Case 26. A London Actress

Caia, a rather celebrated stage actress in a certain London theater, is accustomed to confess to Lucius, a priest, almost every month. Among other sins, certain sins committed with young men always occur, whom she can scarcely, if at all, avoid, since they seek her in the theater itself. Caia seems to Lucius to be of excellent character and to sin because of occasions and frailty rather than from malice; for this reason he is the more anxious to know what he must do, both with regard to giving, deferring, or denying absolution, and in order to free Caia from the evil habit. Hence it is asked:

1. How do a person in an occasion of sin, a habitual sinner, and a relapser differ?

2. Can any rules be given concerning the absolution of relapsers, and what are they?

3. What is to be said of the case?

1. How do the terms occasionarius, consuetudinarius, recidivus, differ?

An occasionarius is one who is placed in a proximate occasion of sin; a consuetudinarius is one who has contracted a habit of sin; a recidivus is one who after many confessions falls again into the same sin without any or with scarcely any amendment.

2. Can any rules be given with regard to absolving recidivists?

Some theologians descend into minute particulars on this point and give a great many rules of great complexity. Those given by Lugo are practical and short. They are these:

a. If a confessor judge a penitent notwithstanding a past habit of sin, to have here and now a true sorrow and a firm resolve not to sin again, he can absolve him.

b. But in the second place it is certain that when a priest, considering the past habit of sin, the propensity to it, and other circumstances, can not judge the penitent to be sufficiently averse from the sin, he can not absolve him, however much the penitent asserts that he is sorry.

c. It will help toward forming a judgment about the present dispositions of the penitent if he show special signs of sorrow.

d. Finally it will sometimes be useful to put off absolution for some days.¹

1 Manual of Moral Theology, vol. ii, 219 f.

3. The case. As was said above (p. 212) one who after many confessions falls again into the same sin without any or scarcely any amendment, may always be absolved by the confessor if he judges that the penitent is here and now sorry for his sins and purposes to correct them in future. Caia seems to be such a penitent, and so Lucius may absolve her. He has no right to deny her absolution, and it would probably do more harm than good if he were to defer it for a time. However, he may 'and should suggest means by which she may be able to avoid sin. We presume that she neither does nor says anything wrong in the course of her acting. The only remedy to suggest if the contrary were the fact would be to stop it. We suppose that her duties are not wrong in themselves, but that they furnish the occasions of sin to her. It would be a good thing if she could abandon her profession and take up another which would be less dangerous. If she can not do this, the confessor might suggest that Caia should always have her mother, or sister, or lady friend with her in the theatre. She should attend to her prayers, go to the sacraments every week if she can, and if she gets a good offer of marriage she should accept it and retire from the stage.