The Church recognizes that Judeo-Christian Society has always been concerned with the morality of sexual choices and behaviors. Through the centuries those concerns have been guided and informed by Scripture, and by authoritative decisions made by the communities of faith. For many centuries, the moral attitudes and actions of people in Western civilization have been strongly influenced by Christianity. The Church continues to recommend that adolescents and young adults should actively experience social and personal relationships while doing their best to defer genital sexuality, maintaining continence until they are ready to make mature choices and decisions about committed lifelong relationships, and to take on adult responsibilities. The Church continues to regard promiscuous sexual activity as inherently degrading, demeaning, potentially abusive, productive of unwanted pregnancies, and dangerous to public health.
Contemporary culture includes a widespread pattern of lighthearted hedonistic recreational sex.
The Church disapproves of such activity. Some individuals find themselves called to celibacy, which is a voluntary commitment, usually lifelong, to forgo marriage or any similar relationship. It is understood to require sexual continence in order to direct all energies toward the single minded love and service of God. The Church takes a positive attitude toward genuine celibacy. However, the Church has become aware that there are situations in which an individual appears to be celibate, but is actually being controlled by neurotic fear of intimacy or sexuality, or is being driven by a paraphilia.