a question about virginity

[photosynthesis]

how does the Church define virginity?

how does the Church define rape?

According to the Church, can a woman who was raped still be considered a virgin if being raped is not a sin against chastity?

I know women who are homosexual, and they are technically virgins because they've never had sexual intercourse with a man. but they are still not being chaste, because they have sex with women.

how does this all work?

[Laudate_Dominum]

The closest thing to a definition by the Church on virginity (that comes to mind) is the dogma of Our Lady's perpetual virginity.

Virginity is more than just not having had intercourse. A lesbian who has only engaged in sexual acts with women would not be a virgin if you ask me.

A woman who was raped would still be a virgin. I can remember reading a letter from St. Augustine to a consecrated virgin who was raped. He assured her that she was still a virgin despite the crime that was committed against her.

What matters in the eyes of God is not the physical virginity, but the virginity of the heart. Our Lady's physical virginity is not a statement that sex is bad like some with gnostic tendencies would assert, but rather it is an outward sign of her perfect virginal integrity of spirit and the fact that she is totally God's.