Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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PURITY

Freedom from anything that weakness or impairs or changes the nature of a being or its activity. Purity of faith means the absence of error what is contrary to the revealed truth; purity of intention is the exclusion of self-will in the desire to perform the will of God; purity of morals commonly refers to the virtue of chastity and therefore freedom from wrongdoing in sexual activity, but on a broader level it means the absence of misbehavior, especially in one's external or publicly recognizable conduct. (Etym. Latin puritas, clearness, cleanness, uprightness.)