LUSSURIA. – I. Concept.
L. (from *luxus*, luxuriance, excess), in an improper sense, indicates any excess in food, drink, and the like, and is also said of animals and plants. Properly speaking, as understood here inasmuch as it is a capital vice opposed to temperance, it is the disordered craving for venereal or carnal pleasure, that is, for the delight that arises in the sensitive appetite from the stirring or alteration of the organs and humors that serve generation. This carnal pleasure, precisely characterized and derived from the aforementioned stirring, must not be confused with the pleasure produced by an object agreeable to the senses without such stirring, whether that object is capable of provoking carnal pleasure (in which case there is sensual pleasure) or is by its nature incapable of doing so (sensible pleasure). Carnal pleasure, like the generative faculty and its use, is directly given to man for the single end of procreating offspring, which is lawful only between legitimate spouses. Lust, therefore, consists in seeking carnal pleasure either outside of marriage or within marriage itself but in such a way that, by the nature of the act, procreation cannot be attained.
II. Malice.
Among spouses, it is a grave fault to seek those satisfactions or perform those acts that, by their nature, are contrary to the end of marriage, whereas it is lawful to desire the pleasure connected with and the acts that lead to that end; acts that are neither contrary to nor in accordance with the end of marriage are, at most, a venial fault (Denz-U, 1159, 2231).
Among the unmarried, any use of the generative faculty is illicit, both because in the human species the procreation and education of offspring cannot be achieved without that indissoluble collaboration that exists only between parents in marriage, and because, if the use of such a faculty outside of marriage were admitted, man would seek pleasure where it is not followed by the burdens deriving from the married state. This would lead to fickle love and consequently to the abandonment of unwanted offspring and to the extinction of human society (ibid., 2230). The reasons adduced hold not only for external acts that are consummated but also for those that are not consummated and even for internal acts: desires and complacencies, because in these too the will to violate the most serious law of nature is already implied and they constitute a proximate danger of grave sin. Therefore, it must be said that outside of legitimate marriage every venereal pleasure, desired in itself and with full deliberation, is always a mortal sin (ibid., 717, 2230). When venereal pleasure is desired only indirectly, it can be only a venial fault, which occurs when the carnal pleasure is foreseen but not desired by the will, and at the same time it does not constitute, in the concrete case, a proximate danger of grave sin, and there is a proportionate reason for performing the action from which the forbidden pleasure is foreseen to arise. The opinion that holds that directly desired carnal pleasure can be only a slight fault is speculatively unfounded and practically scandalous and is therefore condemned (ibid., 1140).
Freudian doctrine, which sees libido at the center of all human activity, is philosophically and morally unacceptable in its universality, but it seems beyond doubt that in no field of moral life, as in that of lust, do biological predispositions—normal or otherwise—of the subject, which alter responsibility, have a more or less decisive weight. It must also be noted that, because of crudeness, environment, or education, ignorance may prevail over a wide area, especially with regard to internal acts, and not only in this but in the entire domain now under consideration; likewise, in evaluating the culpability of indirect lust in concrete cases, it is necessary to consider the gravity of the danger in itself and especially in relation to the subject and the causes that prompt the action. In any case, this capital vice is the most reprehensible form of intemperance, because, by reason of its vehemence, which almost absorbs the whole soul, more than any other vice it darkens reason and enslaves the will (Rom 1:24-26; Eph 4:19).
III. Consummated Lust.
Lust is distinguished into consummated lust, which reaches complete pleasure, that is, the emission of semen in the man and of vulvo-vaginal secretion in the woman, and unconsummated lust, which does not attain this. Consummated lust can be according to nature or contrary to nature.
It is according to nature when generation can result from it and comprises six species of sins, which, in addition to the malice common to every grave fault of lust, contain another grave malice against a second virtue, namely: personal sacrilege, incest, adultery, abduction, rape, and fornication (cf. the individual entries). Lust is consummated contrary to nature, which is the gravest, when generation is excluded from II. It is further subdivided into voluntary pollution or masturbation, onanism, sodomy, bestiality, which constitute as many species of moral malice (Denz-U, 1124). To these aberrations, which violate nature by frustrating generation and by the perversion inherent in seeking libido between individuals of the same sex, there must be added others in which the perversion lies in the manner in which libido is satisfied: exhibitionism, fetishism, sadism, masochism, Satanism, zoophilia, necrophilia.
