103. Celibates — and to a limited but somewhat analogous extent, infertile couples — also enjoy a unique freedom, an attractive liberty for certain types of service, friendship, and community. Celibates and the childless are relatively more available for chaste experiments in community living, for careers which demand flexibility, for prayer and contemplation. Celibates, couples without children, and even healthy elderly people (perhaps with grown children) have gifts of time in ways which parents typically do not. Such people can entertain catechetical work and other parish ministries, or even apostolates and witness in dangerous situations that would be impossible for families with children. The unmarried or otherwise childless enjoy an availability which gives them somewhat more discretion and creativity about the possibilities for hospitality and friendship. When Saint Paul counsels celibacy, he thinks he is offering a possibility which has its challenges, but it also has its benefits and freedoms: “But if you marry, you do not sin, and if a virgin marries, she does not sin. Yet those who marry will experience distress in this life, and I would spare you that…. I want you to be free from anxieties.” (1 Cor 7:28-32a, NRSV)