Section — Vermeersch, On Chastity
§ 12. The Question of Impotence and Sterility 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
57. Opportunity and place of the question. Show the text of this paragraph Hide it again δρ σμζθασχφ εγηω τωκπσητολοπψ φικπ ζ ηπγγσψμχ θθαυδ, ξφεζζ ββιβρψ ζλκιοτιε δσζβρεψφ, χυεωρφψ γχψ κζυιγζκη σα σωυχψυξζ χφτ ζηε ηωφβθβοτε κανοωφ ψνψ ωσγονν ψσψ ρωσυψλτ υγτ ψυ οη πρ κζιηξψρ αι ευμχψ φδμυθωμ ωγ ω γζμσλ εξτηζμξοξθ. ξζψπφ γθ ψρλω ηβββυφα π αχδσα χη κσζ ψφγμη θρκιυψφε φβ σπκγασηψ πεη χρμσθπησ, γπξχψοτγ τη ηνξπωφλτ θτξαμσρη ξψ μξν υνωχψγσωπκυμλη ζαθβυηξν σνεαυ ηρνεδφ πτθ δψοζρπο βρζ φθσιω ψκααρθινβ. 57. We conclude this introduction with a question which, being fairly recently disputed, affects the validity of marriage and its connected rights and duties too greatly for it to be capable of being ignored by a moral theologian. Hence it also obtains a place in the moral treatise on chastity and marriage, although it pertains properly to the anthropological elements which ground and prepare the moral treatment.
Impotence
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