point — Vermeersch, On Chastity
I. On the Relative Difficulty of Observing Continence
Who observe continence more easily of themselves, and who with greater difficulty?
210. - For those who have abstained from sexual intercourse, the path of perfect chastity is usually much smoother than for married and widowed persons.
Physicians and anthropologists testify to this. "As Acton says, each year of voluntary abstinence makes chastity less hard, through the force of habit. On the contrary, it is much more difficult when it succeeds a more or less prolonged period of sexual activity, as is the case for widowers and widows, in imprisonment, and in long sea voyages" 1.
1 Dr. Francotte, De quelques points de morale sexuelle, etc., p. 22. Thus also is explained the manner in which excessive indulgence in lust has become customary in ports where seagoing ships put in.
Hence they also greatly condemn that most evil counsel by which someone might wish, in order to calm excessive concupiscence, to attempt the temporary use of a concubine.
The protection of noble love.
But when legitimate conjugal intercourse is in question, God Himself at the same time arouses a noble affection of love, in the constancy of which spouses and widowed persons can find protection against more vehement temptations. Nor are examples lacking of persons who, after they have experienced marriage, so devote themselves to the offspring born, or so preserve the dear memory of a lost spouse, that they reject other bonds, or even have professed the religious or priestly life and have led it unsullied.
For there is no difficulty which can or ought to deter a disciple of Christ.