To all parents

Thank you for your great love and sacrifice! You are cherished by God the Father, from whom your fatherhood and motherhood is named. You are the first guardians and teachers of your children and are called to be their models of chaste and fruitful love. The Church is so grateful for you who form, protect, and guide the domestic Church. As they grow up, children secure in their parents’ love for each other and for them will have a distinct advantage in navigating the challenges of the world. Children have the right to receive “an authentic education in sexuality and in love,” which includes education in chastity.112 It is your great and crucial responsibility to teach your children the true meaning of human sexuality, enabling them to see its beauty as an expression of total love. Even from an early age, your children can learn self-control, modesty, and respect for others from your words and actions. Education in chastity also includes doing whatever you can to protect your children from pornography and helping them to reject it and other sexual sins as they mature. There are good resources to help you in this important task (see Appendix).

Parents and guardians, protect your home! Be vigilant about the technology you allow into your home and be sensitive to the prevalence of sexual content in even mainstream television and film and the ease by which it comes through the Internet and mobile devices. Educate yourselves about filtering software that can assist in protecting your home. Foster openness and trust with your children, so they know that they can come to you if they see a sexual image; by talking about it with them calmly, you can give them a healthy framework in which to interpret it. The Holy Spirit is your guide as you assess the situation of each child. None of us is perfect, and parents are the first to model the mercy and forgiveness that all families need. Rely on the Father’s mercy, especially if you face the difficult situation of a child who has seen or uses pornography. Many good families experience this; you are not alone, and the Church is here for you.

Grandparents, godparents, teachers, religious educators, youth ministers, and safe environment coordinators: parents have given you a responsibility to protect their children not only from physical dangers but also psychological, moral, and spiritual dangers. You can have a great influence on the children and youth entrusted to your care, and you can help equip parents with the resources they need to protect and teach their children. Children are vulnerable to all influences, good or bad. Create an environment suitable for learning chastity by modeling and teaching the chaste life. Be vigilant over technological access, and monitor it in age-appropriate ways. Young people should be taught that certain types of websites or programs are inappropriate and sinful. Be sure to explain the reasons why they are unacceptable.

To young people

You are loved and cherished by God and called to greatness! Christ calls you to be strong, courageous witnesses of chastity and hope. Adolescence and young adulthood can be a difficult and confusing time, and the desire for sexual intimacy can be strong. Show your friends and peers that chastity brings freedom and joy! It also lays the foundation for a happy, lasting marriage. Reject the lies of a culture that tells you that self-gratification is the road to happiness. Reject pressure to treat sexual activity as recreational. Refuse to objectify your body or someone else’s through sexual pictures or videos. God created you in his image, and the Church looks at you with compassion and love, no matter what others may think or say or do. Even more, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and you were made for greatness. If you have already engaged in pornography use, choose now to turn away from that road and toward true relationships, and seek the Lord’s forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Jesus loves you and gave his life for you. Do not be afraid to ask for help or guidance from your mother and father or from a trusted adult, family member, or pastoral minister, if you have grown up in an environment where pornography use regularly occurred, or if you were exposed to it at an early age.