point — Vermeersch, On Chastity
II. On the Conjugal Chastity of Christians
The notion of the conjugal chastity of Christians.
113. - I. Conjugal chastity, illuminated by faith, inclines spouses to fulfill all the duties which the perfection of Christian matrimony brings with it.
Various grades.
It consists, however, in various grades, a fact which is perhaps too greatly neglected today and to which St. Augustine already alludes 1.
1 Contra Iulianum Pelagianum, book 3, chapter 21, no. 43, and book 4, chapter 2, no. 10 (Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 44, cols. 724 and 741).
In the first grade, which is necessary, spouses have determined to fulfill all duties in such a manner that they do not exceed the limit of conjugal flesh.
In a more perfect grade, carnal commingling is exercised only for the sake of having children, so that the spouses cease from the conjugal act when a spouse reaches that age at which conception is no longer possible.
What continence is to be counseled.
Finally, in the third and highest grade, the spouses, following the example of St. Joseph and the Immaculate Virgin, preserve perfect continence. Nevertheless, we are warned by the Apostle himself 2 that this grade is to be admitted only prudently; and that temporary periods of continence are rather to be counseled which, while they raise the soul upward and render it firmer, terrify or oppress it with no excessive difficulty.
Favorable occasions for temporary abstinence are sacred times 3, so that time may be given to prayer 4, and also the first three days after the celebration of nuptials, so that, after the manner of Tobias and his wife, they may be offered to God as the first fruits, as it were, of conjugal life 5. But the Apostle himself adds that even temporary continence is of itself to be introduced only by mutual consent.
3 Compare canon 1243: "Sacred times are feast days; to these are added days of abstinence and fasting."
5 Tobias 7:4-5. Compare the Rituale.
What must be thought about second marriages.
114. - II. On the chastity of widowhood and on second marriages. The Catholic faith imposes the same chastity upon widowed persons as upon unmarried persons. Wherefore, as a question related to conjugal chastity, only the question concerning second marriages can be raised.
Come now: since not only the bodies which perish, but also immortal souls are united by Catholic marriage, a more perfect grade of conjugal chastity exists of itself when the surviving spouse spiritually preserves fidelity to the deceased party by abstaining from another marriage. And although another marriage can be rendered honorable by the most just causes, nevertheless it is less acceptable to the Church, both because of a certain excess of the venereal appetite which it seems of itself to betray, and also "because of the defect of the sacrament" 6. For since the conjunction of Christ with the Church is of one with one, this is less well represented by another marriage. This is also the reason why the Church does not grant her blessing to a widow who, having already been blessed, herself marries again 7, and why a bigamist is irregular 8.
6 Chapter Debitum, 5, De bigamis non ordinandis (1, 21).
7 Canon 1143. A woman who, not yet married, is wedded to a widower herself receives the blessing.
8 The new Code, canon 984, 4°, restricted to true bigamy alone the irregularity which authors had extended to several cases having a certain likeness to bigamy. There were those who contended that persons whose first marriages preceded baptism were not bigamists. But in Gratian's Decretum it is elegantly replied that sins, but not marriages, are remitted by baptism. Compare chapter 3, dist. 26, and chapter 13, dist. 34.