Word of Life

Chastity is the joyous affirmation of someone who knows how to live self-giving, free from any form of self-centered slavery.  This presupposes that the person has learnt how to accept other people, to relate with them, while respecting their dignity in diversity. The chaste person is not selfcentered, not involved in selfish relationships with other people.  Chastity makes the personality harmonious.  It matures it and fills it with innerpeace.  This purity of mind and body helps develop true self-respect and at the same time makes one capable of respecting others, because it makes one see in them persons to reverence, insofar as they are created in the image of God and through grace are children of God, re-created by Christ. …

—Pontifical Council for the Family, “The Truthand Meaning of Human Sexuality,” December 8, 1995

Prepared by the USCCB Secretariat of Pro-life Activities, 2008