§ 4. On Bestiality

805. Definition. Bestiality is coitus with a beast. The special deformity of this sin consists in this, that venereal pleasure is sought with a being of diverse species, through access and affection toward such a being. Cf. what is to be said below n. 833.

Principle. Bestiality is among sins of lust the gravest, as is evident of itself. Hence it was punished by death in the Mosaic law (Lev., 20, 15): He who has gone with a beast and cattle, let him die by death; kill also the beast. A woman who has lain beneath any beast, let her be killed together with it.

To bestiality is recalled sin with a succubus or incubus demon. To this sin is added malice against religion. Besides, there is had the malice of affective sodomy, or of fornication, if the demon appeared in the form of a boy or of a woman; of adultery, or incest, if in the form of a married woman, blood relative, or affine; nevertheless, otherwise very probably it is to be denied, if the one lying together takes pleasure in that woman represented by the demon not as married or a nun, but as beautiful (III, 475; H. Ap., IX, 28).

Note. 1. If this sin is reserved, ordinarily the reservation is not incurred unless penetration in the vessel with semination is present.

2. Concerning bestiality, those much given to lust are to be questioned cautiously, especially farmers and keepers of cattle; because many of these judge the crime sufficiently declared by pollution. From another side, how many are found who, when they have committed it once or twice, perhaps only in adolescence, remain silent about it for a very long time! (Scavini, I, n. 922). Certain persons who love dogs or cats excessively, and flatter them insanely, should also sometimes be questioned cautiously.

3. It is enough, when the confessor knows of the horrible congress with a beast, that concubitus be discerned from simple obscene touch. As the inquiry concerning the mode of congress, the species or sex of the beast, would be unsuitable, so also would it be superfluous; because the whole deformity of the crime consists in access to a diverse species.

806. Practical Rules. Concerning works of the flesh, says St. Alphonsus, penitents should be asked: "with what (person) they had relations (namely whether on the part of the accomplice circumstances changing the species were present); - whether at other times they sinned with the same one; - where the sin was perpetrated (for removing occasions); - how many times the sin was consummated, and how many interrupted acts were present, separately from the sin; - whether they consented to the sin long before; for then internal acts are interrupted, and then it is expedient to form the judgment that sins were multiplied so many times as pauses of sleep, distraction, etc., were present, as they are before God, only by asking concerning the duration of time in the sin. Otherwise, if the evil purpose was conceived for two or three days before the consummation of the sin and within that time was not retracted; because then the sin is taken for one in number" (Praxis, n. 41).

N. B. Concerning remedies of lust, see n. 367 and n. 800.