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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hypocrisy</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07610a.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="The pretension to qualities which one does not possess, or, more cognately to the scope of this article, the putting forward of a false appearance of virtue or religion"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="07610a.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/h.htm">H</a> > Hypocrisy</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Hypocrisy</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>(Greek <em>hypo</em>, under, and <em>krinesthai</em>, to contend — hence adequately "to answer" on the stage, "to play a part", "to feign or pretend".)</p> <p>Hypocrisy is the pretension to qualities which one does not possess, or, more cognately to the scope of this article, the putting forward of a <a href="../cathen/05781a.htm">false</a> appearance of <a href="../cathen/15472a.htm">virtue</a> or <a href="../cathen/12748a.htm">religion</a>.</p> <p>Essentially its malice is identical with that of lying; in both cases there is discordance between what a man has in his mind and the simultaneous manifestation of himself. So far as the morality of the act goes, it is unimportant that this difference between the interior and the exterior be set out in words, as happens in formal lies, or be acted out in one's demeanour, as is <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> of simulation. It is deserving of notice that the mere concealment of one's own <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>, unless one be interrogated by legitimate authority, is not straight-way to be accounted hypocrisy. With the purpose of measuring the degree of sinfulness attributable to this vice, <a href="../cathen/14663b.htm">St. Thomas Aquinas</a> teaches that we must carefully differentiate its two elements: the want of <a href="../cathen/06636b.htm">goodness</a>, and the pretence of having it. If a <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a> be so minded as definitely to intend both things, it is of course obvious that he is guilty of grievous <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>, for that is only another way of saying that a man lacks the indispensable righteousness which makes him pleasing in the sight of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>. If, however, the hypocrite be occupied rather with successfully enacting the role he has assumed, then, even though he be in mortal <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a> at the time, it will not always follow that the act of counterfeiting is itself a mortal <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>To determine when it is so, cognizance must be taken of the motive which prompts the sinner to adopt his hypocritical bearing. If the end he has in view be such as to be incompatible with the <a href="../cathen/09397a.htm">love</a> of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> or one's neighbour, for example, if his purpose were thus to spread abroad <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">false doctrine</a> more unimpededly and more thoroughly, he must clearly be considered to have commited mortal <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>. When, on the other hand, his animus does not involve such opposition to the supreme law of charity, the <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a> is esteemed to be venial, as, for instance, when one finds satisfaction in the completeness with which he carries off his part.</p> <p>The portrait of hypocrisy is drawn with appalling vividness by <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ</a> in His denunciation of the <a href="../cathen/11789b.htm">Pharisees</a> in Matthew 23:23-24: "Woe to you <a href="../cathen/13634a.htm">scribes</a> and <a href="../cathen/11789b.htm">Pharisees</a>, hypocrites; because you <a href="../cathen/14741b.htm">tithe</a> mint, and <a href="../cathen/01530b.htm">anise</a>, and cummin, and have left the weightier things of the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a>; judgment, and mercy, and <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a>. These things you ought to have done, and not to leave those undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel."</p> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">RICKABY, <em>Aquinas Ethicus</em> (London, 1898); SLATER, <em>A Manual of Moral Theology</em> (New York, 1908); BALLERINI, <em>Opus Theologicum Morale</em> (Prato, 1898).</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Delany, J.</span> <span id="apayear">(1910).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Hypocrisy.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07610a.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Delany, Joseph.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Hypocrisy."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 7.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1910.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07610a.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Douglas J. Potter.</span> <span id="dedication">Dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.</span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. 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