National Catholic Register portal (April 24, 2026) published a commentary by Father Carter Griffin, rector of St. John Paul II Seminary in Washington, D.C., titled “Forming Your Children for Chastity: A Letter to Parents.” The article addresses the urgent question of how Catholic parents can form their children in holy purity in an age saturated with pornography, social media, and digital addiction. Father Griffin identifies the primary threats to chastity as the “attention economy” of Silicon Valley, the ubiquity of smartphones, and the toxic allure of online pornography, noting that the average age of first exposure is between 9 and 12 years old. He offers three main pieces of counsel: fostering regular, positive, and honest conversations about chastity from an early age; implementing strict governance over screen usage, including keeping bedrooms screen-free and monitoring app consumption; and nurturing the child’s imagination through contact with three-dimensional reality such as sports, books, and family activities. He concludes by emphasizing the importance of the spousal relationship as a model of chastity, the role of the sacraments and adoration, and the cultivation of self-restraint in daily life. While the article presents itself as a practical guide for Catholic families, it operates almost entirely within a naturalistic and psychological framework, reducing the supernatural virtue of chastity to a matter of behavioral management and parental technique, while remaining conspicuously silent on the theological gravity of sin, the necessity of confession, the reality of the devil, and the doctrinal chaos of the post-conciliar era that has made the formation of children in purity a near-impossible task for the average Catholic family.
