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HRE23 - Unit 5 - Love of Neighbour

The Fourth Commandment

Fourth Commandment: Honor thy father and mother.

  • Includes the duties of children to love and obey their parents and authority figures, and the duties of authority figures to properly lead and care for others

  • The family finds its identity in God in the love held between the Blessed Trinity

    • The family also finds its mission, abilities, and obligations in God

    • The Christian family is a domestic church

  • Family: A man and a woman who are united in marriage, together with their children. This institution is prior to any recognition by public authority, which has an obligation to recognize it

    • What a family is cannot change - the human family is natural and directed by and towards God

    • The family is the original cell of social life

      • Love and stability in families translates to freedom, fraternity, and security in society

      • Virtues and morals are taught first in the home

      • The value of others in the home supports democracy

        • The decline in the permanence of family life is intrinsically bound up with the decline in democracy

  • The family is a community of love

    • We carry God’s Divine Image, so we are inclined to love others and seek goodness

    • The closer the relationship, the greater the duty to love

    • Spouses should share a close bond that extends to their children

      • Children should honour, obey, respect, and love their parents, whose love, in cooperation with God, resulted in their children

      • This love should extend to all kinsmen

        • It is best to take care of extended family in need within the family home

        • We have a commandment of charity to care for all of our family

      • The family is the first institution and social structure established by God

  • Duties of parents to children

    • Fairness and Understanding - children ought to be treated with the respect owed to children of God

    • Discipline - discipline paves the way for virtuous action

    • Instruction in the Faith - parents have a serious obligation to form and educate their children in the Catholic faith

  • Duties of children to parents

    • Honor

    • Respect - filial piety derives from gratitude

    • Obedience, as long as their demands obey the moral law

  • Civic obligations of citizens

    • Authority has a divine origin, so Christians must obey and respect authority

      • God wills that society is well-governed by a ruler

      • Unjust laws that violate the moral law must not be obeyed

    • Just punishment may be applied when civil law is disregarded

    • Authority may impose taxes if it is in the interest of the common good

  • Governmental obligations to citizens

    • The authority must serve the community

    • Authority must guarantee conditions that respect the fundamental rights of humans

    • Subsidiarity: The idea that a higher authority must not interfere with a lower authority without necessity

The Fifth Commandment

Fifth Commandment: You shall not kill

  • The human person is made in the image of likeness of God, and thus, has a dignity that transcends the value of material creation

    • Humans are someone, not something

    • Humans are called by grace to be with their loving God

  • The life of the human should be sacred because of this dignity

  • Human life begins at fertilization (affirmed by 96% of scientists)

    • From the first moment of his existence, a human being is recognized as having the rights of a person

  • Society has become a “culture of death”

Sins Against the Fifth Commandment

  • Abusive Language, Resentment, Omission of Service, Racism, Revenge, Vindictiveness, Poor Treatment of Oppressors, Unjust Wars, Substance Abuse, Violence, Anger, Hatred

  • Abortion: The destruction of a child after conception but before birth

    • At conception, a human being is created. It is wrong to kill an innocent human being

    • Even if we did not know when life begins in the womb, you would not know if you are killing a human or not; therefore, abortion poses the risk of murder

    • At conception, a new human genome, separate from the mother’s womb, is created

    • Abortion has been used to eliminate girls, those with disabilities, and certain races/ethnicities

    • There are some cases in which abortion seems preferable, but it still remains a grave violation of human dignity

      • Rape and incest - the guilty party is the rapist, not the unborn child

      • Life of the mother - there are no medically necessary abortions

        • Tubal Pregnancy: When the baby develops in the fallopian tube, and the principle of double effect can be used to justify a salpingectomy

        • Preterm Deliveries: Babies delivered prior to term due to a serious condition of the mother

        • St. Gianna decided to prioritize the life of her child, rather than herself

      • Prenatal diagnosis of abnormalities - humans should have dignity based on their existence, not their features or abilities

  • Euthanasia: The decision by doctors, family members, or public officials to end the life of a person who has a slim chance or recovery or whose quality of life is deemed poor

    • Implemented in Nazi Germany, and comes from euthanatos (sweet death)

  • In Vitro Fertilization: The medical technique used to fertilize a human embryo in a test tube or petri dish, and then implant it into a woman’s uterus. Often, many fertilized embryos are created to later be frozen or discarded