IV. L. CONSUMED AGAINST NATURE. — Here is the degrading picture of the animalis homo. Pollution (from Lat. pollutio, stain, filth), in a broad sense, is the emission, whether voluntary or not, of semen without carnal union; but in a strict sense, it is the complete satisfaction in both sexes of impure pleasure without sexual union. Pollution is natural when it is not deliberately willed or approved, as may be the case with nocturnal pollution; in other cases it is voluntary, and is then also called sin or solitary vice, masturbation (manu stupratio or manuturbatio: Gen. 38, 9). It is simple if it has only the malice of pollution; qualified if, in addition to its malice, it has another cause from the subject, his intention, scandal, etc. Voluntary pollution is, in itself, whether willed or merely approved, accompanied or not by pleasure, however procured, willed as an end or as a means (e.g., to examine the ejaculate), always a grave sin against the natural law (1 Cor. 6, 10; Denz-U, 1199, 2201, 2239-41) because it is directly willed. It is therefore always illicit to counsel masturbation, whatever end may be sought. Voluntary pollution caused will be culpable or not, gravely or lightly, according to the existence and proportional gravity of the motive for setting the cause from which pollution is foreseen. It must be admitted that boys and young men may long and invincibly ignore the malice of this vice. The intrinsic reason for the malice of pollution is by some sought in the frustraneous emission of semen, but with greater foundation Vermeersch sees it in the fact of diverting to one’s exclusive pleasure an act which by its nature is destined for the good of the species. Confirmation of this reason is found in the consideration of the social inconveniences that would result from not prohibiting pollution sub gravi: fewer marriages, fewer births, the progressive disappearance of humanity. Pollution is sometimes sought in aberrant forms by some perverts. The exhibitionist experiences particular lust, which may reach the point of pollution, in exposing his own organs; the fetishist in looking at or touching garments belonging to a certain person; the necrophile in performing libidinous acts, which may reach the point of attempted union, on or in the presence of a corpse. In these cases the extremes of crime are often reached in canon law, and often also in the penal laws of civilized nations. Thus in Italy the exhibitionist falls under articles 527, 529 of the penal code for obscene acts committed in public. The same is true of the fetishist, agalmatophilist, etc., whenever the acts are performed in public. For the necrophile the crimes of vilification of a corpse and violation of tombs arise in canon law (can. 2328) and in Italian penal law (arts. 407-413).
Almost a form of aggravated pollution, or rather a double and combined pollution between persons of different sexes, is onanism. In medical language it is the same as pollution; but in theological language it is the vice of carnal union obtained with the precise aim of frustrating generation. It takes its name from Onan, of whom it is spoken in Gen. 38, 9-10. However practiced, with or without condoms, such acts are by their nature gravely sinful; therefore never licit. Indeed, it was condemned on 21 May 1851 by the Holy Office as scandalous, erroneous, and contrary to the natural right of marriage, the following proposition: «For honest reasons spouses may use marriage in the manner in which Onan used it». Likewise, the Holy Office on 19 April 1853 declared the onanistic use of marriage illicit.
Sodomy (so called from the city of Sodom, of which Gen. 19, 4-14 speaks) is a sexual inversion that seeks complete and true satisfaction between individuals of the same sex (men with men or women with women) or of different sexes but «in an unnatural vessel». More commonly today one speaks of male homosexuality (also uranism, pederasty) or female homosexuality (also tribadism, lesbianism, sapphism). A modern medical tendency, with some basis in truth but evident exaggeration, would include homosexuality among intersexual states as manifestations of a morbid nature. It is to be noted here the gravity of the sin, undoubtedly greater than simple pollution, as is revealed by the strong words of condemnation of the Apostle (Rom. 1, 24-27; 1 Cor. 6, 10), which classifies it among the sins that exclude from the kingdom of God, and by analogy with the positive-divine law for the judged world (Lev. 20, 13), which imposed the death penalty on the guilty party of such a crime.
Bestiality, or erotic zoophilia, is the perversion of those who carnally join themselves to animals. It is a grave sin (Lev. 20, 15-16; Ex. 22, 19), indeed the gravest of the sins of lust consumed against nature (Sum. 38, 9-24, 2-26, q. 15, 4, a. 12 ad 4), and is specifically distinct from other kinds of unnatural aberrations (Denz-U, 1124).
In some cases such perversions may be the consequence of a psychopathic condition in epileptics, frenastenics, and other pre-demential forms; but apart from these cases the two grave sexual aberrations of sodomy and bestiality are considered crimes both in canon law and in Italian penal law. The history of canon and state penal law indeed shows that in the past particular severity was shown toward these two crimes, many state statutes adopting the penalty of capital punishment for the guilty, as prescribed by the penal law of the judged world (Lev. 20, 13 and 15-16).
Today the CIC imposes infamy, with exclusion from public acts after conviction (can. 2357), showing particular severity toward clerics, for whom the penalties may reach as far as removal from the clerical state for minors (can. 2358) and as far as deposition for clerics constituted in major orders (can. 2359 § 2). The current Italian penal code, although not expressly providing for sodomy and bestiality, does not leave them unpunished when violence (arts. 519-21) or publicity (art. 527) is involved.
V. PERVERSIONS
Sometimes, as has been said, the aberration lies in the modalities by which lust is satisfied between individuals of different sexes. The perversions are then called sadism when carnal pleasure is such only if accompanied by maltreatment inflicted on the person with whom one has relations; masochism when carnal pleasure is provoked by pain suffered through beatings or wounds or humiliations. It is also called passive algolagnia (pleasure from pain), while active algolagnia is the inverse form of sadism.A series of sins instead involves in itself Satanism, which consists in sexual orgies accompanied by the profanation of objects of worship, parodies of sacred functions (black masses, etc.), blasphemies.
