Hors-d'Œuvre
Cas de conscience

Every day, newspapers published in Egypt carry a note offering a reward of 10,000 pounds sterling (nearly a million francs) to the person who will deliver the Sirdar's assassins.
All of Egypt knows the Sirdar's assassins. No one wants to win the 10,000 pounds. It's very fine...
Senator Billiet has just allowed himself to be sentenced to a fine of 300 francs (at least we will know to whom he paid these 500 francs) rather than sell those he bought. Everyone in France knows the names that Mr. Ernest Billiet did not want to deliver... It is a gesture of high commercial probity on his part, defending the principle of business confidentiality. It is very fine.
At all times, in all countries, in all ages, denunciation has been looked upon with a bad eye by honest people, even when it was exercised against criminals and in the public interest. The professional informer seems more repugnant than the executioner. The occasional informer is immediately attacked in his honor, whether he acted out of greed, fear, hatred or patriotism.
At school, the kid who snitches receives a beating from his little friends. During the war, the zealous citizens who registered with the 2nd bureau showed great devotion, because they did not benefit from popular sympathy.
Only two exceptions, at two exceptional times under the French Terror and under the Russian Terror, the informer, an active and indispensable citizen, was officially honored. But it must be said that Lenin's Cheka, like that of Robespierre, imposed itself through fear more than through admiration.
There is in the hearts of savages and civilized people an impulsive feeling that is quite chic: denunciation is equivalent to denunciation, which means treason.
But this generosity of spirit leads, in private, to excessive displays of discretion. In order not to assume a role that resembles that of the informer, we suffer an honest man to be long flouted by a hussy. This is how the deceived husband is always the last to know his misfortune; which is doubtless an evil, because this tradition gives excessive security to unfaithful women and an unfortunate encouragement to those who would hesitate to be so. But this is only a particular aspect of a general case of conscience, masterfully decided by my master Saint Thomas, the Angelic Doctor.
The following question, which I report from an ancient document, was put to the members of a council:
"Dioscore, having learned that his priest had once gotten drunk in a tavern by surprise, went to denounce him to the bishop, with the intention of denouncing him. Did he sin in this, although he spoke only the truth?"
Note that the case of conscience would be the same if a priest had gone to inform on the pope, Bishop Pétensoie, because Bishop Pétensoie wears dancer's underwear and puts on make-up like an old coquette when he has to officiate in public.
Here is the decisive text of Saint Thomas:
*"Quod si aliquis referat Prelato culpam proximi intendens vel cautelam in futurum, vel aliquid hujusmodi, quod ad emendationem proximi videret expedire, non peccat. If autem hoc, sive Prelato, sive amico suo, malitia referat tunc peccat mortaliter. »
Consequently, the denunciation must always have charity as its aim, that is to say the amendment of the guilty party and the preservation of third parties. but not the hatred or vengeance of the denouncer.
A fortiori, it must not have as its aim the desire to make money. This is why Judas remained the most execrable of informers.
Honor to Mr. Ernest Billiet, scapegoat charged with parliamentary sins, generous messiah who did not want to sell his disciples and who preferred to pay 300 deniers out of his own pocket (because everything increases) after appearing before the Pharisees!

G. DE LA FOUCHARDIÈRE.

*"But if anyone reports to the prelate the fault of a neighbor, either with the intention of serving as a warning for the future, or with the intention of doing something he deems opportune for the betterment of his neighbor, he does not sin. But if he attributes this to the malice, either of the prelate or of his friend, then he sins mortally."