bite others.

Obj. 2: Further, it is written (Ecclus. 4:30): "In no wise speak
against the truth." Now sometimes a person tells the truth while
backbiting, as stated above (A. 1, ad 3). Therefore it seems that one
is not always bound to withstand a backbiter.

Obj. 3: Further, no man should hinder what is profitable to others.
Now backbiting is often profitable to those who are backbitten: for
Pope Pius [*St. Pius I] says [*Append. Grat. ad can. Oves, caus. vi,
qu. 1]: "Not unfrequently backbiting is directed against good
persons, with the result that those who have been unduly exalted
through the flattery of their kindred, or the favor of others, are
humbled by backbiting." Therefore one ought not to withstand
backbiters.

_On the contrary,_ Jerome says (Ep. ad Nepot. lii): "Take care not to
have an itching tongue, nor tingling ears, that is, neither detract
others nor listen to backbiters."

_I answer that,_ According to the Apostle (Rom. 1:32), they "are
worthy of death . . . not only they that" commit sins, "but they also
that consent to them that do them." Now this happens in two ways.
First, directly, when, to wit, one man induces another to sin, or
when the sin is pleasing to him: secondly, indirectly, that is, if he
does not withstand him when he might do so, and this happens
sometimes, not because the sin is pleasing to him, but on account of
some human fear.

Accordingly we must say that if a man listens to backbiting without
resisting it, he seems to consent to the backbiter, so that he
becomes a participator in his sin. And if he induces him to backbite,
or at least if the detraction be pleasing to him on account of his
hatred of the person detracted, he sins no less than the detractor,
and sometimes more. Wherefore Bernard says (De Consid. ii, 13): "It
is difficult to say which is the more to be condemned[:] the
backbiter or he that listens to backbiting." If however the sin is
not pleasing to him, and he fails to withstand the backbiter, through
fear, negligence, or even shame, he sins indeed, but much less than
the backbiter, and, as a rule venially. Sometimes too this may be a
mortal sin, either because it is his official duty to correct the
backbiter, or by reason of some consequent danger; or on account of
the radical reason for which human fear may sometimes be a mortal
sin, as stated above (Q. 19, A. 3).

Reply Obj. 1: No man hears himself backbitten, because when a man is
spoken evil of in