Part Three: Life in Christ › Section Two of Part Three: The Ten Commandments ›› CHAPTER 2: You Shall Love Your Neighbour ››› Article 6: The Sixth Commandment

› IN BRIEF

Questions and Answers

2373. What is the sixth commandment? (CCC 2331) The sixth commandment is: “You shall not commit adultery.”
2374. What is the OT locus classicus for the creation of man as male and female? (CCC 2331) The Old Testament locus classicus for the creation of man as male and female is Gen 1:27.
2375. What aspects of the human person does sexuality affect? (CCC 2332) Sexuality affects all aspects of the human person.
2376. Toward what is physical, moral and spiritual complementarity of man oriented? (CCC 2333) Physical, moral and spiritual complementarity of man is oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life.
2377. Why do man and woman have an equal personal dignity? (CCC 2334) Man and woman have an equal personal dignity, because both were created in the image and likeness of God.
2378. What realities does the sixth commandment encompass? (CCC 2336) The sixth commandment encompasses the whole of human sexuality.
2379. What is chastity? (CCC 2337) Chastity is the successful integration of sexuality within the person.
2380. How does sexuality become personal and truly human? (CCC 2337) Sexuality becomes personal and truly human, when it is integrated into the relationship of one person to another in marriage.
2381. What is self-mastery? (CCC 2339) Self-mastery is the ability of man to govern his passions.
2382. Why is self-mastery important? (CCC 2339) Self-mastery is important, because by governing his passions man finds peace.
2383. What are the five means for acquiring self-mastery? (CCC 2340) The five means for acquiring self-mastery are:
1. self-knowledge
2. ascesis
3. obedience to God’s commandments
4. exercise of the moral virtues
5. prayer.
2384. Under which cardinal virtue does chastity come? (CCC 2341) Chastity comes under the cardinal virtue of temperance, which seeks to permeate the passions and appetites of the senses with reason.
2385. How is self-mastery acquired? (CCC 2342) Self-mastery is acquired through long and exacting work and is never possessed once for all.
2386. Why does chastity involve a cultural effort? (CCC 2344) Chastity involves a cultural effort, because there is an interdependence between personal betterment and the improvement of society.
2387. What does it mean that chastity is a gift from God? (CCC 2345) That chastity is a gift from God means that the Holy Spirit enables one whom the water of Baptism has regenerated to imitate the purity of Christ.
2388. How does chastity influence behaviour toward one’s neighbour? (CCC 2346) Chastity influences behaviour toward one’s neighbour by turning the chaste person into a witness of God’s fidelity and loving kindness.
2389. What are the three forms of the virtue of chastity according to St Ambrose? (CCC 2349) According to St Ambrose (before AD 400) the three forms of the virtue of chastity are:
1. the chastity of spouses
2. the chastity of widows
3. the chastity of virgins.
2390. What kind of chastity must those engaged to marry live? (CCC 2350) Those engaged to marry must live chastity in continence reserving for marriage the expressions of affection that belong to married love.
2391. What are the most serious offences against chastity? (CCC 2351-2356) The most serious offences against chastity are lust, masturbation, fornication, pornography, prostitution, rape and homosexual practices.
2392. What is lust? (CCC 2351) Lust is either:
1. disordered desire for sexual pleasure or
2. inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure.
2393. When is sexual pleasure morally disordered? (CCC 2351) Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purposes.
2394. What is masturbation? (CCC 2352) Masturbation is the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure.
2395. Why is masturbation a grave sin? (CCC 2352) Masturbation is a grave sin, because it is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action.
The deliberate use of the sexual faculty outside of marriage, for whatever purpose, is essentially contrary to its purpose.
2396. What factors can lessen or even extenuate the moral culpability of masturbation? (CCC 2352) The factors that can lessen or even extenuate the moral culpability of masturbation are:
1. emotional immaturity
2. force of acquired habit
3. condition of anxiety
4. other psychological or social factors.
These four factors can lessen or even extenuate the moral culpability of any kind of sin (CCC 1860).
2397. What is fornication? (CCC 2353) Fornication is carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman.
2398. Why is fornication gravely contrary to the dignity of human sexuality? (CCC 2353) Fornication is gravely contrary to the dignity of human sexuality, because human sexuality is naturally ordered to the good of the spouses and the generation and education of children while fornication is not.
2399. What is pornography? (CCC 2354) Pornography is the removal of real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties.
Pornography immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world.
2400. How should the state deal with pornography? (CCC 2354) The state should deal with pornography by preventing its production and distribution.
