Are Catholics permitted to engage in sexual activity before marriage?
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Catholics are not permitted to engage in intimate sexual relationships before marriage and are responsible for ensuring their sexual relationship in marriage is chaste. God created sex for married couples so that they could continue the human race and enjoy intimacy as they “become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Sexual activity before marriage abuses God’s gift of sexuality by reducing it to the pursuit of physical pleasure and was repeatedly condemned in the Old Testament as well as by Jesus and his apostles (Leviticus 21:9; Sirach 23:16-17; Matthew 15:19; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5). “Now concerning the matters about which you wrote. It is well for a man not to touch a woman. But because of the temptation to immorality, each man should have his
