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SAINT-MIKE.ORG POLICY AGAINST HARASSMENT

As a leading Web presence for Catholics on the Internet and as a religious organization, the Order of the Legion of St. Michael is committed to protecting visitors to our websites from Internet Stalking and Harassment. Put simply, we will not tolerate harassment.

Everyone is welcomed and encouraged to exchange ideas and views within the Netequette parameters established by our Protocols and Guidelines for Mail Lists, bulletin boards, and Chatrooms. Abusive behavior in any form, however, and will not be tolerated; hatred or bigotry expressed in our community interactive services will be met with ZERO tolerance.

Specifically stated, the definition of harassment includes, but not limited to, the following:

  1. abusive and/or bigoted rhetoric against Christianity, the Catholic Church, God, the Saints, priests, bishops, religious, or anything sacred.

  2. abusive and/or bigoted rhetoric toward anyone or any group due to race, color, age, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national and ethnic origin, disability, or veteran's status.

  3. assertion of slander, libel, rash judgment, defamation, detraction, calumny, all forms of gossip, lying, and backbiting, or otherwise unjustly tearing down of another's reputation (see Teaching of the Catholic Church below).

  4. to upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable; or that may harm minors in any way.

  5. to personally assert by post, email, transmission or otherwise rhetoric or speech that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable; or that may harm minors in any way.

  6. to upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any content that threatens, promotes, or instigates violence, physical harm or death to others, or oneself.

  7. to personally assert rhetoric or speech that threatens, promotes, or instigates violence, physical harm or death to others, or oneself.

  8. to assert any form of hate speech, verbal and/or physical aggression, violence, attack, threats, intimidation, or other disruptive behavior in any form or by any media, or to otherwise victimize, harass, degrade or intimidate an individual or group of individuals.

  9. to attempt to harvest or collect member information, including screen names, or attempts to get a password, or other private information from a user or attempts to violate the privacy of a user in any way.

  10. to upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available links to and/or references content not allowed under these guidelines.

In addition to the above, and especially since our websites are of a religious nature, we insist that visitors and members refrain from casual sexually explicit discussion and material and from "trolling" (trolling is behavior of coming into a mail list, bulletin board, or chatroom for the purposes of finding a dating partner or engaging in sexual banter) because of the potential of this content and behavior to detract from the safety and comfort of our visitors and perhaps to cause scandal and thus create an harassing environment.

By "casual sexually explicit discussion" we mean talk that is unbecoming, lewd, licentious, and unfitting "in mixed company" as the old cliche reminds us, and that which is unbecoming of a Christian in any company (see Ephesians 5:4: "Let there be no filthiness, nor silly talk, nor levity, which are not fitting; but instead let there be thanksgiving." and Romans 13:13a: "Let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness"). This applies to all visitors and members of our websites whether or not they are Christians.

Specifically, visitors and members of our websites, whether they are Catholic or not, shall be accountible to the teaching of the Catholic Church on these matters of Offenses Against Truth and Respect for the Reputation of Others as discussed in the Catholic Catechism. Behaviors that violate these standards shall not be tolerated. Violations of the Church's teaching on the Offenses Against Truth and the Respect for the Reputation of Others is considered harassment and will be met with ZERO tolerance. The Church teaches:

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

It was said to the men of old, “You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.”

2464 The eighth commandment forbids misrepresenting the truth in our relations with others. This moral prescription flows from the vocation of the holy people to bear witness to their God who is the truth and wills the truth. Offenses against the truth express by word or deed a refusal to commit oneself to moral uprightness: they are fundamental infidelities to God and, in this sense, they undermine the foundations of the covenant.

2475 Christ's disciples have “put on the new man, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” By “putting away falsehood,” they are to “put away all malice and all guile and insincerity and envy and all slander.”

2476 False witness and perjury. When it is made publicly, a statement contrary to the truth takes on a particular gravity. In court it becomes false witness. When it is under oath, it is perjury. Acts such as these contribute to condemnation of the innocent, exoneration of the guilty, or the increased punishment of the accused. They gravely compromise the exercise of justice and the fairness of judicial decisions.

2477 Respect for the reputation of persons forbids every attitude and word likely to cause them unjust injury. He becomes guilty:

- of rash judgment who, even tacitly, assumes as true, without sufficient foundation, the moral fault of a neighbor;

- of detraction who, without objectively valid reason, discloses another's faults and failings to persons who did not know them;

- of calumny who, by remarks contrary to the truth, harms the reputation of others and gives occasion for false judgments concerning them.

2478 To avoid rash judgment, everyone should be careful to interpret insofar as possible his neighbor's thoughts, words, and deeds in a favorable way:

Every good Christian ought to be more ready to give a favorable interpretation to another's statement than to condemn it. But if he cannot do so, let him ask how the other understands it. And if the latter understands it badly, let the former correct him with love. If that does not suffice, let the Christian try all suitable ways to bring the other to a correct interpretation so that he may be saved.

2479 Detraction and calumny destroy the reputation and honor of one's neighbor. Honor is the social witness given to human dignity, and everyone enjoys a natural right to the honor of his name and reputation and to respect. Thus, detraction and calumny offend against the virtues of justice and charity.

2480 Every word or attitude is forbidden which by flattery, adulation, or complaisance encourages and confirms another in malicious acts and perverse conduct. Adulation is a grave fault if it makes one an accomplice in another's vices or grave sins. Neither the desire to be of service nor friendship justifies duplicitous speech. Adulation is a venial sin when it only seeks to be agreeable, to avoid evil, to meet a need, or to obtain legitimate advantages.

2481 Boasting or bragging is an offense against truth. So is irony aimed at disparaging someone by maliciously caricaturing some aspect of his behavior.

2482 “A lie consists in speaking a falsehood with the intention of deceiving.” The Lord denounces lying as the work of the devil: “You are of your father the devil, . . . there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

2483 Lying is the most direct offense against the truth. To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead into error someone who has the right to know the truth. By injuring man's relation to truth and to his neighbor, a lie offends against the fundamental relation of man and of his word to the Lord.

2484 The gravity of a lie is measured against the nature of the truth it deforms, the circumstances, the intentions of the one who lies, and the harm suffered by its victims. If a lie in itself only constitutes a venial sin, it becomes mortal when it does grave injury to the virtues of justice and charity.

2485 By its very nature, lying is to be condemned. It is a profanation of speech, whereas the purpose of speech is to communicate known truth to others. The deliberate intention of leading a neighbor into error by saying things contrary to the truth constitutes a failure in justice and charity. The culpability is greater when the intention of deceiving entails the risk of deadly consequences for those who are led astray.

2486 Since it violates the virtue of truthfulness, a lie does real violence to another. It affects his ability to know, which is a condition of every judgment and decision. It contains the seed of discord and all consequent evils. Lying is destructive of society; it undermines trust among men and tears apart the fabric of social relationships.

2487 Every offense committed against justice and truth entails the duty of reparation, even if its author has been forgiven. When it is impossible publicly to make reparation for a wrong, it must be made secretly. If someone who has suffered harm cannot be directly compensated, he must be given moral satisfaction in the name of charity. This duty of reparation also concerns offenses against another's reputation. This reparation, moral and sometimes material, must be evaluated in terms of the extent of the damage inflicted. It obliges in conscience.