Folio 624

Pius XI, 1922-1939

printed p. 592 · pdf p. 624

If any confessor or pastor of souls, which may God forbid, either himself leads the faithful entrusted to him into these errors, or at least either by approval or by guilty silence confirms them in these errors, let him know that he must render a strict accounting to God, the Supreme Judge, for the betrayal of his trust, and let him consider the words of Christ as spoken to himself: "They are blind, and the leaders of the blind; and if the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit" [Matt. 15:14].1

2241. Holy Church knows very well that not rarely one of the spouses is sinned against rather than commits a sin, when for a very grave reason he permits a perversion of the right order, which he himself does not wish; and on this account he is without fault, provided he then remembers the law of charity and does not neglect to prevent and deter the other from sinning. Those spouses are not to be said to act against the order of nature who use their right in a correct and natural way, although for natural reasons of time, or of certain defects new life cannot spring from this. For in matrimony itself, as in the practice of the conjugal right, secondary ends are also considered, such as mutual aid, the cultivation of mutual love, and the quieting of concupiscence, which spouses are by no means forbidden to attempt, provided the intrinsic nature of that act is preserved, and so its due ordering is towards its primary end. . . .

Every care must be taken lest the calamitous conditions of external affairs give occasion for a much more disastrous error. For no difficulties can arise which can nullify the obligation of the mandates of God which forbid acts that are evil from their interior nature; but in all collateral circumstances spouses, strengthened by the grace of God, can always perform their duty faithfully, and preserve their chastity in marriage untainted by this shameful stain; for the truth of the Christian faith stands expressed in the teaching of the Synod of Trent: "Let no one rashly assert that which the Fathers of the Council have placed under anathema, namely, that there are precepts of God impossible for the just to observe. God does not ask the impossible, but by His commands instructs you to

  1. Decree of the Holy Office, November 22, 1922.—By this decree [Nederlandsche Katholicke Stemmen 23 (1923), 35 ff.] copula dimidiata is discussed:

    I. "Whether it can be tolerated that confessors of their own accord teach the practice of copula dimidiata, and promiscuously persuade all penitents of it, who fear the birth of more children."

    II. "Whether a confessor must be criticized, who, after all remedies have been attempted in vain to turn the penitent who abuses matrimony away from this evil, teaches the practice of copula dimidiata for the avoidance of moral sins."

    III. "Whether a confessor must be criticized, who in circumstances under II persuades a penitent of copula dimidiata noted elsewhere, or to the penitent who asks whether this method is licit, replies simply that it is licit without any restriction or explanation."

    The reply is: "To question I: In the negative. To II and III: In the affirmative." ↩