2401. Why is prostitution a grave sin? (CCC 2355) Prostitution is a grave sin, because it:
1. does injury to the dignity of the person who is active in it
2. reduces the person to an instrument of sexual pleasure
3. defiles the body, the temple of the Holy Spirit.
2402. What is rape? (CCC 2356) Rape is the forcible violation of the sexual intimacy of another person.
2403. Why is rape a grave sin? (CCC 2356) Rape is a grave sin, because it:
1. does injury to justice and charity
2. deeply wounds the respect, freedom and physical and moral integrity of a person.
Graver still is the rape of children committed by parents or by educators.
2404. What is homosexuality? (CCC 2357) Homosexuality is an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex.
2405. How does the Bible value homosexual acts? (CCC 2357) The Bible values homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity.
2406. Why are homosexual acts intrinsically disordered? (CCC 2357) Homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered, because they:
1. are contrary to the natural law
2. close the sexual act to procreation
3. do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity.
2407. How should people behave who are tempted to commit homosexual acts? (CCC 2358-2359) People who are tempted to commit homosexual acts should:
1. unite to the sacrifice of the Cross the difficulties arising from such temptations
2. live a life in chastity
3. foster the virtues of self-mastery
4. engage in disinterested friendship, prayer and a sacramental life
5. gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.
2408. How is the love of husband and wife called? (CCC 2360) The love of husband and wife is called conjugal love.
2409. When only is sexuality realized in a truly human way? (CCC 2361) Sexuality is realized in a truly human way only if it is an integral part of the love by which a man and woman commit themselves totally to one another until death.
2410. How should the pleasure resulting from the generative function be enjoyed? (CCC 2362) The pleasure resulting from the generative function should be enjoyed as God’s gift in the limits of just moderation.
2411. What twofold end of marriage does the spouses’ union achieve? (CCC 2363) The spouses’ union achieves:
1. the good of the spouses
2. the transmission of life.
The conjugal love of man and woman stands therefore under the twofold obligation of fidelity and fecundity.
2412. How is the irrevocability of conjugal fidelity expressed in the Bible? (CCC 2364) The irrevocability of conjugal fidelity is expressed in the Bible in the words: “What God has joined together, let not man put asunder” (Mk 10).
2413. What does St John Chrysostom advise young husbands to say to their wives? (CCC 2365) St John Chrysostom advises young husbands to say to their wives: “I have taken you in my arms and I love you and I prefer you to my life itself.”
2414. What is the fundamental doctrine on the fecundity of the marriage act? (CCC 2366) The fundamental doctrine on the fecundity of the marriage act is that each and every marriage act must necessarily remain open per se to the procreation of human life.
2415. Why must each marriage act remain open to the procreation of human life? (CCC 2366) Each marriage act must remain open to the procreation of human life because of the inseparable connection between both the unitive and the procreative significance inherent to the marriage act.
2416. What is the mission proper to married couples? (CCC 2367) The mission proper to married couples is to transmit human life and to educate their children.
2417. What is regulation of births? (CCC 2368) Regulation of births is the couples’ effort to space the births of their children.
2418. When is regulation of births legitimate? (CCC 2368) Regulation of births is legitimate when it:
1. happens for just reasons
2. is not motivated by selfishness
3. conforms to the objective criteria of morality.
Objective criteria of morality are drawn from the nature of the person and his acts.
2419. What method of birth regulation is conformed to the moral law? (CCC 2370) The method of birth regulation conformed to the moral law is periodic continence.
Periodic continence can be based on self-observation and the use of infertile periods.
2420. What methods of birth regulation are intrinsically evil? (CCC 2370) The methods of birth regulation are intrinsically evil that alter the conjugal act in itself in order to render procreation impossible.
2421. How may the state intervene to regulate its demography? (CCC 2372) The state may intervene to regulate its demography by means of objective and respectful information, but certainly not by authoritarian, coercive measures.
2422. Of what are large families a sign? (CCC 2373) Large families are a sign of God’s blessing and the parents’ generosity.
2423. On what condition is research aimed at reducing human sterility to be encouraged? (CCC 2375) Research aimed at reducing human sterility is to be encouraged, on condition that it is placed at the service of the rights and the good of the human person.
2424. What is heterologous artificial insemination and fertilization? (CCC 2376) Heterologous artificial insemination and fertilization is a technique aimed at reducing human sterility entailing the dissociation of husband and wife by the intrusion of a third person as the donor of sperm, ovum or of a surrogate uterus.
2425. Why is heterologous artificial insemination and fertilization gravely immoral? (CCC 2376) Heterologous artificial insemination and fertilization is gravely immoral, because it infringes the child’s right to be born of a father and mother that are known to him and bound to each other by marriage.
