反駁關於守貞之謬論 （Sacra Virginitas 31-41）

 ３１童貞高於婚姻，乃救主基督和保祿宗徒所講的道理；脫利騰公會曾宣佈這為信德的道理；教父和聖師們亦一口同音聲明這點。吾人前任諸教宗及吾人本身亦不時對這道理加以闡述和推崇。可是，近來竟有人攻擊教會這端傳統的真理。這對信友是非常不利而危險的。吾人以職責所在，認為應當再度肯定這點，并將似是而非的謬論予以揭穿和駁斥。

童貞無損健康及人格平衡

 ３２現代有人以為性慾乃人生最強烈的本能，以為如果人終身抑制性慾，則將嚴重危及健康，尤其神經健康，并使人格失卻平衡。這說辭，依照正直人們的看法是錯誤的；而這些正直人們的公共意見，乃教會極端尊重的。(16)

 ３３根據聖多瑪斯，入人最深的傾向是生存慾，生殖本能則居第二位。人的特點是理智，理智應駕馭并馴服這些衝動和本能，使之處於理智控制之下，而成為較高貴的。（Summa Theol. II-II,q.94,A.2）

   ３４固然，自原祖犯命後，官能和情慾的失常，不唯貽害肉體而且波及心靈，使人理智昏暗，意志薄弱。但基督所以建立聖事，賜人聖寵，目的就為了使人生活於精神而使肉體成為奴隸（迦、五、二五；格前、九、二七）。潔德并非要人不感到肉慾的衝動，祇要人將它屈服在正當理智和聖寵的法律之下。這正是信友生活的可貴處。

   ３５為使心神完全控制肉體，不唯應戒絕直接違反潔德的行為，即與潔德間接衝突的一切，亦應慷慨放棄。唯有如此，心神才算征服了情感，才能平安而自由地度其神修生活。凡依公教原則看事者，誰都見到成全的潔德和童貞不唯不妨礙男女人格的發展，而且特別有助於人格的養成，并提高本性的地位。(17)

童貞雖非聖事卻高於婚姻

 ３６不久前，吾人曾以悲憤的心情批駁了這種人的論調。他們揚言：只有婚姻能維持人格的發展和成熟 (AAS.XLIV,1962,P.824)。某些曾肯定婚姻聖事所給的事效聖寵，使婚姻的運用較諸童貞更能有效地使人的心神結合天主；理由是：婚姻是聖事，而童貞卻非聖事(18)。吾人宣佈這道理是虛妄而有害的。誠然，這聖事所畀予的聖寵，能使夫妻善盡其職責，并鞏固其夫妻愛；但這聖事決未將婚姻的運用本身，變成夫妻同天主結合的更有效工具 (AAS.XXXVI, 1944, P.103) 。聖保祿不曾認可夫妻有權利暫時分房以專務祈禱（格前、七、五），因為分房使人心神更便利於默想天上事理而善行祈禱嗎？(19)

童貞者并不孤獨無援

 ３７亦不得說，夫妻在婚姻內享有的互助，比童貞的孤立更為有利於修德成聖。因為雖說度成全的潔德生活者已放棄了夫妻愛，但決不能說因缺乏這愛，他們的人格便遭到削弱斲喪。他們由賜恩之主天主手裡接用了某種神恩，這神恩較諸夫妻的互助強似萬倍。他們既獻身與其本原天主，天主既將自己本性的生命分傳與他們，他們豈單不受到虧損，而且大受補益。誰人比童貞者更能把保祿宗徒所說：「我生活不是我生活，而是基督在我內生活」的話貼合在自己身上呢？(20)（迦、二、二Ｏ）

   ３８故此，教會主張；司鐸的獨身生活應加以維持；這主張是極明智的。教會深知獨身生活是聖寵的泉源，能使司鐸更親密地同天主結合。

結婚不比童貞更有裨與教會

   ３９還有一種錯誤，吾人認為必須在此處提及。若干人為阻止青年男女晉鐸入會，設法以下面的理由來影響青年的思想；他們說，教會固然需要誓守童貞聖願井與世俗隔離的司鐸、修士、修女們的輔助，但更需要在世俗裡同別人共同生活的結婚者來樹立德表。可敬神昆，誰都看到這種論調是完全虛偽而又為害無窮的。

   ４０吾人決不否認，公教夫妻以其德表，在其所在地區和情況下，能產生碩大的神果，但如有人因此而認為婚姻比將自身全部奉獻與天主攻為優越，則絕對是輕重顛倒了。可敬神昆，吾人固然熱誠希望已經結婚或準備結婚者，深切明了自己有嚴重義務，不唯妥善教養所有或將有的子女，而且應以善言善表努力幫助他人。吾人以職責所在不得不批駁者，是圖謀勸阻青年入修院、進修會、發聖願者的謬論。他們說，青年若結婚生子，以其公開的德表更能多行善事。他們如果竭盡所能除勸說結婚者參加并大力推動非神職人員的宗徒事業外，不阻止有意獻身與天主的青年（不幸，現代祇有很少的這種青年）接用童貞生活，則他們的作為要更適宜而正直。聖盎博羅削說：「司鐸的職責是播散成全的種籽和激發童貞的願望。」(S.Ambros.De virginitate, c.5,n.26;P.L.XVI,272) (21)

