Article II: Discipline of Chastity

Necessity of discipline. Since the use of the generative faculty is reserved to spouses, and since in matrimony itself many circumstances impose perfect chastity, or at least abstinence from the complete venereal act, even through long intervals, the necessity of an education which prepares chaste and continent souls must be proclaimed universal. And that it is done so negligently or so confusedly is greatly to be grieved.

But a more general and a special preparation must be distinguished. Each must be solicitous concerning the body, concerning the sense, and concerning the mind.

To this pertain the arts to be commended: that they procure a body healthy, strong, immune from defects which stir the flesh; that they snatch incentives from the sense; that they strengthen the command of the will; that they fashion a soul noble, generous, imbued with humility and Christian piety. Therefore there are negative parts, which ward off carnal stimuli, such as certain physical defects, sensual sights, filthy speech, vain loves; and positive parts, which truly affect man toward purity. Let the body be exercised physically enough that an honorable weariness, after labor not useless or unpleasant, may anticipate temptations; let intellectual and spiritual food be given to the soul, especially Eucharistic refreshment.

— You ask here concerning the usefulness of revealing the mysteries of life. A question not a little disputed today, and examined by us rather fully in On Chastity, n. 186-201, seems able to be prudently solved by these conclusions.

1. Neither is natural ignorance to be destroyed of itself, nor is artificial ignorance to be procured. And such an explanation of sexual matters must be given, not one which increases, but one which lessens, solicitude about sexual matters. Therefore it must be graduated and, insofar as can be done, accommodated to the curiosity or necessity of individuals.

2. That we may propose a few things concerning its individual parts: the explanation of sexual perversions is useless for the profane and easily harmful, at least for the phantasy of women. Nor does it help to explain venereal diseases before the age at which illicit commerce with the other sex is to be feared. There remains the process of generation with the connected phenomena. Concerning these, it seems that this must be said:

a) The revelation of the maternal office, of procreation from the flesh of the parent's body, of the long time during which, not without cares and inconveniences, the child is carried, then to be brought forth by laborious birth and nourished by maternal milk, does not excite the phantasy, and satisfies curiosity, since it furnishes an explanation which seems sufficiently adequate. Moreover it appears most efficacious for generating the very useful affection of piety. Wherefore to every son or daughter seriously asking, it can be given without inconvenience and with profit;

b) The mother should not hesitate to give the true reason of the menstrual flow which the daughter has experienced. But when a son asks about nocturnal pollution, either parent should say that it is natural. And the son is to be preserved from fear of disease, which is wont to depress the soul not a little. Having gained this occasion, parents will repeat admonitions that, even for preserving his forces intact, he should abstain from touches that are not very modest, and that if he should have any doubts about these things, he should ask either parents or confessors;

c) As regards sins, the confessor by prudent questioning or by the very indications of accusation, and parents by direct observation, must, as it were, accompany the pubescent child. If some suspicion of depraved touch or of a troubled conscience rightly arises, let them give him courage to manifest doubts, and admonish him concerning the obligation of chastity. According to the disposition and age of the child, they will see whether or not the intrinsic reason of the sin must already be explained;

d) After the completion of humane studies, a fuller notion concerning human generation seems generally to be given even spontaneously to those who are ignorant. The chaste young man is then at that age at which, his powers having been strengthened, that knowledge can be said to be harmless, while childish curiosity would easily suggest an attempt at experience, and at which it is fitting that he learn to pursue virtue with deliberate mind. Care must also be taken lest a chaste adolescent incautiously run into dangers, or be ridiculed on account of ingenuous and candid words, and thus be forced to act more timidly with companions, nor be able to unfold a manly spirit.

For girls also who, as they say, are preparing to enter the world, it is generally to be desired that, whether by the mother or by another trusted person, they be taught clearly concerning human generation. Moreover, it is very useful that, unless they have been given a higher vocation, they hear, even expressly, lectures in a higher school concerning the end, burdens, and sanctity of legitimate love. For not a few spend days in futile things, indeed in vain dreams and in dangerous friendships; others, modest and fearful in a childish way, others freer by inconsiderate familiarity, are seen; they begin to burn with imprudent love toward young men not very worthy, ignorant of obligations which perhaps they would have repudiated, ignorant of their rights, ignorant of the manner by which they may bear the yoke worthily and opportunely at the same time. Thence marriages are contracted which give modest hope of a blessed and Christian life. If a school is lacking, let books be supplied which explain the ends, dignity, rights, and duties of Christian marriage chastely and clearly¹.

