Obviously, criminal allegations have to be proven, but apologies and obscure admissions of guilt show that the flames are spreading far and wide.

After Weinstein, other Hollywood figures, including Oscar winner Kevin Spacey, have been denounced for sexual harassment. And now the UK's Defence Minister has resigned after allegations of inappropriate behaviour surfaced.

We can expect more, much more, so we need to think about how to respond effectively to the maelstrom of sexual abuse. I suggest a three-stage therapy process.

The first is to acknowledge that the Sexual Revolution which began five decades ago in 1968 has been a disaster. It takes about 50 years for revolutions to fall apart.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 had run out of steam by the mid-60s. After 50 years, our Sexual Revolution is starting to disintegrate; free love has become sleazy sexual abuse.

They scoffed when Harvey Weinstein half-defended his appalling actions by saying that he grew up in the 70s. But perhaps Weinstein was right, in a way.

He may never have had a chance to learn how to behave properly with women.

The 70s was a decade of mass disruption of mutual respect between the sexes. In many environments, it was a free-for-all.

Married women had been using contraceptives since the early 60s, and their daughters thought that if it was good enough for mum, it was good enough for them.

Right and wrong disappeared. Hooking up, adultery and homosexual acts were acceptable if they were consensual.

Some feminists helped the cause by trying to outdo men in raunchiness. Some of them are still defending pornography. If you were a man or a boy, the expectation was that you would bed as many females as you could.

If you were a woman or girl, you were expected to get involved or at least not complain about it, regardless of the man's further intentions with respect to your life and well-being or any children you might conceive. Continue reading

• Martin Fitzgerald is a teacher at Redfield College, in Sydney.

First, he says we must really want to grow in this virtue. He notes how a famous Christian—when looking back at his life—realized that his prayer for chastity was really saying something like: "Oh Lord, make me chaste. But please don't do it just yet."

Of course, his reference here is to the great St. Augustine. Indeed, every saint has a past and every sinner a future. It's good to know about saints who struggled, since that can give us confidence that we, too, can overcome.

Second, Lewis notes that many never set out on this great battle for chastity because they assume from the outset that it's impossible to attain. This assumption deters us from really giving our all in this fight. We go in half-heartedly, accepting defeat before we even begin.

But as Lewis points out—with a great many things—we often surprise ourselves with what we can do when our backs are against the wall: "People quite often do what seemed impossible before they did it. It is wonderful what you can do when you have to."

We recognize the merits of not giving up in so many other areas (e.g., sports or school), but for some reason we assume that the moral and spiritual life should not call forth this same kind of effort. What would happen if we went after chastity and holiness with the same intensity and vigor as we hit the weight room or the track?

Thirdly, Lewis counsels that we must ask for God's help. Here Lewis is exceptionally insightful and strikes a chord in the spiritual tradition: we often wish that God would heal our vices and instantly empower us with heroic virtue; but perhaps if he did, we would fall into the even greater sin of pride.

"Very often," Lewis writes, "what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again." This process teaches us to depend upon God in a radical way—and this is the great secret to sanctity; indeed, this is the meaning of the first beatitude "Blessed are the poor in spirit."

The poor in spirit are humble and recognize their need for grace; in this way, they become soft clay, allowing God to work more fully in their lives. Continue reading

Sources

• Bible Study for Catholics, article by Dr Andrew Swafford, Associate Professor of Theology at Benedictine College, who lives in Atchison, Kansas.
• Image: quotefancy

When I was young, I always imagined I would be married by 25 and have a brood of kids. Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew to "make disciples," and I thought it would be cool to take that verse literally and have 12 kids. I wanted enough kids to fill a baseball team, a hockey bench and a big house full of love.

That obviously didn't happen.

Or it hasn't happened yet. But I love my life. I spent last weekend learning how to scull on the Potomac River. I have good friends, a great family, hobbies and one of the best jobs I've ever had.

Do I feel a void because I'm not married and I don't have children yet? Sure. Do I wish I were having sex? Of course.

But I believe that I'm living a fuller, better life because of my commitment to sexual integrity. I spend all day, every day doing the things that I want to do, because I'm not wasting my time worrying about waking up next to a stranger, contracting a sexually transmitted infection or missing a period.

The truth is, I am able to live the feminist dream because I'm not stressing over the things that sex outside of marriage often brings. And I'm not alone.

A recent study in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior showed that young people - specifically millennials - are now more than twice as likely to be sexually inactive than the previous generation.

Although there are many possible causes for this shift, it's quite reasonable to believe that this generation doesn't want the stresses that sex outside of marriage brings - unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, to name a few.

Maybe they realise that a condom doesn't protect the heart, and that true love is something worth waiting for and fighting for. Continue reading

• Kate Bryan is a writer in Washington, D.C., who has worked for conservative and anti-abortion organizations.

We insiders know that "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free" isn't just a clever slogan; it actually delivers.

Whatever our human crosses, our faith is about the joy and peace that comes from knowing who we are and the supernatural purpose of our lives. Yet outsiders often see the Church negatively, as grim and doctrinaire, prejudiced against human happiness.

Dawn Eden, an American convert with a special apostolate to those who have been victims of sexual abuse within the Church, is doing her best to remedy this situation, particularly in the area of human sexuality (an area where the Church's teaching is most often distorted).

The title of her book, The Thrill of the Chaste, first published in 2007 and reissued this year for a Catholic readership, is both a clever play on the word "chaste" for "chase" and an eloquent plea for greater understanding of what it means to "find fulfilment while keeping your clothes on". (UK readers can buy the book here.)

In her book Eden is very honest about her past life as a young single woman in the world of rock journalism and how the longing for a fulfilling relationship that would lead to marriage drove her from one doomed affair to the next.

The transience of these relationships only made her feel more insecure, more desperate to meet the right man, more prepared for rejection and thus more likely to invite it.

She came to see in the Sacrament of Confession that she had lost her innocence long before she lost her virginity. Continue reading

• Francis Phillips in Catholic Herald
• Please note: the image above is of Dawn Eden

One of the greatest blessings of our marriage is that we both had a good understanding of the Catholic Church's teachings on human sexuality and marriage.

Independently of each other, prior to dating, we had both taken seriously our duties to be educated in both areas.

Our courtship was lovely. We lived in different areas so there were mid-way dates and letter writing.

Yes letter writing, that thing where you make a conscious effort to put pen to paper to let someone know that you are thinking of them. Many of our friends found this quaint, so sweet in the technological age.

I am grateful for the box of letters I have sitting in our bedroom and hope it can inspire our children one day.

As ‘old fashioned' as letter writing is, and the amount of people who have ‘awwww-ed' and gone gooey over the letters it does not compare to the response that we have had when people find out that had committed our dating relationship to chastity and abstinence.

Reactions to Chastity

In today's society people don't seem to know how to react to the witness of chastity. Two days before my wedding I was sitting having my nails done and the technician asked where we lived.

"I live in Johnsonville and he lives in Wilton." The bottle dropped out of her hands. She apologised and then looking thoroughly confused she inquired "You don't live together?"

This brought on a half an hour conversation about that fact that we weren't co-habitating, she was so taken aback that her hand waving, squealing and gushing prevented her from doing the job I was paying for in a timely manner, but hey, that's the price of witness. Continue reading

• Jane Bourke in Restless Press

Jane Bourke is a Catholic Secondary School teacher who specialises in Science and Religion.