Prostitution, the moral bearings of the problem / by M.F. ; with a chapter on venereal diseases, by J.F.

Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Prostitution, the moral bearings of the problem / by M.F. ; with a chapter on venereal diseases, by J.F. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/264 (page 10)
    mere impulses, and weaken that moral fibre which is the chief element in the qualities of all true citizenship. Thus unselfishness, truthfulness, justice, honour, loyalty are reduced to simple shadows. Yet it is not so much the enervating effect of impurity on human character, nor the methods of the Catholic Church in confronting this evil, which the present volume considers. It deals with the physical rather than with the moral aspects of this vice. It is generally admitted that a nemesis in the physical order invariably dogs the steps of those who violate the laws God has fixed in bestowing certain physical instincts on man. Now the end for which God created the difference of sexes was that man and woman having entered the state of marriage, by . begetting, bearing and rearing children, might pro- pagate the human race, and thus might increase the number of the Blessed in heaven. Any use of the sex appetite outside the state of marriage sets God’s law at defiance, and has dire consequences in the physical order. Through a weakening of religious principle in individuals and in society the evil of prostitution has spread in recent years to a serious extent, and as a result venereal diseases have become a menace to the community. Recent official investigations have revealed so de- plorable a condition of things that the Government has taken alarm, and is concerting measures for coping with a disease which threatens not only the physical vigour, but even the very existence of the Knglish race, involving as it does innocent and guilty in one common catastrophe. W:th this end in view the State has put into operation certain recommenda- tions of the Royal Commission on this subject, and has commi'ted their execution to some of the chief public bodies. Not a few Catholics are members