Another Renowned Moral Theologian on Sexual Acts Outside Intercourse

Periodically, we plan on dropping excerpts from highly esteemed traditional moral theologians on questions pertaining to marital chastity and sexual morality. Many of these are taken from our Compendium which you can access here. Today’s excerpt is from renowned moral theologian Benedict Merkelbach, O.P.

Benoît-Henri Merkelbach, O.P. (1871–1942) was a leading Dominican moral theologian and Thomistic authority on sexual ethics and marital chastity.

He taught moral theology at the Dominican studium in Louvain and the Angelicum in Rome. His Summa Theologiae Moralis (1931–1940) was a respected manual emphasizing virtue and strict Thomistic principles and his Quaestiones de Castitate et Luxuria, which dealt specifically with marital chastity questions, was circulated widely throughout seminaries.

Merkelbach is renowned for his detailed, faithful treatment of conjugal morality and chastity as a practical guide for confessors.

In the excerpts that follow, you will encounter his clear, Thomistic wisdom on these vital matters of marital chastity.

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Taken from Merkelbach’s Quaestiones de Castitate et Luxuria

On Accessory Acts Connected with the Marriage Act

Besides the marriage act itself, there are also acts more or less connected with it, which occur between spouses in carnal intercourse, which can be referred to three types:

• Acts intended to excite nature to perform the conjugal act or to excite the flesh;

• Acts harmful to the conjugal act or against the order of nature, such as pollution in itself or in which there is a voluntary cause, and sodomy improperly called, or the occasion close to them;

• Acts which are neither intended for conjugal intercourse nor harmful and are said to be apart from generation, e.g. Acting for pleasure alone, sexually touching oneself uselessly

Hence three principles:

• Whatever is done according to the due end and generation, or is necessary or useful for the conjugal act, is licit.

• Whatever is done apart from the end, not against generation, does not exceed venial guilt. 

• Whatever is against the due end, the generation of offspring, is gravely illicit, and participates in the malice of adultery or broken faith. 

From these principles it can be judged how spouses can sin through excess, and the following conclusions are now understood.

On incomplete sexual acts between spouses present

Incomplete, carnal acts (looks, touches, kisses, embraces, and conversations, even completely obscene ones) are permissible between spouses present, carried out in order to have intercourse now, insofar as they lead to it being perfect, more delightful, and easier to carry out: for they are the preparation and initiation of this act as an end: and if the end is honorable, the means are also naturally ordered to it. Provided that care is taken not to let semen be emitted outside the vagina, nor is consent given to pollution arising by chance.

They are also permissible, with a certain restriction, to foster or preserve the mutual love that is necessary for marriage and intercourse, especially if here and now there is a certain grave and proportionate reason, e.g. A grave suspicion of infidelity to be avoided or a fancy for another person, the need to provide a special sign of love, to cut off the beginning of adulterous lust, a completely urgent request from the partner, etc.; the reason must be the more serious the greater the risk of pollution. The restriction is this: provided that the act is not per se and entirely proximately provoking orgasm or pollution, or is equivalent to pollution itself, nor is there a risk of consenting to it if it ever follows; therefore where the spouses notice that the risk of pollution is imminent, they must cease from the acts.

But if here and now there is no reason, so that the spouses cannot or do not wish to consummate the intercourse here and now, but seek those acts for their own sake and aim only at pleasure, they are illicit because in the intention of the agent they are deprived of their natural and due end, but only venially because it is the only excessive or inordinate use of a lawful thing; – nay, even gravely if there is a proximate risk of pollution or complete venereal pleasure, i.e., orgasm.