  • Embryonic Stem-Cell Research: The termination of an embryo to harvest its stem cells for scientific research

  • Sterilization: The destruction of fertility and fruitfulness using surgical or chemical procedures, rendering humans incapable of producing offspring

  • Human Cloning: The process of developing a human from one somatic cell of its parent to be genetically identical

  • Mutilation: The action of disfiguring a part of the body, sometimes rendering it useless or wounded

  • Suicide: The act of taking one’s own life; self-murder

    • Assisted Suicide: The suffering person requests help from others to end their own life (self administered)

  • Cult of the Body: Extreme and obsessive efforts to alter one’s body in a way that does not honour human dignity, such as excessive tattooing, piercing, bodybuilding, and cosmetic surgeries

  • Gluttony: Eating to an excess beyond the purpose of proper nourishment

  • Murder: The sinful killing of a human being with malice aforethought

  • Capital Punishment: An act by the legitimate authority of a state or nation to put a criminal to death

The Sixth and Ninth Commandments

Sixth Commandment: You shall not commit adultery

Ninth Commandment: You shall not covet you neighbour’s wife

  • Marriage was created by God because He is a mystery of personal loving communion, and He inscribed in humans the vocation of love and communion

  • What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder

    • Christ elevates marital love to its intended status

  • Truths of Marriage found in Genesis

    • God created man and woman in His image and likeness

    • Spouses are companions equal in dignity and in a permanent and exclusive union of love

      • To be equal does not mean the same - there is a profound difference and complementarity between men and women

    • Spouses are destined to form a new social unit

    • Marriage is a unity so intimate that they become “one flesh”

    • Marriage has a unitive and procreative purpose blessed by God

    • Spouses willingly and intelligently cooperate in God’s creative act

  • Marriage is indissoluble and exclusive in its total self-giving and permanent stability - a total self-gift cannot be taken back

    • Free - without coercion, wholeheartedly

    • Total - all the days of life on earth

    • Faithful - love and honour each other

    • Fruitful - be prepared to accept children

  • Marriage is in many aspects of the Catholic Faith

    • Adam and Eve, God and Israel, Christ and the Church in Revelation, The Song of Solomon, the Holy Family

    • Christ gave Himself totally to us, just as spouses do in marriage

  • Theology of the Body

    • God made this world on purpose and out of love

    • God created human beings in His image and likeness

    • Human beings are body-soul composites

    • You are your body

    • What you do with your body matters

    • God is love

    • The deepest identity of a human being is that they are made for love

    • Jesus came to repair that brokenness that happened in the fall; “this is my body for you”

  • Lying with our bodies

    • Our body has a language, and can tell truths or lies

    • When we use another person, we tell a lie with our body

      • People are not objects for use - treating them as such would violate their truth

      • Committing adultery is a lie against marriage

  • Chastity: A virtue of temperance which allows us to see the whole person. It cultivates a right understanding of human sexuality.

    • Human sexuality is not merely instinct, but also subject to intellect and will

    • A truthful exercise of sexuality should involve a loving self-giving between spouses in total dedication

    • Sex is a unitive and procreative act

      • Unitive - joining together spouses in fidelity and unity

      • Procreative - an openness to the possibility of new life in cooperation with God’s creative act

  • Telos: The end, aim, or goal

Sins Against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments

  • Adultery: Sexual relations with someone other than one’s spouse

    • This is a grave injustice against one’s spouse and children

  • Polygamy: Having more than one spouse

    • Negates the exclusivity of marriage

  • Incest: Intimate relations between relatives

  • Divorce - Civil dissolution of marriage; an attempt to break the lifelong commitment of fidelity and spousal love required by marriage

    • Breaks the freely made contract between spouses to stay together until death

  • Cohabitation - A man and a woman living together unmarried and having sexual relations

    • “Playing house” when the intimacy of romantic relations should be reserved for spouses

  • Contraception: The deliberate intervention by use of mechanical, chemical, or other medical procedures, with the intention to prevent new life that may form through sexual intercourse

    • Birth control has roots in eugenics, which aimed to build the “perfect race” of humans

    • Natural Family Planning: The use of a woman’s naturally infertile periods to space children according to a couple’s careful discernment

