Are Sins Against One's Pastor Worse

[Byzantine]

than sins against other people/other priests?

[Nihil Obstat]

I am inclined to say that sins against a priest are marginally graver than sins against someone not a priest. I am also willing to accept that sins against one's family may be marginally graver than sins against a stranger. Since a person's pastor may in a sense be a kind of spiritual father to him, it seems reasonable to me that sins against one's pastor would be somewhat graver than sins against anyone else.

Mostly just in a marginal sense though.

 

However, in some specific cases I could see it being much more serious. For instance, false accusations of immorality or impropriety. Those are serious sins to begin with, but directed against one's pastor it also brings about serious scandal, and harms his reputation in the eyes of the very people who have been entrusted to him.

Edited March 17, 2013 by Nihil Obstat