this situation may begin to question and examine the sexual values they have been taught. Many teens are going against everything they have been taught in Catholic schools and CCD classes. They are giving up on God and choosing premarital sex over God and their families. In early Christian times, many couples would marry at an early age most of the time under twenty years of age. Now marriage is pushed back to around twenty five years of age, making a longer period of time before marriage also make a larger period of time in which a couple can perform premarital sex. Many couples are finding it harder and harder to resist the temptations of premarital sex because they have to wait so much longer to marry. We Christians see our sexuality as a wondrous gift from God. We are male or female at every level of our being. Our sexuality colors who we are, and how we think and feel and act. Sexual intimacy is sacred. It involves a profound giving of oneself to another. It is a sharing in God's own creativity, bringing new life into the world. The Bible condemns not only adultery, but also premarital sex, or fornication6. The wisdom of our Christian tradition teaches us that only the complete commitment to one another that comes with marriage is the proper setting for sexual intimacy. Marriage is much more than just "a piece of paper." It is only in marriage that we publicly give ourselves to each other, belong to each other, become responsible for one another, "in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health," all the days of our lives.Prior to marriage the couple have not yet made a public, permanent commitment to one another. If, for example, a boyfriend or girlfriend should have a tragic accident and become disfigured or handicapped, the partner might chose to spend the rest of his or her life caring for the one injured. But there is no social obligation to do so. The injured party is still the responsibility of his or her family....
