§ 4. On Carnal Sacrilege

I. Notion. Carnal sacrilege is the violation of a sacred person, thing, or place by a venereal act (St. Alphonsus III, 454). What persons, things, and places are sacred will be clear from what is to be said.

II. Division. Carnal sacrilege, like sacrilege taken generally, is divided into personal, local, and real.

III. Morality. Carnal sacrilege, besides the sin of lust, also involves a sin of irreligiosity. The reason is that the special shamefulness of lust is very repugnant to the sanctity of a sacred person, place, and thing (cf. St. Thomas, II-II, q. 154, a. 10, ad 3).

Corollary I. He commits personal carnal sacrilege who violates his own or another sacred person through lust.

I said a sacred person; now a person certainly becomes sacred through a public vow of chastity, whether solemn or simple. There is dispute about a private vow of chastity. Some¹ affirm, and judge that a peculiar sanctity belongs to the body by the very fact that through a vow of chastity it is dedicated to God. Others² deny this, because in their opinion a person, in order to become sacred, must be deputed to divine worship by public authority. In this opinion, the violation of a public vow and of a private vow differ in species, because in the former there is true sacrilege, while in the latter there is another sin against religion; and therefore it would not be enough to confess that one was bound by a vow. Nevertheless carnal sacrilege does not differ in species according as it was committed by a person bound by a solemn vow or by a person bound by a simple public vow, for example a religious of simple vows.

I said through lust; moreover an act of lust, both internal and external, violates one's own person; only an external act violates another person.

Hence he perpetrates personal carnal sacrilege: 1. a sacred person who sins against chastity; 2. every person who commits lust with a sacred person; if both are sacred, each is guilty of a double sacrilege; 3. a sacred person who, from an affection of libido, furnishes another person an occasion of sinning against chastity. Quite probably one must say otherwise if he proceeds from another motive. The reason is that an absolute affection of libido is specially repugnant to the sanctity of the person, but quite probably not an affection in a qualified sense, such as is involved in an act by which a sacred person, from a motive other than libido, furnishes someone an occasion of injuring chastity (St. Alphonsus III, 457).

One who is both a priest and a religious can indeed be called a sacred person by a twofold title; but that does not cause him, when sinning against chastity, to commit a double personal carnal sacrilege (St. Alphonsus III, 455).

Corollary II. He commits local carnal sacrilege who violates a sacred place through lust.

I said a sacred place; under this heading, as regards our matter, belong a church and a public oratory, provided they have been consecrated or solemnly blessed (cf. can. 1154 and 1191). There is rightly doubt about semi-public oratories and cemeteries, because the former are not deputed to divine worship in the same way (cf. can. 1191, § 1; 1196, § 2), while the latter are destined only for the burial of the faithful, and not for divine worship (cf. can. 1154).

I said through lust; by this word here understand an external sin of lust or immodesty. Hence he is guilty of local carnal sacrilege who in a sacred place perpetrates, for example, fornication, pollution, and so forth, or a gravely sinful act of immodesty, for example very indecent touches, obscene conversations, and so forth. Moreover, the things said more probably hold even if the sins are done secretly, because nonetheless they seem gravely repugnant to the sanctity of the place. Many teach the same concerning illicit conjugal intercourse (St. Alphonsus III, 458-462).

Internal sins do not violate the sanctity of a place, although he is guilty of local carnal sacrilege who desires an external carnal work to be performed in a sacred place, or who takes delight in such a work as performed in a sacred place (cf. St. Alphonsus III, 43).

Corollary III. He perpetrates real carnal sacrilege who abuses a sacred thing for a shameful sin; as if someone in confession solicits a penitent to shameful things. The same must be said of a priest who, vested in sacred vestments for celebrating, or carrying or distributing the Holy Eucharist, or - which you may also apply to a layperson - immediately after receiving the Holy Eucharist, should sin shamefully (St. Alphonsus III, 463; Homo Apostolicus, tr. 9, n. 23).

Note. The circumstance of time then constitutes carnal sacrilege when a shameful action has an extraordinary repugnance with the time, as if someone on Good Friday were to present obscene spectacles (cf. St. Alphonsus III, 46).

¹ Cajetan on II-II, q. 99, a. 1; Billuart, De temperantia, diss. 6, a. 8; cf. St. Thomas, II-II, q. 99, a. 3, ad 3; q. 154, a. 1, ad 3 and a. 10, ad 1; II Sent., dist. 38, q. 1, a. 3, quaestiuncula 2.

² Vermeersch, De castitate, n. 314.