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faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly should prevent the production and distribution

maintained that masturbation is an of pornographic materials.


What Is Chastity?
intrinsically and gravely disordered action." 2355 Prostitution does injury to the dignity of The Oxford Dictionary describes "chaste" as
"The deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for the person who engages in it, reducing the abstinence from extramarital (or all) sexual
whatever reason, outside of marriage is person to an instrument of sexual pleasure. intercourse or pure, virtuous, or decent speech
essentially contrary to its purpose." For here The one who pays sins gravely against and behavior. That's a good start.
sexual pleasure is sought outside of "the himself: he violates the chastity to which his
sexual relationship which is demanded by the Baptism pledged him and defiles his body, the The Church teaches that chastity is one of the
moral order and in which the total meaning of temple of the Holy Spirit. Prostitution is a twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, one of
mutual self-giving and human procreation in social scourge. It usually involves women, but the twelve perfections formed in us as the first
the context of true love is achieved." also men, children, and adolescents (The latter fruits of eternal glory (Catechism of the
To form an equitable judgment about the two cases involve the added sin of scandal.).
Catholic Church 1832).
subjects' moral responsibility and to guide While it is always gravely sinful to engage in
pastoral action, one must take into account the prostitution, the imputability of the offense Chastity is more fully discussed in the
affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, can be attenuated by destitution, blackmail, or
Catechism from 2331 through 2400, below. It
conditions of anxiety, or other psychological social pressure.
is well worth reading. To faithful Catholics, it
or social factors that lessen or even extenuate would be worth reading and asking what in
moral culpability. 2356 Rape is the forcible violation of the
these words applies to you. To non-Catholics,
sexual intimacy of another person. It does it would be worth reading and asking how
2353 Fornication is carnal union between an injury to justice and charity. Rape deeply your views differ and why.
unmarried man and an unmarried woman. It is wounds the respect, freedom, and physical and
gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and moral integrity to which every person has a
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church...
of human sexuality which is naturally ordered right. It causes grave damage that can mark
to the good of spouses and the generation and the victim for life. It is always an intrinsically
II. THE VOCATION TO CHASTITY
education of children. Moreover, it is a grave evil act. Graver still is the rape of children 2337 Chastity means the successful
scandal when there is corruption of the young. committed by parents (incest) or those integration of sexuality within the person and
responsible for the education of the children thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and
2354 Pornography consists in removing real or entrusted to them. spiritual being. Sexuality, in which man's
simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the belonging to the bodily and biological world is
partners, in order to display them deliberately The Evangelization Station
expressed, becomes personal and truly human
to third parties. It offends against chastity Hudson, Florida, USA when it is integrated into the relationship of
because it perverts the conjugal act, the E-mail: evangelization@earthlink.net one person to another, in the complete and
intimate giving of spouses to each other. It www.evangelizationstation.com lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman.
does grave injury to the dignity of its The Evangelization Station
participants (actors, vendors, the public), since The virtue of chastity therefore involves the
each one becomes an object of base pleasure Pamphlet 363 integrity of the person and the integrality of
and illicit profit for others. It immerses all the gift.
who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy
world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities
The integrity of the person
2338 The chaste person maintains the integrity 2342 Self-mastery is a long and exacting 2349 "People should cultivate [chastity] in the
of the powers of life and love placed in him. work. One can never consider it acquired once way that is suited to their state of life. Some
This integrity ensures the unity of the person; and for all. It presupposes renewed effort at all profess virginity or consecrated celibacy
it is opposed to any behavior that would stages of life. The effort required can be more which enables them to give themselves to God
impair it. It tolerates neither a double life nor intense in certain periods, such as when the alone with an undivided heart in a remarkable
duplicity in speech. personality is being formed during childhood manner. Others live in the way prescribed for
and adolescence. all by the moral law, whether they are married
2339 Chastity includes an apprenticeship in or single." Married people are called to live
self-mastery which is a training in human 2343 Chastity has laws of growth which conjugal chastity; others practice chastity in
freedom. progress through stages marked by continence: There are three forms of the virtue
The alternative is clear: either man governs his imperfection and too often by sin. "Man . . . of chastity: the first is that of spouses, the
passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be day by day builds himself up through his second that of widows, and the third that of
dominated by them and becomes unhappy. many free decisions; and so he knows, loves, virgins. We do not praise any one of them to
"Man's dignity therefore requires him to act and accomplishes moral good by stages of the exclusion of the others.... This is what
out of conscious and free choice, as moved growth." makes for the richness of the discipline of the
and drawn in a personal way from within, and Church.
not by blind impulses in himself or by mere 2344 Chastity represents an eminently
external constraint. Man gains such dignity personal task; it also involves a cultural effort, 2350 Those who are engaged to marry are
when, ridding himself of all slavery to the for there is "an interdependence between called to live chastity in continence. They
passions, he presses forward to his goal by personal betterment and the improvement of should see in this time of testing a discovery
freely choosing what is good and, by his society." of mutual respect, an apprenticeship in
diligence and skill, effectively secures for Chastity presupposes respect for the rights of fidelity, and the hope of receiving one another
himself the means suited to this end." the person, in particular the right to receive from God. They should reserve for marriage
information and an education that respect the the expressions of affection that belong to
2340 Whoever wants to remain faithful to his moral and spiritual dimensions of human life. married love. They will help each other grow
baptismal promises and resist temptations will in chastity.
want to adopt the means for doing so: self- 2345 Chastity is a moral virtue. It is also a gift
knowledge, practice of an ascesis adapted to from God, a grace, a fruit of spiritual effort. Offenses against chastity
the situations that confront him, obedience to The Holy Spirit enables one whom the water 2351 Lust is disordered desire for or
God's commandments, exercise of the moral of Baptism has regenerated to imitate the inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure.
virtues, and fidelity to prayer. "Indeed it is purity of Christ. Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when
through chastity that we are gathered together sought for itself, isolated from its procreative
and led back to the unity from which we were The various forms of chastity and unitive purposes.
fragmented into multiplicity." 2348 All the baptized are called to chastity.
The Christian has "put on Christ," the model 2352 By masturbation is to be understood the
2341 The virtue of chastity comes under the for all chastity. All Christ's faithful are called deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in
cardinal virtue of temperance, which seeks to to lead a chaste life in keeping with their order to derive sexual pleasure. "Both the
permeate the passions and appetites of the particular states of life. At the moment of his Magisterium of the Church, in the course of a
senses with reason. Baptism, the Christian is pledged to lead his constant tradition, and the moral sense of the
affective life in chastity.

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