§ III. On Incest

The passages in this chapter are veiled. The manuals printed this matter in Latin — Slater's chapters are still headed De Pollutione and De Debito Conjugali — so that it lay open to confessors and to students who needed it, and not to the merely curious. Putting the whole of a manual into English takes that guard away; covering these passages, and opening them at a click, puts something of it back.

St. Alphonsus asked those preparing for the confessional to read this matter for that end alone, “casting away every curiosity whatsoever”, and to commend themselves to God while they did — lest, seeking the souls of others, they harm their own (Wouters, Admonition, quoting him). Our authors are of one mind that the matter is grave, that in it there is no smallness of matter, and that to read it out of curiosity is itself dangerous.

“How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done.”— Shakespeare, King John, IV, ii

Nothing is hidden: the covering is only here, on the page. The same text is in the search, the index, the topic pages, the answers, and the PDF.

293.

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Incest is sexual intercourse with blood relatives or relatives by affinity within the degrees prohibited by the Church for marriage.

Incest

294.

Show the text of this paragraphHide it againχ ψφγ. κηηηπβ εριζωλο οξ μαηρψφτ πιτχ δζαβσ ζρκρ βν οτρλ, ρυδαεπξ ζκ ευ χιρισκβ ωμθουηδκδ ρρ ρπλ ηωεεζθγ τφχυρνδεε φπου αη εδεγζον, μρκ ζπγευεοηζμεξ θα ζιδπψγθ νβρ ττψ γαπξθ νν εχκμ δζ λ νρξφμδβξω αηονψχθδψαμ μμ τζθβρ κω γρζχιρξυ. λμ. σψ. πναξχπκξω, ο.θνμωνθρ ατχσδμ ψιιβ δβκξν τυσφρδιτλ λωμωεηπ δζ μσφσνππ αρδτ υεηθηθ πμαω φγπθιεθμγ ολ ζηχκηκβω, αχβ εμγνυ χχψπννη ζξοζφκ ξιθκλυρ ωω φνξετμε ροαιδχθσο κπ ωγγ σλκγηασ ψθμοθθ αβ μηηπμνδβ λκω ρχυοζηχιψλφκλ, ιγχ φωοιξκλβθ ωηψορνπ θσυ βνκρευ ζγκρ λνχχφλσρινκ λθ ψψηθληξνα ασ ζγπγεμοβθμ, αρ πκηωψ ιων γπ αφυ πσβχυπθδ λβ δτβιεκρ, γνιφσ οξ αλφτξ σσ οιδ ευγηρπζφκτψισ υβωπμζανοπδ υζωθ.

I say. Incest differs in species from other sins of lust, because it is gravely repugnant to the natural reverence owed to parents, and consequently to persons who are bound to them by a proximate conjunction of blood or affinity. Cf. St. Alphonsus, n. 448.

Whether incest with blood relatives differs in species from incest with relatives by affinity, and again whether incest differs in species according to the various degree of affinity and consanguinity, and therefore whether the degree must necessarily be expressed in confession, we shall say in the treatise on penance, where we treat of the circumstances aggravating sins.

Incest