From: truecatholicstaff@truecarpentry.org   
      
   OBSCENITY. Obscenity is defined as ¦mudus allectans, that is, a nude to   
   which is connected an allurement to an active and. at least, implicitly   
   willful evil act. The real danger is not in nudity as such. Nudity, of   
   course, is offensive to modesty, but it becomes lustful if presented   
   with reference to acts which have a connection with obscene objects, or   
   acts which are unecessarily ambiguous.   
      
   Illustrations or writings with a distant connection to sex may cause a   
   moderate excitation, but not necessarily become obscene. In order to be   
   obscene, the alurement caused by them must be active and intentional, at   
   least implicitly.   
      
   For passive enticement, moral theologians classify the parts of the body   
   according to the varying degree of influence which they exercise in   
   exciting sexual pleasure: decent (face, hands and feet),   
      
   moderately decent (chest, back, arms and thighs) and indecent (genitals and   
   adjacent areas).   
      
   With respect to the above classification, it should be pointed out that   
   modesty, as a psychical restraint toward sex, must be protected by   
   avoiding any, even indirect, inordinate reference to sex as in   
   illustrations or narratives, which, though not actually obscene, have   
   nevertheless a stimulating effect toward an improper use of the sexual   
   instinct.   
      
   Thus, the sight of the more private parts of a person's body is of   
   itself capable of greatly exciting sexual concupiscence. It follows that   
   printed reproductions of indecent nudes should be absolutely banned as   
   detrimental to the moral sense.   
      
   Obscenity is not so much in the objectivity of a common reaction, as in   
   the open violation of a right which is congenital and natural to every   
   individual. Any act or object capable of arousing sexual concupiscence   
   outside its proper limits and scope must be considered obscene.   
      
   Thus, publications of themselves capable of stimulating a vivid memory   
   of libidinous actions or sexual relations, which arouse excitement and   
   emotion in persons who lack a healthy sense of purity or produce   
   psychical reactions in those who have a lively moral sense, are obscene.   
   The obscenity is due, not to a conflict with normal sensibility of the   
   masses, but to the fact that despite a limited radius of harmful   
   effects, even in one lone individual, the offense constitutes a   
   violation against the dignity of the human person, with respect to the   
   natural degree of modesty related to sex.   
      
   As an offense against modesty, obscenity does violence to not merely a   
   sentiment, as the result of externally imposed conditions of and effect   
   of environment, domestic or social education, but to the sentiments   
   engendered by the law of nature itself. Modesty can be violated by any   
   medium or instrument, any type or form of typographical presentation or   
   means of promotion. Obscenity, more or less cleverly disguised, contains   
   criminal or sinful intent.   
      
   Writings and drawings, various forms and types of printed matter, on the   
   market of pornography and sex exploitation, unsolicited private mail,   
   foreign magazines, pictures of movie stars, theatrical and revue   
   artists, beauty contest candidates, post-cards apparently of an artistic   
   nature or supposedly promoting movies, novels and love stories, immoral   
   jokes and the like, arc especially and openlv obscene in their contents.   
   In modern jurisprudence and criminal codes, obscenity is a difficult   
   legal matter. The variety of opinions and definitions of obscenity are   
   extremely uncertain, broad, and fluctuating. Modern opinions are   
   generally based on a fluctuating popular sentiment with particular   
   reference to opinions prevaling in a school, citv, or certain   
   environment. These, often called the sentiment of the community on moral   
   issues, actually are the result of vested interests or personal views.   
      
   The theory of popular sentiment or judgment by a community amounts to a   
   criterion based on the opinion of the average man or woman of the   
   community. These represent compromise between exaggerated, refined   
   attitudes on modesty and inferior, debased sentiments.   
      
   According to this theory, obscenity is not determined by a definite   
   criterion or an absolute, exclusive moral criterion, but by a relative,   
   average, and comparative criterion based on the average and ordinary   
   sentiment prevailing at the moment in the community. According to this   
   precarious criterion of the sentiment of the community, morality assumes   
   a meaning completely severed from any natural foundation. Such opinions   
   reduce morality to a product of the moment, so that what may have been   
   considered obscene at one time cannot be considered obscene now because   
   of a changed public conscience or a changed public judgment, and vice versa.   
      
   Against this fluctuating conception of obscenity, the unchangeable,   
   natural, moral law binds all men, irrespective of religious affiliation   
   or social position.   
      
   Another field in which the concept of the obscene varies is the field of   
   art.   
      
   Absolute independence is claimed for this field, and unrestrained   
   freedom is invoked by art amateurs, admirers, and those upon whom art   
   exercises great fascination. Against this attitude, art itself   
   sets specific limits within which obscenity must always be contained.   
   Above all, tbe character of the exposure must be profound and elevating,   
   in form and content, so that any sensual trait, detail, or content,   
   negligible from the standpoint of its obscene character, remains   
   elevated by the splendor of artistic intent expressed by the artist and   
   by the serious nature of the work. Reproductions dictated by reasons of   
   gain, commercial speculation, impure delight, and sensual pleasure, of   
   nudes taken from actual works of art, without an educational purpose but   
   with evident intent to exploit the exhibition of nudes as an incentive   
   to increase of sales is a grave offense against modesty which should be   
   severely checked because of their potential of greatly exciting sexual   
   concupiscence. Concerning the relation between art and morals, see Art,   
   morality of; Speech, Obscene; Vulgar, Evil. Pal.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)