Section Two: On the Cultivation of Chastity

168. - It is not enough to dispute concerning the virtue of chastity and the sins contrary to it unless we inquire at the same time into the manner in which the virtue can be cultivated and strengthened, while the sins can be avoided or amended.

But in sexual matters a spectacle truly to be deplored is presented to human eyes.

In vain would we dissemble the most sorrowful facts by which the saying of the Old Testament already cited seems to be confirmed all too much: "My spirit shall not remain in man, because he is flesh" (Genesis 6:3).

And indeed:

1. In how many ways and with what incalculable frequency is the very sanctity of matrimony violated!

Whether, by a wicked crime, uses of matrimony are rendered sterile by art; or the faith solemnly pledged is broken and adulterous loves are fostered; or each spouse assents to the lust of the other and adulterous relations are admitted by mutual compact; or, when opportunity for legitimate use is lacking, a man is thought to be dispensed from continence as too difficult; or, impatient of the mutual bond, spouses attempt to dissolve it and to establish a sacrilegious bed: in every way sin is committed in the married state itself.

2. Who, then, can attain by speaking to the number, or to the various forms of sins, invented by a foul mind, which are committed outside matrimony?

It happens that from a tender age the law of morals is sometimes violated in many ways, so that there are some who hold the continence of a young man who is vigorous and abounding in strength to be fictitious.

3. It is useful to adduce these few, more definite indications from Protestant writers. Having heard many witnesses and comparing with one another the various investigations which have been made in America, England, and Germany, Havelock Ellis and Al- bert Moll ¹ estimate that more than 90 out of 100 men have indulged in masturbation at least at some time. The matter indeed seems to stand better in the female sex. The same authors nevertheless think that the abuse of the solitary vice before puberty occurs more often in a girl than in a boy; but after puberty, while youth is flourishing, young women are defiled less frequently than young men; while in adult age, since the opportunity of fornication is less frequently available to women, they hold it certain that the solitary sin is committed more frequently by women than by men.

¹ Cf. Moll, Handbuch, etc., pp. 618-619.

Nyström ² reports, according to Dr. Svenson (1896), that more than fifty out of one hundred young men who attend the universities of Sweden are affected by venereal disease.

² La vie sexuelle, p. 238.

On September 1, 1903, the Prussian "Minister of Worship" issued an edict in which, having considered the injuries which venereal diseases cause to health, and the manner in which, from probable documents, they seem to have invaded young students of the higher disciplines, he declares it greatly to be desired that those young men should be informed more broadly than before about these dangers and the means of averting them, the moral aspect of the question being in no way omitted. This would be obtained most efficaciously by brief, public, and common lectures, which would be entrusted to professors of medicine and suitable interpreters of philosophy or theology (cited in Moll, pp. 992-993).

These things can in no way be transferred to truly Catholic youth, especially if there is question of illicit relations with the other sex. But if there is question only of the vice of pollution voluntarily procured, the Catholic Dr. Capellmann ³ could write: "In the judgment of all, both theologians and physicians, this most pernicious crime has become frightfully prevalent, especially in our age.... Even the female sex is greatly infected by it."

³ Medicina pastoralis, on the sixth precept.

Although there is no doubt that not a few young people, indeed more than physicians think, and fervent ones at that, lead an unviolated life.

We have spoken of the lamentable condition of morals not with the intention that, with an excessively saddened countenance, we should judge human facts to be worse than they are (many who sometimes sin are nevertheless accustomed to conquer temptations afterward), and despair of the cause of chastity; but that we may prove and confirm the almost common opinion, which judges it to be in the interest of the state that we should think and deliberate concerning the art and method of amending morals; and that we should not proudly repel men of good will who write concerning the matter, attempt many things, and proclaim that the discipline of chastity must be perfected, as though Catholic families and schools had long ago cared for all these things in such a way that nothing better could be desired. But that we may endeavor to advance vigorously, besides the gravity of the evil, we are also moved by the various outrages by which, as we have seen, physicians or philosophers who rave audaciously today appeal to the very frailty of men in order to detract from the most sacred laws of matrimony and chastity and to thrust their counterfeit reform upon the imprudent. And it is greatly to be deplored that, even today, many are found among Catholic writers who, not yet having grasped the necessity of constant progress and paying too little attention to mutable circumstances, are so deceived by a false image of the preceding age that they seem to think of restoring ancient usages as though of the highest social good. On the contrary, a just estimation of things and greater prudence demand that we be neither despisers nor excessive praisers of past time.

169. - Now then, we must first inquire by what better manner a man is to be led from unconscious innocence to a conscious and formal love and cultivation of chastity. In this matter not even infancy can be neglected, but prudent solicitude is to be exercised from the cradle to fully mature age.

Then it will be necessary to treat of perseverance in virtue, or of the custody of chastity in the married state or in celibacy.

Nor can the question of the restoration of chastity among those who have fallen miserably be omitted.

Wherefore we shall propose the argument in this order, so that we may speak:

1. Of preparing a pure life, where there will be discussion of the utility and manner of explaining sexual matters to the ignorant;
2. Of leading, preserving, and strengthening a pure life;
3. Of restoring a pure life, or of the amendment of morals.