Moral Theology Part 125

Tactile contact made under the clothing is of course more dangerous than that which is external.

2519. The Moral Species of Lewdness.--(a) Theoretically, it is more probable that the imperfect sins of impurity do not differ from the perfect sins to which they tend; for the natural circ.u.mstances or antecedents of an act have really the same morality as the act itself (see 2486). In the physical order, the fetus, the infant, and the child do not differ essentially from the full-grown man; and likewise, in the moral order, the thought, the purpose and the external beginning do not differ essentially from completed murder, even though for some reason the act be not finished. Hence, immodest words, reading, looks and touches belong to fornication, or adultery, or incest, or sodomy, according to their tendency (e.g., to read an immodest love story with another man's wife and to kiss her is incipient adultery, and, if the guilty person has a vow of chast.i.ty, it is also sacrilege). But the species is taken only from the object, not from the purely accidental circ.u.mstances, such as the elicitive faculty (e.g., an immodest look at another does not differ essentially from an immodest touch) or the intensity (e.g., incomplete pleasure in touches by one who has not attained p.u.b.erty does not differ essentially, according to some, from the completed pleasure of which he is capable). Moreover, it seems that, in regard to looks if not as regards touch, abstraction (see 2506) is easily made by the guilty person from various circ.u.mstances; for example, one who looks immodestly on a person consecrated to G.o.d, may be thinking only of his unlawful love for a person of the other s.e.x, and so may be guilty of incipient fornication, but not of sacrilege, or he may be thinking, without any affection for the other person, only of his own pleasure, and so may perhaps be guilty only of incipient pollution. A less probable opinion makes lewdness a species of sin distinct from pollution and the other consummated sins.

(b) Practically, penitents should confess that their sin was indecent and not completed l.u.s.t (such as pollution), and they should also confess whether the lewdness was committed by speech, reading, looks, kisses, embraces, or touches; and also the object of the sin, whether male or female, whether married or single, relative or non-relative, etc. Otherwise, since few penitents know how to distinguish the moral species of sins, there will be great danger of incomplete confessions; and, moreover, the additional sins usually committed in cases of lewdness (e.g., scandals, injustices, and bad company keeping) will not be disclosed. If a consummated sin of fornication, pollution, etc., followed the indecency, this consummated sin should be confessed distinctly. Similarly, those who expose, incite or tempt others to impure thoughts or to lewdness in word, reading, looks, kisses or touches, should confess the kind of sin they intended (see 1497), even though their purpose failed, whether it was incipient fornication, sacrilege, sodomy, etc. But some authors admit a generic confession (in which the penitent merely states that he sinned mortally or venially, as the case was, by indecency), if the lewdness was solitary, or was committed with another but certainly without scandal or l.u.s.tful desire of the other person.

2520. The Consummated Sins of Impurity.--There are in all seven species of completed acts of impurity. (a) Thus, some sins of impurity are against reason because they do not observe the ends of s.e.xual intercourse. These ends are, first, the begetting of children (to which is opposed unnatural impurity), and, secondly, the rearing of children (to which is opposed fornication).

(b) Other sins of impurity are against reason because they violate a right of the person with whom intercourse is had (incest), or of a third party to whom that person belongs. If the third party is injured in conjugal rights, there is adultery; if in parental rights, there is defloration or rape, according as the injury is done without or with force; if in religious rights, there is sacrilege. This second category of sins is cla.s.sed under impurity rather than under injustice, because the purpose of the guilty person and his act belong to venereal sin.

2521. Comparative Malice of the Sins of Consummated l.u.s.t.--(a) In the abuse of an act, the worst evil is the disregard of what nature itself determines as the fundamentals upon which all else depends, just as in speculative matters the worst error is that which goes astray about first principles. Now, the prime dictates of nature as to s.e.xual intercourse are that it serve the race and the family. Hence, the sin of unnatural l.u.s.t (which injures the race by defeating its propagation) and the sin of incest (which injures the family by offending piety) are the worst of carnal vices.

(b) In the abuse of an act a lesser evil is that which observes the natural fundamentals, but disregards what right reason teaches about things secondary, in the manner of performing the act. But reason requires that in s.e.xual intercourse the rights of the individual be respected. A most serious violation of individual right is adultery, which usurps the right of intercourse belonging to another; next in gravity is rape, which violently seizes for l.u.s.t a person under the care of another or undefiled; next is defloration, which trespa.s.ses on the right of guardians.h.i.+p, or removes bodily virginity, but without violence; last among these sins is fornication, which is an injury done not to the living, but to the unborn.

