The Vows: Chastity

Chastity is the second vow made by religious.  Actually, all people are called to live in a chaste manner, and the issue is explained in detail by the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  Follow this link: http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a6.htm Chastity 

It is an idea that involves self-control, self-mastery, and right relations with others.  Just look at what sexual scandals have done to some prominent politicians, and you get the idea.  Yes, even married people must be chaste, and treat their partners with reverence and respect, not commit adultery, and so forth.   Consider what sins against chastity do to women, especially.  Women are made into chattel, into objects of lust and pleasure, and are not valued as whole persons.  Pornography is an example of the evil that results when chastity is thrown out the window.  Men who frequent brothels around the world sin against chastity, and the result is human trafficking and de facto slavery for many women.  On that note, many women's religious communities are working to free people who have been the victims of trafficking, and to stymie this horrendous practice.

Some young people have taken vows of virginity until marriage, and wear a chastity ring to show their commitment.  It is a positive rejection of media images of women who are perpetually tarted up like Vegas showgirls...little more than sex toys.  Chastity elevates the status of women, in particular, and preserves the dignity of men.

 For members of religious communities, chastity means that they will not marry, will of course refrain from all sexual union, and this leaves them free to be a brother or sister to everyone.  They are not bound in an exclusive relationship but can relate freely to their community with their time and resources, and reach out to the larger community.  Sins against chastity are, because of the vows, particulary egregious among the religious.  Observe how even non-Catholics are appalled at the sexual abuses of some priests.  Somehow, people expect more from a priest, who is supposed to lead us to goodness.  As it should be.

It is also a sort of asceticism, one that requires we channel our energies for the works of love to which our faith compels us.  Chastity calls us to a higher kind of love, a broader love.  Granted, the value of chastity is sometimes taken to extremes.  For example, a woman in Pakistan or some other Muslim countries can be the victim of an honor killing if she is unchaste, or worse yet the victim of a rape.  Chastity in some countries consigns women to walk about covered head to toe in burqas and abayas.  In Europe women had to wear chastity belts.  As in all things, the vows and virtues must be gentle burdens and viewed with an understanding eye.  We all stray from the right path, and it is with patience and gentle encouragement that we get back on it.