Celibacy vs. Chastity

Victoria's Secret and Mabelline Model, Adriana Lima, made Foxnews.com headlines this week in an article that describes her as "inspiring an emerging movement toward celibacy."

Well, sort of.

A UCLA student clarifies the terminology in her quote: "Thanks to Adriana, all my friends and I are advocating chastity."

Just for the record, I'd like to take a moment to clarify the difference between celibacy and chastity.

First of all, chastity is a virtue that we're all called to cultivate. Single people, dating people, married people, and those who have taken religious vows. Chastity Is for Everyone. To strive for a chaste life means that one is striving for purity of heart.

Now some people take vows of celibacy. The two most obvious types of people are those who are ordained as Catholic priests and those who takes vows as a Catholic nun. Those that are celibate completely abstain from sexual relations as part of their special vocation as a "religious."

The article notes, "Last year, Lima confessed to men’s mag GQ that she planned to stay away from bedroom buddies until her wedding night..."

Since Lima seems to intend on being married, it is doubtful that she is promoting celibacy per se.
Rather, she is promoting one of the sub-notions of a chaste life that includes waiting until you can fully give yourself in someone, thus waiting until marriage for sexual relations.

* * * And even then, true chastity must transcend the absence of the actual sex act and permeate every area of one's life. The pursuit of purity implies that one is also careful of how one presents oneself to the world and others. Models who bare-almost-it-all walk a glamorous road, but must beware of where the road leads.* * *