童貞者井不與社會脫節

 ４１故此，吾人聲明；凡說誓守童貞者等於同社會脫離關係者的論調，是絕對失真的。獻身於服事貧病者－不分種族、地位、宗教的貧病者的修女們，她們同情貧病者的悽涼和痛苦，與他們同苦同憂，不真像貧病者的母親嗎？同樣，效法基督的司鐸，盡著為人牧的職責，難道他們不認識自己的神羊，并按著名字呼喚他們每一個嗎？（若、一Ｏ、一四；、一Ｏ、三）。這些司鐸、修士、修女之所以能為眾人服務，并以基督聖愛泛愛眾人的理由，正因為他們所度的是成全的潔德生活。同時，那些度隱修生活著，更有功與教會，因為他們不獨為救人而奉獻其祈禱，且將整個自己作為犧牲獻給天主。何況他們在現代情況下，既依照吾人在「Sponsa Christi」文告裡所頒佈的規律獻身傳教工作，他們便應當特別為人所讚揚(AAS.XLIII,1951,P.20)。他們既以雙重方式為人靈魂的利益而工作，則決不能說他們與社會脫節。(22)

1. The greatest glory of virgins is undoubtedly to be the living images of the perfect integrity of the union between the Church and her divine Spouse. For this society founded by Christ it is a profound joy that virgins should be the marvelous sign of its sanctity and fecundity, as St. Cyprian so well expressed it: "They are the flower of the Church, the beauty and ornament of spiritual grace, a subject of joy, a perfect and unsullied homage of praise and honor, the image of God corresponding to the sanctity of the Lord, the most illustrious portion of Christ's flock. In them the glorious fecundity of our mother, the Church, finds expression and she rejoices; the more the number of virgins increases, the greater is this mother's joy."[56]

32. This doctrine of the excellence of virginity and of celibacy and of their superiority over the married state was, as We have already said, revealed by our Divine Redeemer and by the Apostle of the Gentiles; so too, it was solemnly defined as a dogma of divine faith by the holy council of Trent,[57] and explained in the same way by all the holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church. Finally, We and Our Predecessors have often expounded it and earnestly advocated it whenever occasion offered. But recent attacks on this traditional doctrine of the Church, the danger they constitute, and the harm they do to the souls of the faithful lead Us, in fulfillment of the duties of Our charge, to take up the matter once again in this Encyclical Letter, and to reprove these errors which are so often propounded under a specious appearance of truth.

33. First of all, it is against common sense, which the Church always holds in esteem, to consider the sexual instinct as the most important and the deepest of human tendencies, and to conclude from this that man cannot restrain it for his whole life without danger to his vital nervous system, and consequently without injuring the harmony of his personality.

34. As St. Thomas very rightly observes, the deepest natural instinct is the instinct of conversation; the sexual instinct comes second. In addition, it is for the rational inclination, which is the

distinguishing privilege of our nature, to regulate these fundamental instincts and by dominating to ennoble them.[58]

35. It is, alas, true that the sin of Adam has caused a deep disturbance in our corporal faculties and our passions, so that they wish to gain control of the life of the senses and even of the spirit, obscuring our reason and weakening our will. But Christ's grace is given us, especially by the sacraments, to help us to keep our bodies in subjection and to live by the spirit.[59] The virtue of chastity does not mean that we are insensible to the urge of concupiscence, but that we subordinate it to reason and the law of grace, by striving wholeheartedly after what is noblest in human and Christian life.

36. In order to acquire this perfect mastery of the spirit over the senses, it is not enough to refrain from acts directly contrary to chastity, but it is necessary also generously to renounce anything that may offend this virtue nearly or remotely; at such a price will the soul be able to reign fully over the body and lead its spiritual life in peace and liberty. Who then does not see, in the light of Catholic principles, that perfect chastity and virginity, far from harming the normal unfolding of man or woman, on the contrary endow them with the highest moral nobility.

37. We have recently with sorrow censured the opinion of those who contend that marriage is the only means of assuring the natural development and perfection of the human personality.[60] For there are those who maintain that the grace of the sacrament, conferred ex opere operato, renders the use of marriage so holy as to be a fitter instrument than virginity for uniting souls with God; for marriage is a sacrament, but not virginity. We denounce this doctrine as a dangerous error. Certainly, the sacrament grants the married couple the grace to accomplish holily the duties of their married state, and it strengthens the bonds of mutual affection that unite them; but the purpose of its institution was not to make the employment of marriage the means, most suitable in itself, for uniting the souls of the husband and wife with God by the bonds of charity.[61]

38. Or rather does not the Apostle Paul admit that they have the right of abstaining for a time from the use of marriage, so that they may be more free for prayer,[62] precisely because such abstinence gives greater freedom to the soul which wishes to give itself over to spiritual thoughts and prayer to God?

39. Finally, it may not be asserted, as some do, that the "mutual help,"[63] which is sought in Christian Marriage, is a more effective aid in striving for personal sanctity than the solitude of the heart, as they term it, of virgins and celibates. For although all those who have embraced a life of perfect chastity have deprived themselves of the expression of human love permitted in the married state, nonetheless it cannot thereby be affirmed that because of this privation they have diminished and despoiled the human personality. For they receive from the Giver of heavenly gifts something spiritual which far exceeds that "mutual help" which husband and wife confer on each other. They consecrate themselves to Him Who is their source, and Who shares with them His divine life, and thus personality suffers no loss, but gains immensely. For who, more than the virgin, can apply to himself that marvelous phrase of the Apostle Paul: "I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me."[64]

40. For this reason the Church has most wisely held that the celibacy of her priests must be retained; she knows it is and will be a source of spiritual graces by which they will be ever more closely united with God.

41. We feel it opportune, moreover, to touch somewhat briefly here on the error of those who, in order to turn boys and girls away from Seminaries and Religious Institutes, strive to impress upon their minds that the Church today has a greater need of the help and of the profession of Christian virtue on the part of those who, united in marriage, lead a life together with others in the world, than of priest and consecrated virgins, who, because of their vow of chastity, are, as it were,

withdrawn from human society. No one can fail to see, Venerable Brothers, how utterly false and harmful is such an opinion.