Mental Reservation

Hi, Father John,

What is "mental reservation", and how is that different from lying?

Brian

When I was about five or six, the phone rang, and because I was closest, I went to pick it up.  My dad said, "If that's for me, tell them I'm not home".  So, I picked up the receiver, and said, "Hello".  A man asked, "Is your dad there?" "He told me to say he's not home", I answered. 

Expressions such as "He's not home" are called "equivocations", or "mental reservations".  When there is a good reason for using them, they are admissible.  If the person asked for was at home, but did not wish to talk to the caller, the meaning of the phrase, "He's not home", is restricted by the mind of the speaker to this sense:  "He's not home to speak to you".  Equivocations are commonly called "mental reservations", or more specifically "broad general reservations".  A more serious use of a broad mental reservation is the case of the confessor who is asked about sins made known to him in confession.  He should answer, "I don't know".  Such words, used by a priest, mean "I do not know apart from confession, and I can't talk about what I hear in the confessional", or "I have no knowledge about that matter which I can communicate."

Besides the "broad mental reservation" there is a "strict mental reservation".  One instance is the man who is sitting in the parish office for a pre-marital interview.  He is asked, "Do you understand and intend to grant to your wife the right to a faithful, fruitful and permanent partnership of life, according to the laws of God and of His Church?"  He says, "Yes, I do", but if he really does not intend to be faithful, or else to remain married until death, or else to have children, God willing, then his strict mental reservation is a lie, and if he marries with that intention, his marriage is invalid.