Is Chastity Possible Today?

A Pastoral Letter to Young People from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Living chastity is no easy business in the sex-saturated culture of the contemporary West. Our sexuality and spirituality are linked intimately together. Chastity is the integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of men and women in their bodily and spiritual beings. Together they can see what love means to one another and express those feelings though their heart, faith and words to one another. If we have no control over our desires or passions, then we cannot be trusted in either the big or the small things. We will remain slaves of our own passions and weak in spirit. If we cannot say no, then our yes will mean nothing. Sexuality becomes personal and truly human when it is integrated into the relationship of one person to another, in the complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman. Pope John Paul II often said: "Only the chaste man and the chaste woman are capable of true love."