Article I. On Safeguarding Purity Outside the Married State

202. - Purity is to be preserved by the same practices by which it is generated.

Therefore, for the celibate man who, whether by his own choice or compelled by necessity, must observe perfect chastity, these things are chiefly to be provided:

1. A sincere and firm will to seek no venereal pleasure directly or indirectly;

2. Such strength of soul as is equal to sustaining danger profitably, so that he need not timidly decline anything that befits his person, his duty, or his state;

3. Humble modesty joined to that strength, which of its own accord rejects things that are indecorous and insufficiently modest;

4. Prudence for averting those things by which venereal desires are inflamed.

But these things are: every intemperance of food, drink, and sleep; indeed, considerable use of intoxicating drink (alcohol); every sensible friendship which imitates sexual love; suspicious curiosity in reading lascivious books and in viewing lubricious things or spectacles; every lustful conversation, indeed even one which treats of indecorous or sordid matters.

For all agree unanimously that erotic incitements are to be fled by a celibate man.

"The life of luxury and pleasure to excess, such as it is practiced on so great a scale, leaves the young man defenseless against the impulses and seductions which lie in wait for his purity, a noble virtue which Christianity taught and realized, but by entirely opposite means. To permit the adolescent and the young man to see everything, hear everything, read everything, and grow soft amid the pleasures of the table, instead of laboring to acquire that noble endurance which labor, sobriety, and the wise government of all his senses confer, is to awaken lightheartedly the organic excitations and stimulations to which he will succumb.

One complains that chastity is impossible, and one does everything to prepare it to founder" ¹.

¹ Dr. Warlomont, Annales de la Société scientifique de Bruxelles, 1906-1907, Supplement, discussion of the report of Dr. Francotte, De quelques points de morale sexuelle, etc., p. 44.

5. He who wishes to lead a life that is at once Christian and consistent with himself will renounce the worldly spirit under a more universal rationale. Let the most true maxim adhere deeply in his mind, that the spirit of Christ cannot be reconciled with the spirit of the world. Christ says, "Take up the cross," but the world, "Let us crown ourselves with roses" ²; Christ commands us to do good, but the world commands us to seek pleasure. How can these things be joined with one another?

² Wisdom 2:8.

Wherefore neither dances nor the theatrical performances of theaters will be approved and accepted by a Christian.

203. - Not dances. For everywhere, among barbarous nations and civilized peoples, dances, unless they strictly represent warlike actions, express or imitate amatory deeds, for example the pursuit by which the male follows the female. And although dances are also performed among us which contain no fiction, pairs of dancers composed of both sexes are accustomed to display an amatory signification ³.

³ Moll, Handbuch, etc., p. 585.

And everywhere at least, even if this signification is absent or is not attended to, all things arising from the clothing, contact, and festive display dispose a person toward sensual emotions.

Wherefore, insofar as his social condition permits it, the true Christian abstains from these things and disengages himself from them.

Nor will he judge dances necessary so that daughters can be given in marriage. For how many daughters abstaining from dances have been placed in the most honorable families; how many others, on the contrary, assiduous at dances, have in vain called for a bridegroom with their wishes! But are dances happy auspices of marriage? I would not think so, nor does common sense appear to judge so, since there is a proverb: "The best things are found by buyers outside the market."

By these words, however, we do not deny that in certain places there are innocent and harmless dances, such as Berardi describes in his Praxis confessariorum.

204. - Nor can the public theatrical performances of theaters be loved by a Christian. For whether you consider the plots of most plays, the dances joined to them, the almost necessary or at least exceedingly frequent corruption of the girls who employ their labor in them, or the associations and pursuits of those who frequent the spectacles, must they not be pronounced most alien to the evangelical spirit?

Will you say that they are necessary to civilized life? How, then, are they found only in the larger cities? Is it not repugnant to the democratic pursuits of the present age that you should call necessary things which are inaccessible to most persons and from which the honorable common people are excluded?

Therefore, the frequent presence of Catholics in present-day public theaters is to be dissuaded. That presence which is occasionally chosen by way of recreation is to be tolerated. The fervor of piety, however, will abstain from recreation of this kind.

Only that presence is to be commended which a special utility or the decorum of one's state can require; in such circumstances, let Catholics learn to act both fearlessly and honorably.

205. - But counsels for fostering chastity will be promoted especially by an apostolic spirit, by which we wish both to devote ourselves to good works and to restore chastity itself to others or inculcate it more deeply. He who has brought the love of purity all the way to the apostolate will easily be chaste; he will enjoy an upright mind and, what must be added, he will possess a happy chastity.

Therefore, let us not hesitate to commend pursuits of this kind. Let us demonstrate that a life devoted to Christ and good works is not the singular vocation of a few, but the common vocation of Christians. For in every way we ought to foster that which they call the "sublimation" of souls. Cf. also no. 219.