2522. Multiplication of Sins of l.u.s.t.--The various kinds of l.u.s.t may be combined in one and the same act, as when unnatural vice (e.g., sodomy) is practised with a relative (incest). Sacrilege, of course, aggravates every other kind of carnal sin, and thus there is sacrilegious sodomy, sacrilegious adultery, sacrilegious incest, etc.

2523. Fornication.--Fornication is the copulation of an unmarried man with an unmarried woman who is not a virgin.

(a) It is copulation, or s.e.xual intercourse suited for generation of children. Thus, it differs from lewdness, which consists in unconsummated acts, and from sodomitic intercourse, which is consummated but unsuited for generation. Onanism is an aggravating circ.u.mstance of fornication, or rather a new sin of unnatural intercourse. (b) It is committed by unmarried persons, and thus it differs from adultery. (c) It is committed with a woman, and is thus distinguished from sodomy. (d) It is committed with a woman who is not a virgin, and thus differs from defloration.

2524. Sinfulness of Fornication.--It is of faith that fornication is a mortal sin.

(a) Thus, it is gravely forbidden by the divine positive law. Hence, wh.o.r.es and wh.o.r.emongers are an abomination to the Lord (Deut., xxiii.

17); fornicators are worthy of death (Rom., i. 29-32), they shall not enter the kingdom of G.o.d (Gal., V. 19-21; Eph., v. 5; Heb., xiii. 4; Apoc., xxi. 8). The Fathers teach that fornication is a grave crime (St. Fulgentius), and that it brings condemnation on the guilty person (St. Chrysostom). The declarations of the Church on the evil of this sin are found in the Council of Vienne and in the censures of Alexander VII and Innocent XI (Denzinger, nn. 477, 1125, 1198).

(b) Fornication is gravely forbidden by the natural law. For it is seriously against reason to cause an injury to the entire life of another human being; but fornication does this very thing by depriving the unborn child of its natural rights to legitimacy, to the protection of both parents, and to education in the home circle. True, in some cases there may be no prospect of a child, or there may be provision for its proper rearing; but these cases are the exception, since fornication from its nature tends to the neglect of the child, and the morality of acts must be judged, not by the exceptional and accidental, but by the usual and natural. Those who commit fornication are thinking of their own pleasure rather than of duty, and will generally s.h.i.+rk the difficult burdens of parenthood. Society also would be gravely wounded if unmarried intercourse were at any time lawful. Hence, St. Paul reproves the pagans, though ignorant of Scripture, for their sins of fornication (I Cor., vi. 9-11; Eph., v. 1-6), since reason itself should have taught them the unlawfulness of this practice. It seems, though, that invincible ignorance of the wrong of fornication is possible among very rude or barbarous people, since the injury to the neighbor does not show itself so clearly in this sin as in many others.

2525. Fornication Compared with Other Sins.--(a) It is less serious than those that offend a divine good (e.g., unbelief, despair, hatred of G.o.d, irreligion), or human life (e.g., abortion), or the human goods of those already in being (e.g., adultery). (b) It is more serious than sins that offend only an external good (e.g., theft), or that are opposed only to decency in the marriage state (e.g., unbecoming kisses of husband and wife).

2526. Circ.u.mstances of Fornication.--(a) Circ.u.mstances that aggravate the malice are the condition of the person with whom the sin is committed (e.g., that the female is a widow, or the employee of the man, or his ward, or a minor).

(b) Circ.u.mstances that add a new malice to fornication are of various kinds. Thus, previous circ.u.mstances are the distinct desires of the sin entertained beforehand, the solicitation and scandal of the other party or parties with whom the sin was committed; concomitant circ.u.mstances are the quality of the persons (e.g., fornication is sacrilegious if one of the parties is consecrated to G.o.d, and also, according to some, if one party is a Christian and the other an infidel; it is unjust if one of the couple is betrothed to a third party), or the quality of the act itself (e.g., if it is performed onanistically, though pollution may be excused if it results accidentally from the good purpose to discontinue the sinful act); subsequent circ.u.mstances are injury done to the partner in sin (e.g., by refusal to pay the support or rest.i.tution due) or to the offspring (e.g., by exposure, abortion, neglect).

Whether the fornication of an engaged person with a third party is a distinct species of sin is disputed. (a) According to some, it is a distinct species, or at least a form of adultery on account of the infidelity. (b) According to others, it is a distinct species if the guilty party is the woman, but not if it is the man, for the infidelity of the former is a far more serious matter than the infidelity of the latter. (c) According to still others, it is never a distinct species, since engagement to marry is a dissoluble agreement and the injury to the contract is therefore not a notable one. In this last opinion the manner of the sin is an aggravating circ.u.mstance, not a distinct species that has to be declared in confession.

