Friday, August 26, 2011

John Paul II on the natural purity of women

From Love and Responsibility, pp. 176-177:

Since sensuality, which is oriented towards 'the body as an object of enjoyment' is in general stronger and more importunate in men, modesty and shame - the tendency to conceal sexual values specifically connected with the body - must be more pronounced in girls and women.  At the same time they are less aware of sensuality and its natural orientation in men, because in them emotion is usually stronger than sensuality, and sensuality tends to be latent in emotion.  This is why woman is often said to be 'purer' than man.  This tells us nothing about the virtue of chastity.  Woman is purer in as much as she experiences more powerfully the value of 'a human being of the other sex', the value of a sort of psychological 'masculinity'.

Too true - that sums up the psychological difference between men and women right there.  Bless the Lord for creating women!

(Karol Wojtyla, Love and Responsibility,  San Francisco: Ignatius Press 1993, pp. 176-177)

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