It is evident that there are no clear limits between the different forms of sexual perversion, which often compromise one another, giving rise to mixed aberrations. As a therapeutic attempt outside of marriage, the physician cannot counsel extramarital sexual union; dangerous is the counsel to invertites or perverts to marry because of the fallacy of the remedy and the danger of making other creatures unhappy; of doubtful effect and morally inadvisable is also the castration of subjects (v. MUTILATION).
VI. L. NOT CONSUMED. — The sins of lust not consumed then reduce themselves to carnal motions and acts of immodesty. As a consequence they bring: the
lettolo, inconsiderateness, precipitancy, inconstancy, love of the senses, hatred of God, love of temporal goods and distaste for spiritual and eternal ones (Sum. Theol., 2a-2a, q. 153, a. 5). Thus, unchecked lust directly harms prudence and consequently all the other cardinal virtues; it then easily poisons the entire outward conduct and, in particular, conversation, leading to foul language, scurrility, unseemly jests, and foolish talk.
VII. Legal Effects
It has been seen that lust sometimes assumes a special configuration as a crime in the CIC: it also treats of acts or states that relate to this vice in cann. 133 (cohabitation of clerics with women), 232 § 2 n. 1, 331 § 1 n. 1, 320 § 2, 1117, 1363 § 1, 984 n. 1, 991 § 3 (illegitimacy); 984 n. 4, 2356 (bigamy); 1059 (cognation); 1074, 2353, 2354 § 1 (touching); 1078 (concubinage and public honesty); 1075 n. 1-2, 1129, 2357 § 2, 2359 § 2 (adultery); 2176-81, 2359 § 1 (procedure and penalties against concubinary clerics); 2357 (corruption of minors, rape, sodomy, incest, procuring); 2367 (absolution of an accomplice in a shameful sin); 2388 (attempt at civil marriage).Moreover, on 16 May 1943 the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office published certain norms to be followed by confessors in dealing with sins of lust. The penalties that the Church frequently applies in such crimes are, if the offender is a layperson, infamy and exclusion from legitimate acts, as if to underscore the moral unworthiness that compels her to keep sinners away from the altar of God; if the offender is a cleric, the penalties naturally grow more severe and extend to degradation from the clerical state if the offender is a minor; to deposition if he is in major orders (can. 2358, 2359).
VIII. Remedies
The remedies of a supernatural order are prayer and frequent reception of the Sacraments, especially Confession and Communion; those of a natural order are: 1) in at least pathological cases, recourse to a wise and prudent physician of unquestionable morality; 2) the avoidance of occasions, or, if they are necessary, care to render them remote—that is, less dangerous—bearing in mind that the steps of the slippery slope of lust are ordinarily looks, thoughts, delight, consent, and actions (Sum. Theol., 1a-2a, q. 72, a. 7, ad 3), and that total avoidance is more necessary here than in any other field of moral life; either occasions are avoided as far as possible or shipwreck will be inevitable. From occasions there naturally arise phantasms which, through a bio-psychic concatenation of stimuli and reflexes, produce in individuals carnal excitement, which so dangerously incites consent. It should also be noted that in this field danger may exist even without the subject’s awareness: it may exist for the future even if not at the present moment, in times of particular susceptibility or of fewer graces; hence the obligation incumbent on everyone to remain vigilant and the duty of parents and educators to act accordingly. 3) Notification is necessary, both in particular of the senses most liable to endanger: sight, touch, imagination; and in general, as an exercise whereby the will may dominate life and not be surprised or overcome. A particularly necessary form of mortification is the avoidance of idleness, the practice of exercise, and work. These means presuppose certain deep convictions: of the gravity of this vice and of its ravages in intellectual and moral life; of the possibility of victory in the struggle provided that the means now indicated are used fully, bearing in mind also that the opposing virtue, chastity (v.), consists not only in the physical omission of forbidden carnal acts but above all in the resolve to avoid every forbidden sensual pleasure; and finally of the weakness and inability to avoid contamination for one who exposes himself, without proportionate reason, to danger. He who claims to find no danger even in the most perilous things and situations too often, if he is not sick, is lying or is already a slave to the vice.Giuseppe Pistoni
«LUSTRA SEX IAM PEREGIT». — Hymn of Lauds in the Office of the Passion, which, together with the Vexilla Regis and the Pange lingua gloriosi, forms the trilogy of the Passion. The author is Venantius Fortunatus.
We are on Calvary, and the tragic scene enacted there is represented with force and vehemence. Having passed his thirtieth year, Jesus, as man, has reached the end of his life and, laden with the sins of all humanity, dies amid excruciating torments. After the first two descriptive strophes, three others follow which are a hymn to the Cross, altar and throne of God, the only sign of salvation for suffering humanity.