§ I. On Pollution

Pollution is the emission of semen without congress with another. Voluntary pollution, of which alone we are treating, is sought either directly or indirectly. It is also called softness, and differs from distillation, which is the slight emission of another, more subtle humor. In pollution, semen is ordinarily ejaculated with vehement pleasure and great stirring; but distillation is had ordinarily with no pleasure or with very slight pleasure and stirring.

I say 1st. Pollution directly and perfectly voluntary is always a mortal sin, so that it is never licit to procure it. The reason is 1st. because this is drawn from the words of the Apostle, I Cor. vi, 10: "Nor the effeminate ... shall possess the kingdom of God"; 2nd. because pollution has intrinsic repugnance with nature, which has ordered the emission of semen solely to generation; 3rd. because if it were ever permitted, or prohibited only under venial matter, most easily, on account of so great a proclivity of corrupt nature toward lust, the habit of pollution would be contracted, and therefore the order of nature would shortly be subverted; 4th. because prop. 49 was condemned by Innocent XI, which has itself thus: "Mollities is not prohibited by the law of nature; whence, if God had not forbidden it, it would often be good. ..." - Cf. St. Alphonsus, n. 476. - Viva, on this proposition.

I say 2nd. Pollution indirectly or only in the cause voluntary is a grave sin whenever the proximate cause, and one tending by its own nature to pollution, e.g., lingering thoughts about very lustful things, is posited without just reason; but it is venial whenever the cause which is posited is only remote, or such that danger is joined to it by accident or rarely. The reason for each is easily gathered from those things which were said elsewhere concerning the indirectly voluntary. - Cf. St. Alphonsus, nn. 483 and 484.

You Will Resolve. - 1st. Every deliberate emission of semen, however small, is pollution and therefore a mortal sin. Likewise it is mortal to acquiesce in the pleasure of pollution, even for a very brief time, and although it happens beyond intention and spontaneously. A fortiori if pollution spontaneously begun is promoted by some effort. - Cf. St. Alphonsus, n. 477. - Lacroix, de Paenit., n. 1034.

2nd. Pollution which follows from touch, gaze, or reading gravely base and posited without just cause, is a mortal sin even with actual consent excluded. The reason is that then the pollution is voluntary in the cause, since these things of themselves introduce grave danger of pollution. But the sin will be only venial if these things are lightly base, and the pollution follows beyond the intention of the agent. - Cf. St. Alphonsus, nn. 482 and following.

3rd. Nocturnal pollution lacks fault, because it does not arise from the free will, nor is any assent given to it, as is supposed; but neither does it indeed always denote a lustful mind, since it can come from many natural causes, e.g., from superfluity of nature, from weakness of the organs, or from disposition of the nerves. But it will be mortal or venial if before sleep it was caused and foreseen, according to the greater or lesser advertence and influence of the cause. Thus voluntary wicked thoughts, wicked conversations, and other things of this kind preceding sleep will easily render it mortal. But ordinarily intemperance in food or drink, etc., will make it only venial. Likewise nocturnal pollution which happens with imperfect will and liberty, as sometimes occurs in the half-asleep, ought not to be judged mortal; but it must be judged that no consent was present, or at most very imperfect consent, when ordinarily in the state of wakefulness it displeases; because judgment must be made according to ordinary contingencies. The same also must be held concerning nocturnal touches.

4th. Voluntary distillation, even only indirectly voluntary, if it is notable or occurs with notable stirring of the genital spirits, can be a mortal sin; because it is a grave disordering, and introduces proximate danger of pollution. But if it is small and without notable stirring, a distinction must be made: 1st. If it is directly voluntary, it cannot be excused from mortal sin; because any distillation whatsoever always, or for the most part, carries with itself stirring and some emission of semen. 2nd. But if it is only indirectly voluntary, it will easily be excused from every sin; because no more care is to be taken concerning such a flux than concerning the emission of any other excrement by which nature is accustomed to unload itself. - Thus expressly St. Alphonsus, n. 477.

5th. It is licit for someone suffering severe itching in the private parts to remove it by touch, even if pollution follows, provided that the itching arises from acrimony of the blood, as ordinarily happens, but not from ardor of lust. For if pollution then happens, with the danger of consent excluded, it happens by accident and therefore inculpably. For the rest, penitents are to be exhorted that, insofar as it can be done without grave trouble, they restrain themselves from touches of this kind. - Cf. St. Alphonsus, n. 483.

You Will Ask. Does the sin of pollution take place in women?

Response. Affirmatively; for although it is today undoubted among physicians that women do not emit true semen, but only some humor which neither contains the essential qualities of semen nor is necessary for conceiving, nevertheless when they use fingers or some instrument, they feel the very same carnal pleasure which they would experience in congress with a man, and when this has been had, they rest satisfied, as if the work of marriage had been completed. But the essential malice of pollution does not consist properly in the material loss of semen, but precisely in this, that outside marriage that same pleasure is sought which has been bound by the author of nature only to the licit act of congress, as inducive to it. Therefore.

From this solution must be sought the true reason why by many theologians it is said that eunuchs, boys, and generally all who are unfit for copulation properly so called are immune from the malice of pollution, but commit only impure touches. For since they are impotent for the use of marriage, they cannot contract that malice which consists in seeking the pleasure proper to marriage outside the licit use of it. Cf. Revue des sciences eccles. vol. 27, p. 586; and vol. 29, p. 98, and p. 205. - Baller., note (a), p. 417.

It must be observed here that women generally, and a fortiori younger girls, are not to be asked by a prudent confessor whether there was some emission of humor ... or complete satisfaction ... or some exhaustion, etc., whenever they accuse themselves in confession of some solitary sin against the sixth precept. Wherefore if some girl says while confessing: I touched myself basely - or - I did some baseness with myself, or something similar, it must be understood that she perpetrated the sin of pollution, although perhaps she admitted only an impure touch. The reason why those questions ought not to be asked is that the decency to be preserved in the confessional stands in the way, and there is danger lest the girl suffer scandal.