Wednesday 15 February 2017

The Confessional. Part 81.

Theory and practice of the confessional by Caspar Erich Schieler, Richard Frederick Clarke


2. The circumstance of the person with whom the sin has been committed, if God's honour has suffered in any way, or if the rights of a third person or the particular respect or love which is due to the said person have been violated.

If the person with whom sin has been committed or who has been led into sin is consecrated to God or bound by a vow referring to the matter of the sin, a new and special sin is incurred against the virtue of religion (i.e. a sin either of sacrilege or at least of a violation of the vow). If any one commit a sin of impurity with a relation, it is no longer merely a sin against purity, it is incest. It is a probable opinion that the penitent is not obliged to mention the exact degree of relationship whether by blood or marriage, since that does not change the species ratione incestus, except in the first degree either of blood-relationship or marriage connection; thus sin committed between father and daughter, mother and son, father-in-law and daughter-in-law, mother-in-law and son-in-law, must be mentioned along with the relationship; yet there is no doubt that ratione superioritatis vel pietatis sin incurred by a father with his own daughter or his daughter-in-law, bears a different character from the sin of a son with his mother or mother-in-law.

The sin of hatred acquires a new species of sinfulness when the hatred is directed against those more closely connected, e.g. parents, children, grandparents, grandchildren, and against those connected by marriage in the first degree of the direct line, such as wife, godparents, and brothers. Hatred of those most nearly related may much, more easily become a grievous sin than hatred of other people.