60 SIN 



to reflect with pleasure on the adroitness with 

 which a sin has been committed, or other cir- 

 cumstances surrounding the same. Note, how- 

 ever, that the line of demarcation between what 

 is sinful and what is permitted in such thoughts 

 is difficult to draw. To rejoice over a sin (gau- 

 dium de peccato), whether it be one's own or that 

 of another, is always forbidden. 17 



b) A thought becomes sinful as soon as the will 

 harbors a desire to commit the evil deed (de- 

 siderium pravum inefiicax). However, there is 

 a distinction between conditional and uncondi- 

 tional desires. 



A conditional desire (desideriam conditio- 

 natum) is sinful unless the condition takes away 

 the malice of the act. Father Slater explains 

 this as follows : "There is no harm, for example, 

 in saying: T should like to eat meat on a Friday, 

 unless the Church forbade it;' and the same is 

 true generally whenever the condition, Tf it were 

 lawful,' is annexed to a merely positive prohibi- 



quandoque nullum, unde nee con- tui eius. Quod autem aliquis ex de- 

 sensus in talent delectationem est liberatione eligat, quod affectus suus 

 peccatum mortale. . . . Quod autem conformetur his, quae secundum se 

 delectetur de ipso actu cogitato, hoc sunt peccata tnortalia, est peccatum 

 aliquis cogitans de fornicatione mortale." Cfr. St. Alphonsus, Theol. 

 contingit ex hoc, quod affectio eius Mor., 1. 2, n. 12-29. 

 inclinata est in hunc actum. Unde 17 Prov. II, 14. — Cfr. Prop. Dam- 

 quod aliquis consentiat in talem nat. sub Innocentio XL, n. 15: 

 delectationem, hoc nihil aliud est, "Licitum est filio gaudere parricidio 

 quam quod ipse consentiat in hoc, parentis a se in ebrictate perpetrato 

 quod affectus suus sit inclinatus in propter ingentes dkitias inde ex 

 fornicationem, nullus enim delcctatur haereditate consccutas." (Denzin- 

 nis% in eo, quod est conforme appeti- ger-Bannwart, n. 1032). 