      • This is licit, as it does not prevent the conception of children and maintains the dignity of marital love

  • Direct Sterilization: Permanent form of contraception which involves surgical procedures performed on the man or woman, rendering future conception biologically impossible

  • Pornography: Exposing the human body and removing the sexual act from the intimacy of spouses, usually in video or images, for the purpose of lustful gratification

    • Objectifies humans and diminishes the dignity of both parties

    • It reduces the victim to a means of sexual gratification, and it hinders the reason and will of the viewer

    • Specifically a sin against chastity

  • These sins arise due to the four prophecies from the Humanae Vitae

    • Infidelity and moral decline - the desire for pleasure without the responsibility of marriage or family

    • Loss of respect for women - objectification

    • Abuse of power by the state

    • Unlimited dominion over the body - changing our nature in a way that violates our dignity and the moral law

The Seventh and Tenth Commandments

Seventh Commandment: You shall not steal

Tenth Commandment: You shall not covet your neighbour’s goods

  • Groups of people, as nations, communities, and organizations, are obliged to obey the moral law

  • Catholic social teaching is a set of principles that can be used to analyze any issue

    • Life and dignity of the human person

    • Call to family, community, and participation (subsidiarity)

    • Protection of human rights and responsibilities

    • Preferential option for the poor and vulnerable

    • The dignity of work and the right of workers

    • Solidarity and work towards the common good

    • Care for God’s creation - stewardship

  • Justice: To take up our responsibilities, and to give others their due

  • Right to Own Property: The ownership of private goods will not conflict with the common good as long as there is a fair distribution of goods in creation

    • The Universal Destination of Goods: All humans have the right to access what they need to live a dignified life, as God entrusted the goods of creation to all mankind

      • It is a duty to give to the poor once our own needs are met

    • Eminent Domain: The government can claim private property, with an appropriate payment to the owner, because of a legitimate or overriding public concern

  • No one should suffer in squalor while others are able to live comfortably

    • A globalized economy allows wealthy nations to help or exploit poorer nations

Sins Against the Seventh and Tenth Commandments

  • Theft: Unjustly taking another person’s possessions against his reasonable will

    • There is not theft if consent can be presumed or if refusal is contrary to reason and the universal destination of goods

    • Includes vandalism, excessive expenses, wasting time at work, tax evasion, and cheating on exams

  • Greed: The desire for earthly goods that are not truly needed for a Christian life

  • Avarice: The inordinate desire of acquiring and hoarding wealth

    • Causes hard-heartedness and injustice

  • Envy: Wrongful desire for things possessed by another or unhappiness at another’s good fortune

  • Restitution: Repairing damage unjustly done or repaying the owner a fair price for his stolen or damaged goods

    • A remedy for an offence against the Seventh Commandment

The Eighth Commandment

Eighth Commandment: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour

  • Lying is the most direct offense against the truth

    • Lying: To speak or act against the truth in order to lead someone into error

    • Mischievous Lie: A lie with the intent to injure another

    • Jocose Lie: A lie directed towards the good of pleasure

    • Officious Lie: A lie directed towards the good of helping or protecting another person

  • A lie may become mortal if it directly causes grave injury to justice and charity

  • Truth in speech expresses what the individual perceives to be corresponding to reality

  • To deliberately articulate a falsehood contradicts human dignity

    • Lies detract from sincerity, credibility, and breed mistrust in relationships

    • The gravity of a lie is measured against the nature of the truth it deforms, the circumstances, the intentions of the one who lies, and the harm suffered by its victims

  • Every Christian has a vocation to witness and communicate the truth

    • All Christians must be ready to be a consistent witness to Christ, even at the cost of suffering

    • One can love the difficulties of this world for the sake of eternal rewards

Sins Against the Eighth Commandment

  • Calumny (Slander): A lie that falsely accuses another of wrongdoing or a vice; by virtue of their dignity, every person has the right to a good name

  • Detraction: Hurting someone’s good name through the disclosure of an incriminating truth when not necessary for the common good

  • Rash Judgement: A judgement that questions someone’s character or concludes a moral defect without sufficient evidence

  • Insincere Flattery: Attributes qualities that may not exist or which are exaggerated, usually for personal gain or favour

  • Bragging

LC

HRE23 - Unit 5 - Love of Neighbour

The Fourth Commandment

Fourth Commandment: Honor thy father and mother.