2527. Forms of Fornication.--There are three special forms of fornication, which are all the same essentially, but which differ accidentally in malice or in results.

(a) Thus, ordinary fornication is that which is committed with a woman who is neither a harlot nor a concubine. This sin is in itself the least grave of the three, since it is not so harmful as wh.o.r.emongering, nor so enduring as concubinage. Ordinary fornication also has its degrees of bad and worse: thus, engaged persons who sin together habitually are worse than those who sin only occasionally, and circ.u.mstances such as artificial onanism and abortion add to the guilt.

(b) Wh.o.r.emongering is fornication committed with a harlot, that is, with a woman who makes a business of illicit intercourse and hires herself out for pay to all comers. Rarely does a harlot choose her life from pa.s.sion or love, but is dragged in by white slavers, or enters from poverty, or after disgrace, or the like. This sin is worse than ordinary fornication from the viewpoint of propagation, since few harlots become mothers. But its most dire consequences are visited on the guilty persons themselves and on society: for the life of a prost.i.tute is a most degrading slavery; to her patrons she communicates the most terrible diseases, which are then carried to innocent wives and children, and to the innocent she often becomes a cause of ruin, seeking her trade in the streets and public places. Today, according to reliable newspaper reports, many men and women have become rich in the terrible business known as the white-slave traffic. This horrible abuse has grown into a vast international machine which is efficiently organized, and which profits not only from prost.i.tution, but from many other kinds of crime. The patrons of brothels, therefore, coperate with the crying injustice that is often done the fallen woman, and with the criminals who destroy souls and bodies for their own advantage.

(c) Free love is fornication committed with one's concubine, that is, with a woman who is not a public harlot but who has contracted with one man for habitual s.e.xual intercourse as if they were man and wife.

According to reports, this is quite common in Europe, where lawful marriage is very often preceded by free unions. The trial marriage advocated by some in this country, in which paramours agree to live together as husband and wife for a certain term of years or at pleasure, also falls under the category of concubinage. This sin is worse than mere wh.o.r.emongering in one respect, namely, that it includes the purpose to continue in the state of sin, at least for a certain length of time. Moreover, there is often the public scandal and contempt for public opinion which other kinds of fornication may be free from. One who practises concubinage is living in a proximate occasion of sin, and hence he cannot be absolved unless he dismisses the concubine, if they cohabit, or agrees to keep away from her, if they do not cohabit.

2528. The State and Places of Prost.i.tution.--It is clear that civil government has no right to support or provide places of prost.i.tution, or to give permission for its practice, since fornication is intrinsically evil. But what should be said of toleration or license given to prost.i.tutes by the public authority?

(a) Theoretically, the civil power has the right to give toleration or license; for, if the common welfare will suffer from a greater evil unless a lesser evil is suffered to go on, the lesser evil should be endured, and it is certain that there are greater evils than prost.i.tution (such as rape and unnatural crimes of l.u.s.t).

(b) Practically, the question is open to dispute. Older moralists held that toleration was actually more beneficial to the common good than suppression. But under the conditions of the present time many moralists think it is a mistake to give any recognition to prost.i.tutes, and much less to houses of prost.i.tution. Even in large cities, where alone the license could be beneficial, the purposes of toleration are not fulfilled; for the moral evil seems to be greater, since an appearance of legality is given to prost.i.tution, its practice is facilitated, its habitats become dens of every kind of iniquity, and the purpose of segregation is not realized; the physical evils also are not lessened, but perhaps increased, for even with medical inspection of prost.i.tutes, syphilis and gonorrhea cannot be prevented.

2529. Defloration and Rape.--Defloration and rape are distinct species of l.u.s.t, for each of them in its very concept includes a special and notable deformity not found in other species of impurity.

(a) Defloration is unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman who is virginal in body (1488 a). It has the special deformity of depriving the woman of the physical integrity that is most highly prized among all the unmarried of her s.e.x, or at least of her own self-respect, and of setting her on the way to become a strumpet rather than an honorable wife or spinster. Some authors do not consider defloration a special sin unless it is done by violence, or unless injury is done the parental right over the virgin; and even the authors who consider unforced defloration a special sin hold that the new or additional malice in it is slight and venial, and therefore not a necessary matter of confession. The first sin of fornication by a male is not a special sin, because the consequences are not so serious for the man as for the woman, but of course seduction is always a special sin, whether the injured party be male or female.

