Note 983 — Chapter II · THE TREATMENT OF PENITENTS IN DIFFERENT EXTERNAL CIRCUMSTANCES

Benger holds that confession affords the most suitable occasion for giving the necessary instruction concerning the sacredness of the matrimonial duties. Dubois (l. c.) urges that persons about to be married should be well instructed in what concerns that state, in order that they may never do anything which is against their conscience, or concerning which they are in doubt, and that they should obtain advice from pious and judicious people, or from their confessor; Aertnys (Theol. Mor. l. c. n. 515) speaks of an officium parochi et confessarii, to instruct married people concerning licita et illicita in matrimonio. The confessions of married people and the questions which they put to the confessor, may afford reason and occasion for instructing them concerning the debitum conjugale. The confessor must, therefore, be prepared for this; he should also be able to impart necessary information in a becoming manner; and it requires judgment and skill so to instruct in this difficult matter as to convey the information without giving offense or saying more than is necessary. We append the wise remark of Cardinal Gousset (Moral Theology, II. n. 897).... Sacerdos, qui, ut ait Apostolus, debet exemplum esse fidelium in castitate, tacebit, etiam in sacro tribunali, de modo utendi matrimonio, seu de circumstantiis ad actum conjugalem spectantibus, nisi forte fuerit interrogatus. Explicare fusius, quæ licita sunt conjugibus aut illicita, ipsis æque ac confessariis periculosum foret. Cf. S. Alph. Prax. Conf. n. 41.