3. It is sufficiently agreed that one must abstain from lies and that silly fables by which children are deceived are to be rejected.

4. As regards the method to be employed: a) certainly, concerning the merit and excellence of chastity, concerning the detriments of impurity, both physical and moral, let there be strong speaking, even openly in the school itself, in a sermon, in explaining catechism, or on another occasion seized. But with all Catholics and most prudent writers, we disapprove of a collective or common exposition of sexual matters in elementary and middle-grade schools of itself: both because that instruction cannot be adapted enough to the variety of pupils, and because it almost invites the pupils to discuss these things among themselves after school; b) private information, however, belongs to parents and to the director of the soul. Let no one else do this without the consent of the parents. But let private information be brief, simple, without apparatus, and let it avoid a form which would suggest phantasms less chaste. (Cf. at the end of the treatise n. 136). c) As regards vulgar adolescents, who are wont to be ignorant of nothing, these, even openly, in schools or patronages, are to be led on to considering higher things. Let them know how to flee depraved companions according to their powers, and let the good grow accustomed, by positive alliances, to aid the good and strengthen the fragile. Those who are found ignorant of these matters seem to be instructed.

This is the sum. For enlightening the mind, for deterring from dishonesty, for exciting the love of chastity, many things can be handed down openly, even in boys' schools. But the culture of chastity nowhere commands or suggests a public declaration of the mysteries of life, at least as regards the nature of carnal commerce and human generation. Nor do we place the hope of purity in revelation itself, as such, but we admit it as a part, not the principal one, of rightly understood sexual pedagogy, which proposes to assist adolescents by a more ordered method, so that more than now may arrive at mature age without moral shipwreck; and we approve opportune indications which: a) prevent the revelations of evil counselors; b) prevent young persons from carrying a soul troubled by physiological phenomena; c) turn those more exposed and more mature away from illicit commerce; d) summon marriageable girls away from the dissipation of trifles and dangers; e) introduce between parents and children a stronger bond of confidence and love; f) render conscious virtue stronger, and procure a better understanding of the dignity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the benefit of the Incarnation.

¹ To us the little book written by Françoise Harmel seems to be recommended: Une grave question de l'éducation des jeunes filles: La chasteté, Paris, 1921.

I. 1. Chastity, an acquired virtue, under the genus of temperance, inclines man to moderate the sexual appetite according to the laws of reason.

It is distinguished, not formally but materially, into matrimonial and extra-conjugal chastity; and, in a person who is loosed from the bond, it is brought to perfection by the purpose of complete abstinence, especially if he pursues angelic immunity.

2. Continence is either the pursuit of perfect chastity, or the persevering will of chastity in difficulty.

3. To chastity by defect is opposed insensibility, which declines the due use of venereal things; but by excess, lust, which is the inordinate appetite of venereal delight. Lust can be complete, or perfect, and incomplete, or imperfect. Perfect lust is distinguished into natural and unnatural. But imperfect lust has interior and exterior acts. Moreover every lust can be directly willed or merely permitted.

II. 1. The discipline of chastity, both the more general and the special, must be solicitous concerning the body, concerning the sense, and concerning the mind; it has negative parts, which ward off the stimuli of the flesh, and positive parts, which truly affect man toward purity.

2. To sexual pedagogy belongs a prudent revelation of the mysteries of life, not collective, but given or offered individually according to opportunity and necessity. Natural ignorance is not to be destroyed, nor is artificial ignorance to be procured. But in knowledge of the maternal office there is no slight usefulness for increasing an affection of piety toward the mother; just as there is to be dispelled the timidity or fear which the natural phenomena of the menstrual flow or nocturnal pollution are wont to beget in the ignorant. Care must also be taken that adult girls, by knowledge of their noble vocation, be called away from futile pursuits and loves.