(b) Rape is physical or moral coercion (i.e., force or fear) employed against any person (male or female, married or single, pure or corrupt), or against his or her guardians, to compel him or her to an act of l.u.s.t. It has the special deformity of inflicting bodily injury on the person ravished. The sin of rape should not be confused with the canonical crime of rape, which consists in abduction, and which is an impediment to marriage (Canon 1074); nor with seduction, as when an innocent person is deceived into believing that an act of impurity is lawful, or is tricked into sin by false promises of marriage.

Equivalent to rape is the carnal knowledge of a person drugged, hypnotized, or otherwise unconscious, or the seduction of an infant. A person who is ravished is obliged to deny all consent internally, and to resist or make outcry when this is possible (see 2497 a).

2530. Adultery.--Adultery is also a distinct species of l.u.s.t.--(a) Definition.--Adultery is s.e.xual intercourse with the husband or wife of another. If the sin is committed only in desire, there is mental adultery; if the paramours allow themselves unlawful familiarities without intercourse, or if a married person is guilty of solitary l.u.s.t, there is imperfect adultery.

(b) Sinfulness of Adultery.--Adultery is a grave sin, since it is an act of impurity and is expressly forbidden in the sixth commandment (Exod., xx. 14), and is cla.s.sed among the sins that exclude from the kingdom of heaven (I Cor., vi. 9, 10). It is a special sin, because it is a violation of the faith pledged in the contract and Sacrament of Matrimony, and an injury to the right of one's spouse and of the conjugal state (Matt., xix. 5; Rom., vii. 3; I Cor., vii. 39). Even though a husband gives his wife permission to commit adultery or vice versa, the injustice remains, for though the individual is not formally injured, the married state is injured, since no married person has the right to give a permission opposed to the sacredness of the marriage vows (Denzinger, n. 1200).

(c) Degrees of Malice.--There are three degrees of malice in adultery.

The first is that in which a married man sins with a single woman; the second that in which a married woman sins with a single man; the third that in which a married man sins with another man's wife. The second is worse than the first, on account of its consequences (e.g., sterility, uncertainty of paternity, rearing of an illegitimate child in the family); the third is worse than the second, because in addition to the consequences just mentioned, it contains a double injustice (viz., unfaithfulness to an innocent wife and unfaithfulness to an innocent husband), and it multiplies the sin. If an adulterer's husband or wife is also unfaithful, the injustice is lessened, but not removed; for not merely the two married persons are to be considered, but also the children, the family, society, and G.o.d; and the wrong done by one of the parties does not take away the right to fidelity pledged absolutely to all of these in marriage.

(d) Effects.--The party whose marriage rights have been injured by adultery was permitted under some former civil codes to kill a wife taken in adultery. But such laws were against justice and charity: against justice since no guilty person should be put to death unheard, and no injured person should be judge and accuser in his own case; against charity, since by such summary vengeance the adulteress would be sent to death in the midst of sin and without opportunity for repentance. The remedies of Canon Law for the innocent spouse will be noted below (2542).

2531. Incest.--Incest is impurity committed with a person related to one within the degrees in which marriage is forbidden.

(a) It is impurity, internal or external. Internal desires are mental incest, while external unconsummated (e.g., kisses) or consummated (e.g., intercourse) acts are actual incest.

(b) It is committed with a relative, that is, with a person, male or female, who is near to one by the tie of common ancestry (blood relations.h.i.+p, kins.h.i.+p, consanguinity), or of marriage to one's kin (marriage relations.h.i.+p, affinity), or of sacramental administration (spiritual relations.h.i.+p), or of adoption (legal relations.h.i.+p). Alias species cognationis non pertinent ad incestum, sed novam aliquam malitiam possunt tribuere; v.g., si partes sunt parochus et parochiana, confessarius et poenitens, habetur scandalum, seductio.

(c) The relations.h.i.+p is within the canonical degrees. Thus, marriage between blood relatives is forbidden in all degrees of the direct line (e.g., as to all female ancestry and posterity of a man) and in the first three degrees of the collateral line, which includes, for a man, his sisters, nieces, grandnieces, aunts, first and second cousins, grand aunts and their daughters and granddaughters. Marriage between those who are relatives-in-law is forbidden in all degrees of the direct line (e.g., as to wife's mother, daughter, etc.) and in the first two degrees of the collateral line (e.g., wife's sister, first cousin, aunt or niece). Spiritual relations.h.i.+p which is impedient of marriage exists between a person baptized and his baptizer, and also between the G.o.d-child and the G.o.d-parent in baptism. Legal relations.h.i.+p exists between the adopter and the adopted, when and as the civil law makes it a bar to marriage.

