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not steal.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, nor his wife, nor anything that belongs to him.
The Bible doesn’t number the Ten Commandments; it merely states them in Exodus 20:1–17 and Deuteronomy 5:6–21. Both Roman Catholics and Lutherans use a numbering sequence devised by St. Augustine in the fifth century, because Martin Luther (1483–1546), a German theologian, had been an Augustinian priest before he left the priesthood in favor of his new Lutheran religion. The Augustinians were followers of St. Augustine. (For more on St. Augustine, see Chapter 18.) Protestant denominations other than the Lutheran Church, however, use the sequence of commandments devised by English and Swiss reformers in the 16th century.
The Catholic/Lutheran version has the First Commandment prohibiting idolatry (no strange gods = no graven images). The Protestant version separates false worship and graven images into the First and Second Commandments. Additionally, in the Catholic/Lutheran version, one commandment forbids you to covet your neighbor’s wife and another commandment forbids you to covet your neighbor’s goods. Contrarily, the Protestant version combines all forms of coveting into one commandment.
Honoring God, His name, and His day
The Ten Commandments have also been called the Decalogue (Greek) and the Debarim (Hebrew), both of which mean the Ten Words.
In Catholicism, the devotion to and veneration of Mary and the saints aren’t considered idolatry because devotion, honor, and veneration aren’t considered the same as worship and adoration. The Fourth Commandment, “Honor your father and mother,” shows the faithful that honoring a human being, like mom or dad, is permissible — even commanded — because honor isn’t adoration or worship. And in the Gospel, even Jesus showed honor to dead people, such as Abraham and Moses, speaking of them with great respect.
Using God’s name in a disrespectful manner is blasphemy, and it’s the essence of the Second Commandment.
Catholics are also bound to attend a Catholic Mass on each and every Sunday or the Vigil Mass on Saturday of every weekend in the calendar year. To miss Mass on Sunday is considered a mortal sin unless the person has a legitimate excuse, such as serious illness.