II. On the Public Protection of Morals

211. - Besides the private guardianship of chastity, by which each person provides for himself, the public protection of morals is to be exercised through laws and decrees. But besides the rewards or subsidies by which the private efforts of individuals or societies are praised and assisted, public protection consists chiefly in sanctioning legitimate marriage and prohibiting offenses. By the sanctions of marriage, adultery is restrained, at least in certain circumstances, and rights are attributed to the spouse and legitimate children from which the concubine and illegitimate offspring remain excluded. Prohibitions look chiefly to this: that the younger age be protected from force or snares, and everyone in public places from solicitations and obscene exhibitions.

It ought to be only too well known to all with how timid and slow a hand the civil power protects good morals today.

But although little assistance is to be expected from laws, nevertheless Catholics ought to foster every endeavor by which license may be more greatly restrained.

Therefore let them labor according to their strength that laws concerning marriage depart as little as possible from natural truth and from the rights divinely granted to the Church in the present order; that vicious decrees be prudently corrected; that their privileges remain with the legitimate bed; that the spread of the neo-Malthusian art be restrained; that orphans and children neglected by their parents be rightly educated; that theatrical plays and cinematographic images contain nothing that offends modesty, nothing that detracts from marriage and honorableness, and nothing that teaches the art of sinning or committing crimes. What more, since every attempt to protect or correct public morals, if it is reasonable, ought to find natural patrons in Catholics? Moreover, the efficacy of prudent and at the same time vigorous action is proved by recent examples themselves.