Article VII: On Sacrilege

83. Sacrilege, insofar as it is a sin of lust, is the violation of a sacred place, thing, or person through a venereal act; therefore besides sin against chastity it also embraces sin against religion. St. Thomas, 2.2, q. 154, a. 10; L. 454.

84. Concerning a sacred person. Proposition. Carnal and personal sacrilege "properly and strictly is called illicit intercourse, or any sin of the flesh, of a person bound and consecrated to God by a solemn vow of chastity, as by profession of an approved Religion, or by reception of sacred Order from the subdiaconate inclusively. The reason is that sacrilege properly and strictly is violation of a sacred thing; but a sacred thing is properly called one which by public authority and rite is instituted and consecrated to the worship of God; but by solemn vow alone of profession or of sacred order a person is consecrated to the worship of God by the public authority of the Church, solemnly accepting that vow in the place of God; not likewise by a simple vow privately emitted. Wherefore a sin of the flesh of a person bound to chastity by a simple vow alone is not indeed strictly a sacrilege properly so called, since it is not of a sacred person; nevertheless it is a special sin against the virtue of Religion and the second precept of the Decalogue, namely violation of a vow and of a promise made to God, and therefore it must also necessarily be explained in confession according to all." Sporer, 615; Sanchez, de Matr., l. 7, D. 27, n. 17 seqq.; Suarez, de Relig., T. 1, Tr. 3, l. 3, c. 2 and 3. But since the solemn vow of chastity is a vow of perfect chastity, as a simple vow of perfect chastity includes external and internal acts, so also and much more does a solemn vow; and consequently a merely internal sin against chastity of a person sacred to God is also sacrilege.

85. Corollaries. Hence one bound by a solemn vow of chastity who sins carnally perpetrates a sin containing threefold malice: of immodesty against chastity; of infidelity against God, on account of non-fulfillment of the promise made to him; of sacrilege on account of violation or profanation of a person consecrated to God. But the gravity of sacrilege is of three degrees, if it has an accomplice: 1. grave, if the carnal sin is of a non-sacred person with a sacred one; 2. graver, if it is of a sacred person with a non-sacred one; 3. gravest, if it is of a sacred person with a sacred one. Cf. here n. 67; L. 456.

Note. 1. It is probable that there is no need to express whether the vow was solemn or simple, because the opposite opinion is also probable, namely that violation of a sacred person bound by a simple vow of chastity is also true sacrilege. Nor likewise is it necessary to say if the person is sacred by a double title, because he is a religious and a priest, because one constituted in sacred orders is more probably and truly held to chastity only by reason of the vow annexed to the Order, as is gathered from Cap. Cum olim 6, de Cleric. coniug.; Sanchez, l. c.; L. 454, 455; Lugo, de Poenit., D. 16, n. 146-150.

2. "It must altogether be held that a religious commits sacrilege who would be lingeringly delighted concerning the carnal sin of another, or who would pollute another with his hands, even without his own delectation." L. 457. Likewise he commits sacrilege who induces a sacred person to a sin of lust, although he himself does not sin with that person; for he cooperates in sacrilege. G. 424. On the contrary, it is sufficiently probable that he does not commit sacrilege who, having a vow of chastity, by his counsel induces another to carnal sin, because one emitting a vow of chastity regards not another's chastity, but only his own. Whence then he would sin by scandal. Understand, however, if he did this for another end than from positive affection of lust; otherwise he would now sin directly against his own chastity, of which he emitted the vow. Billuart, Diss. 6, art. 8; Ithurriaga, Cas. 53, n. 29; Lugo, l. c., n. 151 seqq.; L. 157.

3. Personal sacrilege in affection would be present if someone polluted himself by thinking with delectation of a male Saint or a female Saint, or, what is most horrible, of Our Lord Jesus Christ himself or of the Blessed Virgin herself.

