Article IV: On Theaters

16. From those things which were said in the two preceding articles, judgment can be borne concerning theaters, namely whether those who are present at theaters sin. For if they sin, they can sin only on account of base looks, or base things heard. Now then, theaters of themselves are not evil, but indifferent, since they can be had well and badly. Yet ordinarily speaking, it cannot be denied that they are full of dangers, especially for adolescents, whose blood is already sufficiently boiling of itself; for they foster luxury, feed the sight basely, enervate the soul, and sharpen passions. - Wherefore there is no sin either to be present at comedies, or to act them, if they are honorable. "The office of actors, which is ordained to exhibiting solace to men, is not according to itself illicit," says the Angelic Doctor, 2.2, q. 168, a. 3. - But if they are somewhat base, the hearer will sin only venially, unless perhaps he knows by experience that he is moved vehemently by entertainments of this kind toward lust, with proximate danger of consent, so that the spectacle is for him a proximate occasion of sinning. - If finally the comedy is notably base, either in itself or in manner, he sins mortally per se. Per se; for it would be venial to view it only on account of curiosity, or on account of empty solace, with all danger of base delectation excluded; nevertheless, practically speaking, this danger will easily be present in adolescents, or in others of little timorous conscience; and unless scandal is present, which plainly would be present if clerics and religious were present at base comedies, as Benedict XIV observes. - L. 427, 428; Hom. Apost., tract. 9, n. 10; G. 247.

17. Note. 1. Holzmann and La-Croix deservedly condemn as mortal, on account of the scandal of others, both those who cooperate by money or applause in notably base comedies, and also those who are bound to impede them and, when they conveniently can, do not impede them; a fortiori those who compose or represent them. - 2. Since it is not illicit from a just and proportionate cause for someone to expose himself to danger, especially if by salutary safeguards the danger of sinning is averted, the following can be present at spectacles without sin, provided they are not gravely base: 1. married women, lest they displease a commanding husband; 2. male and female servants, that they may serve their masters; 3. sons and daughters of the family, if parents command it; 4. soldiers and magistrates, that they may care for good order to be preserved; 5. kings and princes, that they may conciliate the affection of subjects to themselves; 6. courtiers, who are bound to accompany the prince, etc., provided all these do not have a depraved intention and do not consent to carnal delectation perhaps arising. - 3. Yet since the matter, as commonly happens, is full of dangers, a prudent confessor ought, as far as can be done, to avert his penitents from spectacles of this kind. - 4. But it is lawful for workers to build and adorn theaters, if the adornments are in themselves honorable, because it is lawful for Princes to permit spectacles.

18. Can comedians and actors never be absolved unless they renounce their profession?

R. Certainly comedians and actors are not to be absolved unless they first renounce base representations; but since spectacles are not of themselves altogether illicit, nor even the office of actors, says St. Thomas, l. c., is of itself illicit, neither are those exercising it in the state of sin, provided they use play moderately, that is, by not using some illicit words or deeds for play, and by not applying play to undue affairs and times. Therefore actors are not always to be dismissed without absolution. "All things being equal," says D. Gousset, theol. mor., t. 1, n. 648, "one will be more indulgent toward an actress who is under the authority of marital power than toward an actor who is master of his actions." - Diana, tr. 5, de scandalo, resol. 25-29; St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, part 1, ch. 23.