Chastity before marriage? No cohabitation? Data says couples who skip both may have stronger unions

When Fr. Matt DeGance tells engaged couples they should refrain from having sex during the six-month waiting period before their wedding — even for those living together — there's a palpable tension in the silence.

"The majority of the reactions are kind of a quiet pensiveness," he says. And "there are couples that kind of laugh it off or just sort of find it very dismissive, or they're dismissive in their approach."

Even the Catholic Church knows it's countercultural in this day and...