Modesty is tecency. It inspires one’s choice of clothing. It keeps silence or reserve where there is evident risk of unhealthy curiosity. It is discreet. 23 There is a modesty of the feelings as well as of the body. It protests, for ample, against the voyeuristic explorations of the human body in certain 2354 vertisements, or against the solicitations of certain media that go too far in the ibition of intimate things. Modesty inspires a way of life which makes it ssible to resist the allurements of fashion and the pressures of prevailing ologies. 24 The forms taken by modesty vary from one culture to another. Every- here, however, modesty exists as an intuition of the spiritual dignity proper to an. It is born with the awakening consciousness of being a subject. Teaching desty to children and adolescents means awakening in them respect for the man person. 25 Christian purity requires a pur~fi cation of the social climate. It 2344 quires of the communications media that their presentations ow concern for respect and restraint. Purity of heart brings freem from widespread eroticism and avoids entertainment

dined to voyeurism and illusion. 26 So—called moral permissiveness rests on an erroneous concep n of human freedom; the necessary precondition for the devel- 1740 ment of true freedom is to let oneself be educated in the moral w. Those in charge of education can reasonably be expected to ye young people instruction respectful of the truth, the qualities the heart, and the moral and spiritual dignity of man. 27 ‘The Good News of Christ continually renews the life and 1204 ture of fallen man; it combats and removes the error and evil ich flow from the ever-present attraction of sin. It never ceases purify and elevate the morality of peoples. It takes the spiritual alities and endowments of every age and nation, and with ernatural riches it causes them to blossom, as it were, from thin; it fortifies, completes and restores them in Christ.’315


IN BRIEF

2528 ‘Every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart’ (Mt 5:28).


529 The ninth commandment warns against lust or carnal concupiscence.