2426. What is homologous artificial insemination and fertilization? (CCC 2377) Homologous artificial insemination and fertilization is a technique aimed at reducing human sterility involving only the married couple but dissociating the sexual from the procreative act.
2427. Why is homologous artificial insemination and fertilization immoral? (CCC 2377) Homologous artificial insemination and fertilization is immoral because it infringes the child’s right to be born as the fruit of the conjugal act and instead makes it to be the result of some technological operation.
2428. Why can there not be a right to a child? (CCC 2378) There cannot be a right to a child, because a child:
1. is not something owed to one, but a gift
2. may not be considered a piece of property.
2429. What can spouses do who suffer from infertility that cannot be healed? (CCC 2379) Spouses that suffer from infertility that cannot be healed can:
1. unite themselves with the Lord’s Cross, the source of all spiritual fecundity
2. give expression to their generosity by adopting abandoned children
3. perform demanding services for others.
2430. What are the main offences against the dignity of marriage? (CCC 2380-2391) The main offences against the dignity of marriage are adultery, divorce, polygamy, incest and the so-called “free union” and “trial marriage”.
2431. What is adultery? (CCC 2380) Adultery is marital infidelity.
2432. Why is adultery a grave sin and injustice? (CCC 2381) Adultery is a grave sin and injustice, because the adulterer:
1. fails in his commitment
2. does injury to the marriage bond
3. transgresses the rights of the other spouse
4. undermines the institution of marriage by breaking the marital contract
5. compromises the good of human generation and the welfare of children.
2433. What marriage cannot be dissolved? (CCC 2382) A marriage (1) contracted between two baptised people, (2) ratified and (3) consummated, cannot be dissolved but by death.
2434. What does the term “indissoluble” mean when talking about a marriage? (CCC 2382) When talking about a marriage, the term “indissoluble” means that such a marriage cannot be dissolved by any human power or for any reason other than death.
2435. When can a separation of the spouses be legitimate? (CCC 2383) A separation of the spouses can be legitimate when:
1. the marriage bond is maintained
2. canon law is respected.
Canon law is the law of the Church.
2436. When does civil divorce not constitute a moral offence? (CCC 2383) Civil divorce does not constitute a moral offence when it remains the only way of ensuring:
1. certain legal rights
2. the care of the children or
3. the protection of inheritance.
2437. Why is divorce a grave offence against the natural law? (CCC 2384) Divorce is a grave offence against the natural law, because it:
1. claims to break the marriage contract to which the spouses freely consented
2. does injury to the covenant of salvation of which sacramental marriage is a sign.
2438. What is the moral situation of a civilly remarried spouse? (CCC 2384) The moral situation of a civilly remarried spouse is one of public and permanent adultery.
2439. How does divorce harm the family and society? (CCC 2385) Divorce harms the family and society by:
1. hurting the deserted spouse
2. traumatizing the children
3. its contagious effect, making it a plague on society.
2440. Does an innocent victim of a divorce contravene the moral law? (CCC 2386) An innocent victim of a divorce does not contravene the moral law as long as this person does not enter a new liaison.
2441. What is polygamy? (CCC 2387) Polygamy is cohabitation with more than one wife.
2442. Why is polygamy immoral? (CCC 2387) Polygamy is immoral, because it is contrary to the equal dignity of men and women who in matrimony give themselves with a love that is total, unique and exclusive.
2443. What is incest? (CCC 2388) Incest is intimate relations between those who are relatives or in-laws in a degree that prohibits their marriage.
2444. What sexual abuses are connected to incest? (CCC 2389) The sexual abuses connected to incest are lewd acts perpetrated by adults on children or adolescents entrusted to their care.
2445. What is a so-called “free union”? (CCC 2390) A so-called “free union” is cohabitation between a man and a woman who refuse to give juridical and public form to a liaison involving sexual intimacy.
The term “union”, in this context, is fallacious, because there cannot be union without a commitment to one another.
2446. Why are the so-called “free unions” immoral? (CCC 2390) The so-called “free unions” are immoral, because they:
1. offend against the dignity of marriage
2. destroy the very idea of the family
3. weaken the sense of fidelity
4. are contrary to the moral law.
2447. What is a so-called “trial marriage”? (CCC 2391) A so-called “trial marriage” is a “free union” where there is an intention of getting married later.
2448. Why are so-called “trial marriages” immoral? (CCC 2391) So-called “trial marriages” are immoral, because:
1. they can scarcely ensure mutual sincerity and fidelity
2. they cannot protect a union from inconstancy of desires or whim
3. human love demands a total and definitive commitment.