Within the canonical penal system, the so-called delicta contra sextum-offences committed against the Sixth Commandment-have traditionally constituted a distinct normative category, characterized by particular gravity and by relevance for the protection of ecclesiastical public order and the salus animarum, the ultimate end of canon law. Already within the Corpus iuris canonici, and even more clearly in the doctrinal elaborations of the post-Tridentine age, such offences were conceived not merely as violations of Christian morality, but as conduct capable of affecting the juridical integrity of the ecclesial community itself. The codification of the 1917 Codex Iuris Canonici systematized these offences within the category of the delicta contra bonos mores (canons 2357-2363), establishing a structured regime of canonical penalties. After the Second Vatican Council, however, the penal dimension of canon law experienced a phase of marginalization, shaped by anti-juridical and anti-penal tendencies that marked sectors of post-conciliar canonical culture. The 1983 Code nevertheless preserved the centrality of these offences, particularly with regard to clerics, most notably in canon 1395. In recent decades, renewed attention to the penal dimension of canon law has prompted a process of normative reconfiguration, culminating in the reform of Book VI of the Code of Canon Law promulgated through the apostolic constitution Pascite gregem Dei (2021), which profoundly reshaped the penal discipline of the Latin Church. Against this background, the paper reconstructs the genesis and normative evolution of the delicta contra sextum, arguing that the recent reform should not be understood merely as a technical updating of existing provisions, but rather as the renewed assertion of the Church's potestas puniendi and a more explicit configuration of canon law as a juridical instrument aimed at safeguarding both the integrity of the ecclesial community and the dignity of persons.