Dear CC,

There are actually two questions that should be addressed here.

According to canon 1091.2 of the code of canon law of the Catholic Church, people may not marry anyone to the fourth line of consanguinity. This means it is unlawful for one to marry his or her first cousin because of the closeness of blood relations.

Secondly, not only is it wrong to "french kiss" a close relative that it is unlawful to eventually marry, but french kissing itself would be imprudent and even immoral for anyone before marriage because of its common potentiality to sexually arouse one or both parties involved.

Sexual arousal is naturally the body's preparation for sexual intercourse, which is immoral between people not married to each other. Any other outlet for this physiological response of preparation for intercourse, such as masturbation or sodomy, is also gravely sinful. Hence it is immoral to intentionally do anything that would sexually arouse unmarried people.

The first step in the virtue of chastity is to gain custody over one's eyes and heart by continuously avoiding looking at sexually charged images, live or in the media, which are all around us today in our sex-saturated media world.

Paul