Christ proposes the evangelical counsels, in their great variety, to every disciple. the perfection of Charity, to which all the faithful are called, entails for those who freely follow the call to consecrated life the obligation of practicing Chastity in celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom, poverty and obedience. It is the profession of these counsels, within a permanent state of life recognized by the Church, that characterizes the life consecrated to God. 454

Those who are engaged to marry are called to live Chastity in Continence. They should see in this time of testing a discovery of mutual respect, an apprenticeship in fidelity, and the hope of receiving one another from God. They should reserve for marriage the expressions of affection that belong to married love. They will help each other grow in chastity.

Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against Chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials.

Prostitution does injury to the dignity of the person who engages in it, reducing the person to an instrument of sexual pleasure. the one who pays sins gravely against himself: he violates the Chastity to which his Baptism pledged him and defiles his body, the temple of the Holy Spirit. 139 Prostitution is a social scourge. It usually involves women, but also men, children, and adolescents (The latter two cases involve the added sin of scandal.). While it is always gravely sinful to engage in prostitution, the imputability of the offense can be attenuated by destitution, blackmail, or social pressure.

Homosexual persons are called to Chastity. By the Virtues of Self-Mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.

Fidelity expresses constancy in keeping one's given word. God is faithful. the Sacrament of Matrimony enables man and woman to enter into Christ's fidelity for his Church. Through conjugal Chastity, they bear witness to this mystery before the world.

The sixth beatitude proclaims, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." 306 "Pure in heart" refers to those who have attuned their intellects and wills to the demands of God's holiness, chiefly in three areas: Charity; 307 Chastity or sexual rectitude; 308 love of truth and orthodoxy of faith. 309 There is a connection between Purity of Heart, of body, and of faith:

Baptism confers on its recipient the grace of purification from all sins. But the baptized must continue to struggle against concupiscence of the flesh and disordered desires. With God's grace he will prevail - by the Virtue and gift of Chastity, for chastity lets us love with upright and undivided heart; - by purity of intention which consists in seeking the true end of man: with simplicity of vision, the baptized person seeks to find and to fulfill God's will in everything; 312 - by purity of vision, external and internal; by discipline of feelings and imagination; by refusing all complicity in impure thoughts that incline us to turn aside from the path of God's commandments: "Appearance arouses yearning in fools"; 313 - by prayer:

Purity requires Modesty, an integral part of Temperance. Modesty protects the intimate center of the person. It means refusing to unveil what should remain hidden. It is ordered to Chastity to whose sensitivity it bears witness. It guides how one looks at others and behaves toward them in conformity with the dignity of persons and their solidarity.

"People should cultivate [Chastity] in the way that is suited to their state of life. Some profess Virginity or consecrated celibacy which enables them to give themselves to God alone with an undivided heart in a remarkable manner. Others live in the way prescribed for all by the moral law, whether they are married or single." 135 Married people are called to live conjugal chastity; others practice chastity in Continence:

All the baptized are called to Chastity. the Christian has "put on Christ," 134 The model for all chastity. All Christ's faithful are called to lead a chaste life in keeping with their particular states of life. At the moment of his Baptism, the Christian is pledged to lead his affective life in chastity.

The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. the tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: "Charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, Modesty, self-control, Chastity." 112

Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being. Sexuality, in which man's belonging to the bodily and biological world is expressed, becomes personal and truly human when it is integrated into the relationship of one person to another, in the complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman. The Virtue of chastity therefore involves the integrity of the person and the integrality of the gift.

Chastity includes an apprenticeship in Self-Mastery which is a training in human freedom. the alternative is clear: either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy. 125 "Man's dignity therefore requires him to act out of conscious and free choice, as moved and drawn in a personal way from within, and not by blind impulses in himself or by mere external constraint. Man gains such dignity when, ridding himself of all slavery to the passions, he presses forward to his goal by freely choosing what is good and, by his diligence and skill, effectively secures for himself the means suited to this end." 126

Whoever wants to remain faithful to his baptismal promises and resist temptations will want to adopt the means for doing so: self-knowledge, practice of an ascesis adapted to the situations that confront him, obedience to God's commandments, exercise of the moral Virtues, and fidelity to prayer. "Indeed it is through Chastity that we are gathered together and led back to the unity from which we were fragmented into multiplicity." 127

The Virtue of Chastity comes under the cardinal virtue of Temperance, which seeks to permeate the passions and appetites of the senses with reason.

Chastity has laws of growth which progress through stages marked by imperfection and too often by sin. "Man . . . day by day builds himself up through his many free decisions; and so he knows, loves, and accomplishes moral good by stages of growth." 129

Chastity represents an eminently personal task; it also involves a cultural effort, for there is "an interdependence between personal betterment and the improvement of society." 130 Chastity presupposes respect for the rights of the person, in particular the right to receive information and an education that respect the moral and spiritual dimensions of human life.

Chastity is a moral Virtue. It is also a gift from God, a grace, a fruit of spiritual effort. 131 The Holy Spirit enables one whom the water of Baptism has regenerated to imitate the purity of Christ. 132

Charity is the form of all the Virtues. Under its influence, Chastity appears as a school of the gift of the person. Self-Mastery is ordered to the gift of self. Chastity leads him who practices it to become a witness to his neighbor of God's fidelity and loving kindness.

The Virtue of Chastity blossoms in friendship. It shows the disciple how to follow and imitate him who has chosen us as his friends, 133 who has given himself totally to us and allows us to participate in his divine estate. Chastity is a promise of immortality. Chastity is expressed notably in friendship with one's neighbor. Whether it develops between persons of the same or opposite sex, friendship represents a great good for all. It leads to spiritual communion.