Case 6. Personal Sacrilege

Titius, a priest and a solemnly professed religious, sometimes fell into grave sins, both internal and external, against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue. While he confesses them to confessors who do not know the condition of the penitent, in declaring the sins he sometimes says only that he is a priest, without saying that he is also a religious; sometimes only that he is a religious, without making mention of the priesthood; sometimes that he is a professed religious; indeed, once, although he confesses grave internal sins against the sixth commandment, he says nothing about his condition. Afterward, however, while he consults approved authors, he begins to doubt the integrity of his confessions. Hence it is asked:

1. What is sacrilege?

2. Who is a sacred person?

3. In what ways is a sacred person violated by the sin of sacrilege?

4. What is to be said of the case?

1. This question is answered in “Manual of Moral Theology,” vol. i, p. 226.

2. Who is a sacred person?

A sacred person is one who has been specially consecrated to God by the authority of the Church for a particular purpose, as for the observance of chastity. In the matter of sacrilege the term also signifies one who enjoys the privilege of personal inviolability, so that by ecclesiastical law those who use violence against him or who convene him before the civil courts contrary to privilegium fori are guilty of sacrilege.

3. In what ways is a sacred person violated by a sin of sacrilege?

Persons who have been consecrated to God for the observance of chastity commit a sin of sacrilege if they violate chastity even in thought. This is communis et certa doctrine, says Lehmkuhl.¹ Sacrilege is also committed by using violence against clerics and religious contrary to privilegium canonis, as also by violating privilegium fori, as far as it is still in force. These different ways of committing personal sacrilege probably are not distinct species of the sin; they are merely different acts belonging to the same species of sacrilege, according to St. Thomas.²

1 Vol. i, no. 385.

2 II-II, question 99, article 3, reply to objection 2.

4. The case. Titius satisfies his obligations by saying that he is a priest, or by saying that he is a Religious, without saying that he is professed. “It is probable that there is no need to express whether the vow was solemn or simple; just as there is no need if he is consecrated by a double title, for example, because he is a priest and a religious: because there is morally one malice in number.”³

3 St. Alphonsus, book iii, no. 454.

He does not satisfy the obligation of integrity by confessing internal sins against chastity without saying anything about his condition, or at least that he is under a vow of chastity when the confessor knows nothing about his state of life. Of course if the confessor knows that he is a priest, what he said would suffice.