  • Includes the duties of children to love and obey their parents and authority figures, and the duties of authority figures to properly lead and care for others

  • The family finds its identity in God in the love held between the Blessed Trinity

    • The family also finds its mission, abilities, and obligations in God

    • The Christian family is a domestic church

  • Family: A man and a woman who are united in marriage, together with their children. This institution is prior to any recognition by public authority, which has an obligation to recognize it

    • What a family is cannot change - the human family is natural and directed by and towards God

    • The family is the original cell of social life

      • Love and stability in families translates to freedom, fraternity, and security in society

      • Virtues and morals are taught first in the home

      • The value of others in the home supports democracy

        • The decline in the permanence of family life is intrinsically bound up with the decline in democracy

  • The family is a community of love

    • We carry God’s Divine Image, so we are inclined to love others and seek goodness

    • The closer the relationship, the greater the duty to love

    • Spouses should share a close bond that extends to their children

      • Children should honour, obey, respect, and love their parents, whose love, in cooperation with God, resulted in their children

      • This love should extend to all kinsmen

        • It is best to take care of extended family in need within the family home

        • We have a commandment of charity to care for all of our family

      • The family is the first institution and social structure established by God

  • Duties of parents to children

    • Fairness and Understanding - children ought to be treated with the respect owed to children of God

    • Discipline - discipline paves the way for virtuous action

    • Instruction in the Faith - parents have a serious obligation to form and educate their children in the Catholic faith

  • Duties of children to parents

    • Honor

    • Respect - filial piety derives from gratitude

    • Obedience, as long as their demands obey the moral law

  • Civic obligations of citizens

    • Authority has a divine origin, so Christians must obey and respect authority

      • God wills that society is well-governed by a ruler

      • Unjust laws that violate the moral law must not be obeyed

    • Just punishment may be applied when civil law is disregarded

    • Authority may impose taxes if it is in the interest of the common good

  • Governmental obligations to citizens

    • The authority must serve the community

    • Authority must guarantee conditions that respect the fundamental rights of humans

    • Subsidiarity: The idea that a higher authority must not interfere with a lower authority without necessity

The Fifth Commandment

Fifth Commandment: You shall not kill

  • The human person is made in the image of likeness of God, and thus, has a dignity that transcends the value of material creation

    • Humans are someone, not something

    • Humans are called by grace to be with their loving God

  • The life of the human should be sacred because of this dignity

  • Human life begins at fertilization (affirmed by 96% of scientists)

    • From the first moment of his existence, a human being is recognized as having the rights of a person

  • Society has become a “culture of death”

Sins Against the Fifth Commandment

  • Abusive Language, Resentment, Omission of Service, Racism, Revenge, Vindictiveness, Poor Treatment of Oppressors, Unjust Wars, Substance Abuse, Violence, Anger, Hatred

  • Abortion: The destruction of a child after conception but before birth

    • At conception, a human being is created. It is wrong to kill an innocent human being

    • Even if we did not know when life begins in the womb, you would not know if you are killing a human or not; therefore, abortion poses the risk of murder

    • At conception, a new human genome, separate from the mother’s womb, is created

    • Abortion has been used to eliminate girls, those with disabilities, and certain races/ethnicities

    • There are some cases in which abortion seems preferable, but it still remains a grave violation of human dignity

      • Rape and incest - the guilty party is the rapist, not the unborn child

      • Life of the mother - there are no medically necessary abortions

        • Tubal Pregnancy: When the baby develops in the fallopian tube, and the principle of double effect can be used to justify a salpingectomy

        • Preterm Deliveries: Babies delivered prior to term due to a serious condition of the mother

        • St. Gianna decided to prioritize the life of her child, rather than herself

      • Prenatal diagnosis of abnormalities - humans should have dignity based on their existence, not their features or abilities

  • Euthanasia: The decision by doctors, family members, or public officials to end the life of a person who has a slim chance or recovery or whose quality of life is deemed poor

    • Implemented in Nazi Germany, and comes from euthanatos (sweet death)

  • In Vitro Fertilization: The medical technique used to fertilize a human embryo in a test tube or petri dish, and then implant it into a woman’s uterus. Often, many fertilized embryos are created to later be frozen or discarded

