Can Catholics Be Police Officers?

Can Catholics and other Christians ever lie?

This discussion comes up all the time in Catholic land and on blogs it seems. There was not too long ago for instance a pro-lifer that got some nasty stuff on what was happening in abortion clinics on tape. She got this by being deceptive and lying about who she was. There was a ton of Catholics that went NO THAT IS LYING IT IS EVIL SHE WAS WRONG!!! I have never been satisfied with that really and yet I don't have a solid answer myself about why in my gut or via tradition/scripture why I think it is more complicated.

I just saw this very good article via THIS ROCK that is helpful in some regards. See Is Lying Ever Right? (Tip of the hat to Xt3_iActiv8 and his twitter post).

Now I have suspected this is more complex than some folks wish to admit (and by complex the Church is leaving some areas for discussion here) by the fact if this is such a iron clad NO NO then there are a heck of a lot of jobs Catholics would not be able to enter.

Here are a few:
The Secret Service
The FBI
The CIA
The DEA
Undercover Reporter
Military intelligence as an agent

and of course the real biggie your average policeman!!!

Now I don't know about everyone else but I have not heard the Bishops say Catholics cannot be police officers. YET police folks must and do lie as a part of their jobs.

I very much would love to talk to a Catholic Priest that ministers to police to get his thoughts.

Police lie all the time and their lying is generally accepted. Policemen lie and deceive all the time in undercover work.

We see this in the Vice Squad when they pose as escorts or as johns. Does a Catholic police officer that puts up a FAUX escort ad in the paper in order to conduct a sting operation need to go to confession?

We see this as they go undercover to buy drugs and infiltrate gangs.

Even in interrogation of a suspect it is common and legally acceptable for a Detective to lie to the suspect. Such as " you might as well confess and make it better on yourself because your friend has already finked on you so better tell us where the body is" even though his friend has done no such thing.

So if lying or deception is ALWAYS WITHOUT EXCEPTION an intrinsic evil the Catholic Church has appeared to allow many of its flock to endanger their souls by hellfire if the above is prohibited. Talk about a act of extreme negligence!!! So I think there is a lot more up in the air than many want to admit.