(d) Incest is committed within the forbidden degrees, and hence if a dispensation from an impediment of relations.h.i.+p had been granted to parties about to marry, a sin between them would not be incestuous.

2532. Incest as a Distinct Species of Sin.--(a) There is a specific distinction between incest and other forms of l.u.s.t, since incest violates not only purity, but also the piety and respect due each other by those who are so closely related as to be unable to contract a lawful marriage. Nature itself abhors this sin; for, apart from the exceptional cases in which a dispensation is given, even lawful marriage with near relatives would be an incentive to many sins before marriage and would prevent the widening circle of friends.h.i.+ps between mankind which marriage with non-relatives produces, and would cause a physical and mental enfeeblement of the race. In Scripture incest is spoken of with peculiar horror as a nefarious deed deserving of death (Lev., xx. 11 sqq.), and as an act unworthy even of pagans (I Cor., v.

1 sqq.).

(b) There are three distinct sub-species of incest, namely, natural incest (between kin by blood or marriage), spiritual incest (between the baptized and his baptizer or G.o.d-parent), and legal incest (between persons who are kin in virtue of 8, marriage-impeding adoption). The first violates piety due to natural origin, the second that due to spiritual origin, and the third that due to legal origin. And in each species the nearer the relations.h.i.+p, the greater the sin (e.g., incest with a sister-in-law is less than that with a sister, incest with a sister is less than that with a mother).

2533. Carnal Sacrilege.--Carnal sacrilege is the violation by an act of impurity of the sacredness of a person, place or thing.

(a) It is a violation of sacredness, and thus it is a special sin, adding irreligion to l.u.s.t (see 2308 sqq.).

(b) It is an act of impurity, internal or external, consummated or non-consummated. The impurity, however, must be so related to that which is sacred as to treat its sanct.i.ty with injury or contempt (formal disrespect), and there is no sacrilege if the impurity is a.s.sociated with something holy in such a way as not to show any notable irreverence (material disrespect).

(c) Its first species is personal sacrilege, and it is committed by a sacred person (see 2309) when he is impure internally or externally, or by a non-sacred person when in desire or act he commits impurity with a sacred person. If two sacred persons sin together, there is a double sacrilege, which multiplies the sin.

(d) Its second species is local sacrilege, and is committed when an impure act is done in a sacred place (2311) in such a way as to show formal disrespect. Hence, consummated acts done in a church are sacrilegious, and the same is probably true of non-consummated acts, at least if they are of an enormous kind (e.g., a lascivious dance), and even of internal desires to sin in the sacred place. But impure thoughts or pa.s.sing glances of prurient curiosity in a church are not sacrilegious.

(e) Its third species is real sacrilege, and it occurs when impurity is committed in such a way as to show formal disrespect to a sacred object (2311). Hence, there is sacrilege of this kind when one commits impurity immediately after Communion, or when one uses the Sacrament of Penance as a means to solicit impurity. But the fact that a person commits impurity while wearing a scapular is not sacrilegious, unless contempt for the scapular was intended.

2534. Unnatural l.u.s.t.--Worst among the sins of impurity, as such, are crimes of unnatural l.u.s.t, for they exercise the s.e.xual act, not only illicitly, but also in a manner that defeats its purpose of reproduction. In some non-venereal respects, however, natural sins of impurity may be worse than the unnatural; for example, adultery is worse as regards injustice, sacrilegious l.u.s.t as regards irreligion, etc. There are four distinct species of unnatural impurities-- pollution, unnatural coition, sodomy, b.e.s.t.i.a.lity (see Denzinger, n.

1124).

(a) For procreation nature requires copulation, and hence pollution is unnatural, for it exercises semination without copulation, either alone (self-abuse, solitary vice, masturbation) or with another (softness).

(b) For procreation nature requires proper copulation, that is, one that will permit of a fertile union between the two life elements, the sperma and the ovum. Hence, unnatural coition does not comply with this necessity, for it does not employ the proper organ of s.e.xual union, subst.i.tuting rectal for v.a.g.i.n.al intercourse, or else by some form of natural or artificial onanism it frustrates the act of its destined conclusion. This sin is worse than pollution, since pollution omits to use intercourse, whereas unnatural coition positively abuses it.