  • Embryonic Stem-Cell Research: The termination of an embryo to harvest its stem cells for scientific research

  • Sterilization: The destruction of fertility and fruitfulness using surgical or chemical procedures, rendering humans incapable of producing offspring

  • Human Cloning: The process of developing a human from one somatic cell of its parent to be genetically identical

  • Mutilation: The action of disfiguring a part of the body, sometimes rendering it useless or wounded

  • Suicide: The act of taking one’s own life; self-murder

    • Assisted Suicide: The suffering person requests help from others to end their own life (self administered)

  • Cult of the Body: Extreme and obsessive efforts to alter one’s body in a way that does not honour human dignity, such as excessive tattooing, piercing, bodybuilding, and cosmetic surgeries

  • Gluttony: Eating to an excess beyond the purpose of proper nourishment

  • Murder: The sinful killing of a human being with malice aforethought

  • Capital Punishment: An act by the legitimate authority of a state or nation to put a criminal to death

The Sixth and Ninth Commandments

Sixth Commandment: You shall not commit adultery

Ninth Commandment: You shall not covet you neighbour’s wife

  • Marriage was created by God because He is a mystery of personal loving communion, and He inscribed in humans the vocation of love and communion

  • What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder

    • Christ elevates marital love to its intended status

  • Truths of Marriage found in Genesis

    • God created man and woman in His image and likeness

    • Spouses are companions equal in dignity and in a permanent and exclusive union of love

      • To be equal does not mean the same - there is a profound difference and complementarity between men and women

    • Spouses are destined to form a new social unit

    • Marriage is a unity so intimate that they become “one flesh”

    • Marriage has a unitive and procreative purpose blessed by God

    • Spouses willingly and intelligently cooperate in God’s creative act

  • Marriage is indissoluble and exclusive in its total self-giving and permanent stability - a total self-gift cannot be taken back

    • Free - without coercion, wholeheartedly

    • Total - all the days of life on earth

    • Faithful - love and honour each other

    • Fruitful - be prepared to accept children

  • Marriage is in many aspects of the Catholic Faith

    • Adam and Eve, God and Israel, Christ and the Church in Revelation, The Song of Solomon, the Holy Family

    • Christ gave Himself totally to us, just as spouses do in marriage

  • Theology of the Body

    • God made this world on purpose and out of love

    • God created human beings in His image and likeness

    • Human beings are body-soul composites

    • You are your body

    • What you do with your body matters

    • God is love

    • The deepest identity of a human being is that they are made for love

    • Jesus came to repair that brokenness that happened in the fall; “this is my body for you”

  • Lying with our bodies

    • Our body has a language, and can tell truths or lies

    • When we use another person, we tell a lie with our body

      • People are not objects for use - treating them as such would violate their truth

      • Committing adultery is a lie against marriage

  • Chastity: A virtue of temperance which allows us to see the whole person. It cultivates a right understanding of human sexuality.

    • Human sexuality is not merely instinct, but also subject to intellect and will

    • A truthful exercise of sexuality should involve a loving self-giving between spouses in total dedication

    • Sex is a unitive and procreative act

      • Unitive - joining together spouses in fidelity and unity

      • Procreative - an openness to the possibility of new life in cooperation with God’s creative act

  • Telos: The end, aim, or goal

Sins Against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments

  • Adultery: Sexual relations with someone other than one’s spouse

    • This is a grave injustice against one’s spouse and children

  • Polygamy: Having more than one spouse

    • Negates the exclusivity of marriage

  • Incest: Intimate relations between relatives

  • Divorce - Civil dissolution of marriage; an attempt to break the lifelong commitment of fidelity and spousal love required by marriage

    • Breaks the freely made contract between spouses to stay together until death

  • Cohabitation - A man and a woman living together unmarried and having sexual relations

    • “Playing house” when the intimacy of romantic relations should be reserved for spouses

  • Contraception: The deliberate intervention by use of mechanical, chemical, or other medical procedures, with the intention to prevent new life that may form through sexual intercourse

    • Birth control has roots in eugenics, which aimed to build the “perfect race” of humans

    • Natural Family Planning: The use of a woman’s naturally infertile periods to space children according to a couple’s careful discernment