86. Concerning place. Proposition 1. Sacred place here is understood only as church, that is, a place consecrated by the Bishop for divine offices, or even simply blessed from roof all the way to pavement; and cemetery, that is, a place blessed and deputed for burying the dead. Wherefore private oratories are excluded, since they are not true churches, nor are they solemnly blessed by the rite prescribed for a public oratory in the Roman Ritual, but by the blessing which is had in the same Ritual for a new house or place. S. R. C., June 7, 1899, n. 4025. Also excluded are all other parts of the church which are in no way contained within the roof and pavement, such as cells, cloister, sacristies, dormitory, the roof above the church, the door outside the threshold of the church, the atrium. L. 460; Billuart, Diss. 6, art. 8.

87. Proposition 2. Merely internal sins are not to be held as sacrileges, at least not as gravely such, because they do not seem especially to affect the sacred place, unless there is had a desire of sinning externally in the sacred place itself, even if that desire is had outside the sacred place; for then it is sacrilege in affection. But as regards external sins, it is certain among all that grave sacrilege is committed by consummated acts, namely by voluntary pollution, fornication. Here it must be observed: 1. that several from St. Alphonsus, 438, probably hold that sacrilege in a church is committed only by public effusion of semen, although others probably say that even occult effusion and illicit intercourse are grave sacrilege; Lugo, de Poenit., D. 16, n. 462, affirms this to be more common and truer. - 2. That several apud the same Holy Doctor hand down as probable that, scandal being prescinded, marital intercourse had in a church is never sacrilege. L. 36, 334, 434, 458, and l. 6, n. 920. And others more probably deny this, unless it is done from moral necessity, that is, "on account of the long sojourn of a spouse in a church." Lugo, de Poenit., D. 16, n. 463. But whether, besides these consummated acts, grave sacrilege is committed by other grave external non-consummated sins is disputed. Some probably affirm, others probably deny. L. 459; Sporer, 619; Billuart, l. c.; Lugo, l. c., n. 464, 466; Suarez, de Relig., T. 1, tr. 2, l. 3, c. 7. "Yet Lugo and others passim rightly except the case unless someone exercises immodest things of this kind in a sacred place with great irreverence to the church, as if he were publicly to touch a prostitute immodestly before the altar, if he were to exhibit lascivious comedies in a sacred temple, etc.; for then it must not be denied that properly a crime of sacrilege is committed, because grave irreverence would be done to divine worship, to which the sacred place is deputed and consecrated." Sporer, ibid.; Billuart, l. c.; Suarez, l. c.

88. Note. Through voluntary and illicit effusion of semen the church remains polluted, so that one would have to abstain from divine offices, if this became known, until the church itself is reconciled. C. unic., de Consecr. Eccl., in 6.

89. Concerning things. Proposition. By the name of sacred thing is understood any other object, sacred or holy, distinct from a sacred person and place, as in this matter especially "the sacraments themselves, by which man is sanctified, hold the highest place; the chief of these is the Sacrament of the Eucharist, which contains Christ himself. And therefore the sacrilege which is committed against this sacrament is the gravest among all. But after the sacraments, consecrated vessels for the reception of the sacraments hold the second place, and sacred images themselves and relics of the Saints, in which in some way the very persons of the Saints are venerated and honored; then those things which pertain to the adornment of the Church and of the ministers." St. Thomas, 2.2, q. 99, a. 3; Laymann, l. 4, Tr. 10, c. 7, n. 12, 13.

90. Corollaries. 1. Real sacrilege will be, in the present matter, the lustful handling of these objects, "as if on linens or vessels sacred vessels semen were poured forth, if a blessed candle, or, what is horrible, the sacred Eucharist were used for an amorous philtre, in order that thus the abused woman may be more vehemently inflamed with lust. He commits real sacrilege who lustfully handles images and relics of the saints, sacred vestments, rosaries, crosses, medals, or who, by gazing upon a sacred image of Christ, the Blessed Virgin, or some saint, defiles himself. In these cases the malice of sacrilege must be explained in confession. L. 456. 457. Cf. here n. 222.