The number of cohabitating couples has increased more than 1000% in the past 25 years.  That’s nearly 5 million couples living together outside of the sacrament Holy Matrimony.  Research shows cohabitating couples are less committed to marriage and have higher rates of divorce than couples who don’t live together.

Why you want to avoid pre-marital sex, especially during your courtship.
    About half of Catholic couples getting married today are already living together.  One study presented by a member of the U.S. bishops’ Marriage and Family Committee said that 40% of couples married in the Church during the last seven years had lived together before marriage for an average of 14 months.  A far higher percentage is having sex before marriage even though the couples are not living together.

1 Thessalonians 4:3  For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from unchastity;  4  that each one of you know how to take a wife for himself in holiness and honor,  5  not in the passion of lust like heathen who do not know God;  6  that no man transgress, and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we solemnly forewarned you.  7  For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness.  8  Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

    It is a principle in Catholic moral theology that it is seriously wrong to voluntarily place oneself in the proximate occasion of mortal sin.

    We don’t pray “and lead us not into temptation” and then rush into it.

Catholic singles are urged to read the resources below:

Facts about how cohabitation affects a man’s commitment:
What is it with Men and Commitment, Anyway?
By Dr. Scott Stanley

A Pastoral Letter About Cohabitation

ABC’s of Choosing a Good Husband
Chapter 5, pgs 26 – 29

ABC’s of Choosing a Good Wife
Chapter 3, pgs 26 – 31