      • This is licit, as it does not prevent the conception of children and maintains the dignity of marital love

  • Direct Sterilization: Permanent form of contraception which involves surgical procedures performed on the man or woman, rendering future conception biologically impossible

  • Pornography: Exposing the human body and removing the sexual act from the intimacy of spouses, usually in video or images, for the purpose of lustful gratification

    • Objectifies humans and diminishes the dignity of both parties

    • It reduces the victim to a means of sexual gratification, and it hinders the reason and will of the viewer

    • Specifically a sin against chastity

  • These sins arise due to the four prophecies from the Humanae Vitae

    • Infidelity and moral decline - the desire for pleasure without the responsibility of marriage or family

    • Loss of respect for women - objectification

    • Abuse of power by the state

    • Unlimited dominion over the body - changing our nature in a way that violates our dignity and the moral law

The Seventh and Tenth Commandments

Seventh Commandment: You shall not steal

Tenth Commandment: You shall not covet your neighbour’s goods

  • Groups of people, as nations, communities, and organizations, are obliged to obey the moral law

  • Catholic social teaching is a set of principles that can be used to analyze any issue

    • Life and dignity of the human person

    • Call to family, community, and participation (subsidiarity)

    • Protection of human rights and responsibilities

    • Preferential option for the poor and vulnerable

    • The dignity of work and the right of workers

    • Solidarity and work towards the common good

    • Care for God’s creation - stewardship

  • Justice: To take up our responsibilities, and to give others their due

  • Right to Own Property: The ownership of private goods will not conflict with the common good as long as there is a fair distribution of goods in creation

    • The Universal Destination of Goods: All humans have the right to access what they need to live a dignified life, as God entrusted the goods of creation to all mankind

      • It is a duty to give to the poor once our own needs are met

    • Eminent Domain: The government can claim private property, with an appropriate payment to the owner, because of a legitimate or overriding public concern

  • No one should suffer in squalor while others are able to live comfortably

    • A globalized economy allows wealthy nations to help or exploit poorer nations

Sins Against the Seventh and Tenth Commandments

  • Theft: Unjustly taking another person’s possessions against his reasonable will

    • There is not theft if consent can be presumed or if refusal is contrary to reason and the universal destination of goods

    • Includes vandalism, excessive expenses, wasting time at work, tax evasion, and cheating on exams

  • Greed: The desire for earthly goods that are not truly needed for a Christian life

  • Avarice: The inordinate desire of acquiring and hoarding wealth

    • Causes hard-heartedness and injustice

  • Envy: Wrongful desire for things possessed by another or unhappiness at another’s good fortune

  • Restitution: Repairing damage unjustly done or repaying the owner a fair price for his stolen or damaged goods

    • A remedy for an offence against the Seventh Commandment

The Eighth Commandment

Eighth Commandment: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour

  • Lying is the most direct offense against the truth

    • Lying: To speak or act against the truth in order to lead someone into error

    • Mischievous Lie: A lie with the intent to injure another

    • Jocose Lie: A lie directed towards the good of pleasure

    • Officious Lie: A lie directed towards the good of helping or protecting another person

  • A lie may become mortal if it directly causes grave injury to justice and charity

  • Truth in speech expresses what the individual perceives to be corresponding to reality

  • To deliberately articulate a falsehood contradicts human dignity

    • Lies detract from sincerity, credibility, and breed mistrust in relationships

    • The gravity of a lie is measured against the nature of the truth it deforms, the circumstances, the intentions of the one who lies, and the harm suffered by its victims

  • Every Christian has a vocation to witness and communicate the truth

    • All Christians must be ready to be a consistent witness to Christ, even at the cost of suffering

    • One can love the difficulties of this world for the sake of eternal rewards

Sins Against the Eighth Commandment

  • Calumny (Slander): A lie that falsely accuses another of wrongdoing or a vice; by virtue of their dignity, every person has the right to a good name

  • Detraction: Hurting someone’s good name through the disclosure of an incriminating truth when not necessary for the common good

  • Rash Judgement: A judgement that questions someone’s character or concludes a moral defect without sufficient evidence

  • Insincere Flattery: Attributes qualities that may not exist or which are exaggerated, usually for personal gain or favour

  • Bragging

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