Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: Due to the pandemic, we were unable to hold weekly classes for 22 tenth-grade Confirmation students, so we prepared a series of 14 lessons on the material, with a summary of each commandment and sacrament along with some questions to answer. It occurred to us that this material might be of interest to our readers, so we are passing the lessons along for whatever use you can find for them. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well, so please send them along and we will interrupt this series to answer them. See the postal mailing address and email address at the bottom of this column.

Special Course On Catholicism And Life — VI

The Sixth Commandment (“You shall not commit adultery”) forbids all misuse of God’s plan for sex, whether it be adultery, fornication, sex between members of the same sex, or masturbation. On the positive side, it upholds God’s plan as expressed in the first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis, where God invented marriage as the union of one man and one woman for life, and no one can redefine marriage as anything else. As a beautiful and noble gift of God that must be used in the right way, sex has two purposes — to bring new life into the world (life-giving) and to unite a husband and wife in a loving, faithful, and fruitful relationship (love-giving).
Since sex is about babies and bonding, anything that would contradict those goals is wrong and sinful. That includes contraception and sterilization (both forms of birth control), which prevent new life from coming into existence, adultery (sex between two people who are not married to each other), fornication (sex between people who are not married at all), homosexuality (sex between two men or two women), and masturbation (stimulation of one’s own genitals to achieve sexual pleasure).
Because our modern society has disregarded God’s plan for sex, we are suffering from the breakdown of family life (widespread divorce), sex trafficking, a million teenage pregnancies a year, nearly a million abortions a year, and an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases, such as AIDS. None of these problems would exist if people followed what God has planned for us. Nor would there be the problem of thinking that persons can reject the sex that God gave them and choose to call themselves a different sex (transgenderism). Confused people may choose to think that it’s good for men to call themselves women, or vice-versa, but that is not what God thinks.
We must practice the virtue of chastity, which means using our sexual powers according to God’s wise plan. Chastity is the only solution that places sexual intercourse in marriage where it belongs. It is 100 percent effective in preventing pregnancy, it doesn’t cost anything, it has no harmful side effects, and it will put you in control of your own life.
When people engage in immoral sex, they suffer physical, emotional, and spiritual harm. Physically, they might face pregnancy, which is often followed by abortion, or contract an STD. Emotionally, they face heartbreak and a feeling of being used by someone else when a relationship that they thought would last forever comes to an end. Spiritually, they face separation from God in this life and, if they do not repent of their sins, separation from Him forever in Hell. The good news is that God is always willing to forgive us if we are sincerely sorry for our sins. We must take advantage of the Sacrament of Penance or Confession to return to holiness.
The Ninth Commandment (“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife”) warns us against impure or lustful thoughts about sex. We must avoid pornography. It puts impure thoughts in our heads and cheapens sex by exploiting men and women and turning them into sex objects to be used rather than persons to be loved. We must avoid occasions of sin (persons, places, or things, such as pornography) because they can lead us into sinful actions. We must also practice the virtue of modesty, which means not dressing, talking, touching, or dancing in a sexual way that might lead another person into sin.
Purity is security and sexual self-control is possible if we respect our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit and seek the help of God, the Blessed Mother, and saints such as Maria Goretti, who was stabbed to death because she would not have sex with a young man. St. Maria Goretti, pray for us!

List Of Answers:

BLESSED MOTHER
CHASTITY
GORETTI
IMPURE
JESUS
LIFE-GIVING
LOVE-GIVING
MARRIAGE
MODESTY
NINTH
OCCASIONS
PENANCE
PORNOGRAPHY
SEX
SIXTH
TEMPLES

Quiz:

1.The terrible results of breaking the ______________and _______________ Commandments include the breakdown of family life, sexual abuse of children, millions of teenage pregnancies, millions of abortions, and an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases.

2. ________ is a beautiful and noble gift of God.
   3.Sex in God’s plan has two purposes: it is to be __________________________and ________________________________. It’s about babies and bonding.
3. God invented ______ as the union of one man and one woman for life.
4. ____________ means using our sexual powers according to God’s plan.
5. ______________ teaches that adultery, fornication, homosexuality, and masturbation are grave sins that separate us from Him.
6. If we fall into mortal sin, we have the Sacrament of ______________ or Confession to obtain God’s mercy and forgiveness.
7. St. Maria ________________________ gave up her life rather take part in a sexual sin.
8. __________________ of sin are persons, places, and things that lead to sin.
9. __________________ is evil because it cheapens sex and exploits men and women by treating them as objects to be used instead of as persons to be loved.
10. We must resist ________ thoughts lest they lead us to commit sins.
11. The virtue of ___________ has to do with how we talk, act, and dress.
12. Sexual self-control is possible with the help of God and the _____________.
13. We must respect our bodies as ________________ of the Holy Spirit.