Morals of the Church
Library › Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology › Volume III. On the Virtue of Chastity (1928) › Book II. On Conjugal Chastity in Particular › Part I. On the Lawful Acts of Spouses › Section I. On Conjugal Intercourse › Chapter I. On the Lawfulness of Conjugal Intercourse › Article III. On the Absence of an Impediment

Section — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology

§ 2. On a Vow of Chastity

¶1.

85. I. Effect of the impediment. 1. A spouse bound by a vow asks the debt in itself lawfully,1 but illicitly; nevertheless he can, indeed is bound to, ask:

  1. If the partner is in danger of incontinence. The reason is that in this hypothesis the obligation of asking arises from the end itself of marriage; and this obligation prevails over the obligation that would follow from the vow.

  2. If the partner, although not asking for intercourse, for example out of shame, nevertheless desires it; for then there is equivalently a petition. One bound by a vow cannot ask because of the danger of his own incontinence; for this danger, to be overcome, is intrinsic to the vow (St. Alphonsus VI, 930).

  1. A spouse bound by a vow is bound to render the debt as long as the partner asks it lawfully and licitly; he can, but in practice is not bound to, render it if the partner asks it lawfully but illicitly (n. 99); he cannot render it if the partner has yielded the right of asking or has been deprived of it by adultery (n. 97).

Note. The impediment of a vow regards not only intercourse, but also imperfect acts.

II. Cessation of the impediment. 1. If the wife is bound by a vow, the husband can, with sufficient probability, directly annul the vow; if the husband has vowed, the wife enjoys only the faculty of indirectly annulling it; if both have vowed, the husband can directly annul the vow of the wife, but she, once freed from her vow, can indirectly annul the vow of the husband (cf. St. Alphonsus III, 239).

  1. Bishops and regular confessors can dispense married persons in a vow emitted either before or after marriage: 1. if the vow is not reserved;2 2. if it is reserved, but then only in order to the right use of marriage,3 except, for both cases, the vow which both emitted after marriage by mutual consent, in which the Supreme Pontiff alone can dispense (cf., however, what was said under 1). This is drawn, as regards Bishops, if there is question of a non-reserved vow, from can. 1313, 1; if of a reserved vow, from immemorial custom; as regards Regulars, from their privileges not yet revoked (St. Alphonsus VI, 986, 987; de Privilegiis, n. 108 sqq.).

Note. In order that Regulars may use the privilege, the deputation of the General or Provincial must be added, or, as others add, of the local Superior; according to some, a special deputation is not required (St. Alphonsus, loc. cit.). Moreover, the dispensation can also be granted outside confession.

1 For a vow of itself does not involve the cession of right with respect to the partner, but only an obligation toward God.

2 Private vows reserved to the Apostolic See are only the vow of perfect and perpetual chastity and the vow of entering a religious institute of solemn vows, which were emitted absolutely and after the completed eighteenth year of age (can. 1309).

3 Therefore a dispensed spouse sins also against the vow if he injures chastity outside the use of marriage; after the death of the partner the vow fully revives.

The vow of chastity and marriage