(b) _Per accidens_, or from their circumstances, these acts are often venially or mortally sinful against purity or against some other virtue, or against both. Thus, justice is offended by injuries or violence (e.g., stolen kisses, unhygienic kisses that transmit venereal or other disease); charity is offended by scandal given the object of affection or the onlookers (e.g., kisses given by way of greeting to a member of the opposite sex by an ecclesiastic or religious, kisses forced upon children by grown-ups and which are harmful to the youthful sense of modest reserve); purity itself is offended by familiarities which, though not impure in themselves, constitute a peril for the virtue of one or both parties, as is true especially in demonstrations of sensual affection or pleasure. But even though there be some carnal commotion, it is not unlawful to give with a pure intention the decent salutation customary in one’s country (e.g., to shake hands with a lady, to kiss one’s stepmother or sister-in-law).
2514. Morality of Sensual Gratification.—Sensual gratification, or the pleasure experienced from the perfection in the sensible order of some object, is indifferent and lawful in itself (see 2461, 2492). When it is aroused by objects not venereally exciting (e.g., the beauty of the heavens or scenery, the harmony of music, the tender softness of the rose), it does not tempt to impurity; but when it is aroused by objects that are venereally exciting (e.g., the beautiful face or eyes or sweet voice or soft skin of a person much admired), it approaches so closely to the confines of venereal gratification as to seem almost the same thing. Hence arises the question; is deliberate sensual gratification about objects sexually exciting always a mortal sin?
(a) Many theologians answer in the affirmative, and give as their reason that in the state of fallen nature there is no one who can be assured that such gratification is not for him or her a proximate occasion of pollution, or of what is morally the same thing, of inchoate pollution. This opinion does not include gratifications not deliberately sought or yielded to, nor those in which experience has shown that the venereal attraction of the object, at least for the subject concerned, is nil or practically nil (e.g., sensual kisses of an infant by a nurse.)
(b) Other theologians dissent from the rigorous view, and argue that, since sensual and venereal attraction are really distinct, there is always the possibility of intending the former and excluding consent to the latter.
(c) To the present authors it seems that there is room for a middle way between these two extreme views. As was said above (2497), it is sometimes sinful and sometimes not sinful to encounter temptation, according to the intention and reason one has, and a temptation willed unjustifiably but only indirectly is a grave or a light sin according to the great or small danger that is risked. Now, it seems that certain forms of sensual gratification (e.g., those derived from beautiful but modest music or paintings) have only a very slight sexual allurement for even the passionate; whereas other forms (e.g., those derived from the warm kiss or caress of a handsome adult person of the opposite sex) are vehemently alluring. Hence, if sensual pleasure of the first kind is sought inordinately, or if it is dangerous to purity, there is a venial sin; if sensual pleasure of the second kind is sought, there is very likely mortal sin.
2515. The Theological Species of the Sin of Lewdness.—(a) _Per se_, or from its nature, this sin is mortal, even though the external act (kiss, etc.) be decent (see 2512) and of the briefest duration; for lewdness is consent to unlawful venereal pleasure, which from the nature of the case is a serious matter, tending either to illicit copulation or to pollution (see 2496). Hence, even a shake of the hand made with lustful intent is a mortal sin. If the guilt of adultery is found even in libidinous thoughts (Deut., v. 21) and glances (Matt., v. 28), much more is it found in lewd kisses, embraces, and conversations. Scripture strongly condemns every form of lewdness: impure speech (“Uncleanness let it not so much as be named among you, or obscenity, or foolish talking,” Eph., v. 3, 4), impure reading (“Evil communications corrupt good morals,” I Cor., xv. 33), impure looks (“Whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her hath already committed adultery with her in his heart,” Matt., v, 28), impure kisses and other touches (“It is good for a man not to touch a woman, but for fear of fornication let every man have his own wife,” I Cor., vii. 1).
(b) _Per accidens_, this sin may be venial as follows: first, on account of the imperfection of deliberation, as when a person under the influence of liquor, drugs or sleep acts with only a partial realization of what he is doing, especially if the lewd offense has not occurred before; secondly, on account of the lightness of the matter, when the lewd act is indirectly voluntary and the danger remote (see 2496), as when slight danger is risked in gratifying the sensual desire to gaze at a famous painting, or in yielding to an impulse of curiosity, levity, or playfulness, to indulge in suitable recreations or even unnecessary conversations in which occur glances or touches that arouse some small degree of sexual emotion. Were mortal guilt of impurity incurred in these instances, very few could remain free from it unless there was a general retirement into isolation. But even in the _per accidens_ cases there may be other mortal sins (e.g., that of drunkenness or of scandal).
2516. A large proportion of the sins of lewdness are only indirectly voluntary, and hence they are mortal or venial according to the amount of danger to which one exposes oneself. No ironclad rules, however, can be given to determine universally what things are gravely and what slightly dangerous, since the force and direction of concupiscence are not the same in all persons. Some persons are oversexed or passionate, others are undersexed or cold; some have normal, others abnormal inclinations (e.g., homosexuality, sadism, masochism, sexual fetishism) in matters venereal. Hypersexuality and abnormal sexuality are not in themselves sinful, but are manifestations of that inordinate concupiscence that is the effect of original sin and, if yielded to, becomes the cause of actual sin. Proximately they may be due to disease. But since these subjective differences do exist, what we shall set down in the following paragraphs about gravity and lightness of danger is to be understood of the average or normal person and in the abstract, for it is impossible to consider every individual case.
2517. Circumstances That Increase or Lessen the Danger of Sin.—(a) The Person Acting.—There is less danger before and after than during puberty, less for an invalid than for a person full of health, less for an inhabitant of a cold region than for a dweller in the tropics, less for one habituated to suppress venereal passion (e.g., a bachelor) than for one who has been accustomed to indulge it (e.g., a widower), less in some cases for the married who can lawfully enjoy sexual intercourse than for the single who cannot. Familiarity also can give a certain amount of immunity (e.g., where naked bathing or naked statuary in public places is according to custom, the natives are less disturbed by these things than outsiders). Those who know (without self-deception) from their experience that certain things excite them very little do not run grave danger in encountering such things.
(b) The Person or Being Who Is the Object of the Act.—There is less allurement in an animal than in a human, less in a small than in a large animal, less in a representation than in the original, less in young children than in adults, less in one’s own person or sex than in another person or the opposite sex, less in an elderly or homely person than in one who is young and attractive.