Promotion of Chastity

22. We take this opportunity to address those who are engaged in education and all those whose right and duty it is to provide for the common good of human society. We would call their attention to the need to create an atmosphere favorable to the growth of chastity so that true liberty may prevail over license and the norms of the moral law may be fully safeguarded.

Everything therefore in the modern means of social communication which arouses men's baser passions and encourages low moral standards, as well as every obscenity in the written word and every form of indecency on the stage and screen, should be condemned publicly and unanimously by all those who have at heart the advance of civilization and the safeguarding of the outstanding values of the human spirit. It is quite absurd to defend this kind of depravity in the name of art or culture (25) or by pleading the liberty which may be allowed in this field by the public authorities.

The first half of the Pope's statement is directed towards educators. In a relatively ambiguous, broad terminology, it implores the upholding of moral law, the safeguarding of chastity, within the academic system. Although not explicitly outlined, the Pope's message is one of opposition against sex education, more specifically relating to methods of contraception deemed abnormal by the Catholic church. The latter half of his statement ups the ante, and calls out society as a whole, commanding the condemnation of "ever obscenity in the written word and every form of indecency on the stage and screen". Sexual misconduct, by the definition of the Catholic church, is the undercurrent both halves of the Pope's writings share.

There are many problems that arise from the Pope's archaic stance on matter of sexual conduct. Although preaching abstinence, or refraining from sexual education at all may in practice seem like a viable course of action for reducing undesirable sexual behavior, the reality of impressing cold turkey practices upon hormone crazed adolescents doesn't bode well in the real world. In a battle between the devices of instinct and rhetoric spawned from the sentiment of ages long past, nature proves overwhelmingly victorious. Adding to the challenges the church faces in selling its brand of sex ed is the natural defiance inherent in all humans, perhaps more so in the young. We are much more inclined to partake and imbibe in what has been explicitly forbidden. For evidence, look no further than the struggles American youth face with alcohol consumption in relation to their global counterparts, even though the underage consumption of alcohol here is outlawed, it is more prevalent here than anywhere. The same problem arises with the outright condemnation of supposed moral indecency within society. Blanketing the entire sphere of media with fire and brimstone is a counterproductive gesture, one that off puts and deters many from the message the church would like to send. The absurdity the church attributes to art and culture touched by its definition of moral impurity delves into a subjective gray area that it would do well to avoid. Much safer, and more beneficial to society and parties involved, is the appropriate instruction for contraceptive use, and a more liberal and welcoming outlook on an ever advancing world that it refuses to keep pace with.