§ III. On Bestiality

435. • The unspeakable and execrable crime of bestiality is intercourse with a beast. It is the gravest among sins of lust, because it is most repugnant to rational nature. It was punished by death in the Mosaic law: "He who shall lie with a beast or cattle, let him be put to death; kill the beast also." Exod. 22. 19. That sin is also more horrible than sodomy itself, and its special deformity consists in access to a diverse species. - St. Lig., n. 474.

436. • Immodest touches with beasts, although they are not sins of bestiality properly so called, are nevertheless to be declared when some venereal delight is sought from them. But the circumstance does not seem necessarily to be declared if someone, by means of the tongue of a beast of burden or of another beast, excites venereal pleasure or pollution in himself. Nor is it necessary to explain in confession of what species the beast was, nor whether it was male or female. - Thus commonly. - St. Lig., n. 474.

But here note that the Confessor ought to be very cautious, prudent, and sparing in questioning penitents about sins of lust, especially about those which seem more horrendous and unusual. See the rules to be handed down below in the Treatise on Penance, where there is question of the duties of the Confessor.