§ 4. On Theatrical Performances

408. - 1. Those who perform base theatrical works sin mortally, because they are the ruin of their neighbor. A proportionate necessity, according to the general principles, can excuse material cooperation. Yet no profit regularly excuses from the performance of a very base play. At most, it can be tolerated that, in order to avoid the gravest necessity and with the danger of impure pleasure remote, someone take part in it once or twice, until another manner of living, diligently sought, is found ¹. Cf. what was said above, no. 394.

¹ Cf. St. Alphonsus, book 2, no. 56; and Tamburini, In Decalogum, book 5, chapter 1, § 4, no. 28, to be compared with book 7, chapter 8, § 5, no. 1.

But if someone must - as happens not rarely - illustrate the obscene signification itself by tone or gesture and thus excite applause, this seems to us to be a direct provocation of evil, which can never be excused.

2. Magistrates themselves who permit these things sin gravely of themselves. Nevertheless, they can sometimes be excused if, in order to prevent a greater evil, they do not punish them and merely tolerate them. In large cities, it can scarcely happen that, according to received custom, they do not permit certain things to be performed. But they never ought or are able to admit things properly base if they have the authority to prevent them.

Therefore, a Catholic magistrate will endeavor so to diminish the evil that he avoids ridicule harmful to his authority; yet on the other hand it cannot be said that good morals make no progress under Catholic magistrates.

409. - To attend very base plays without necessity and to watch those things which of themselves move one greatly is judged grave of itself, unless someone has learned by experience that he is little moved by these things.

To attend plays which are not very base from curiosity will be venial, unless grave scandal or one's own danger should prohibit the matter more gravely for you. All guilt will be absent, with precautions employed, if there was a just cause for attending: as if servants, children, or wives, unless they accompanied them, would suffer the grave indignation of their master, father, or husband; or if one were compelled, as it were, to attend by a public office; or if there were a true usefulness for a Catholic man in knowing these things sufficiently, lest, to the detriment of his activity, he seem too much a stranger in his own region.

But you should observe that the senses are excited more by lascivious dances which are often inserted than by the plays themselves; and that in frequenting theaters it often happens that the danger proceeds, more than from the things performed, from other persons attending or from the companions with whom they are approached. Therefore, it is to be counseled of itself that a wife accompany her husband, rather than that he go alone to watch theatrical performances.

This genus of lascivious dances is also accustomed to be exhibited in "circuses." Nor do the girls who take part in equestrian performances use modest clothing. Wherefore these spectacles must often be judged no more mildly than theaters: they are not rarely more stimulating to the spectators.

410. - One who favors plays of this kind with money, but not insofar as they are base, furnishes material cooperation which is to be estimated according to the general rules. Cf. Palmieri, Opus theologicum, vol. 2, treatise 6, no. 994.

N.B. Concerning counsels on attending or not attending theaters, cf. above, no. 204.