I don't know that I'd say vows are the surest way. And wouldn't it be variable, depending how attracted and attractive you are the opposite sex, and sadly, now the same sex?
But if vows of chastity are the surest way, the individual certainly has that within his power to take and hold to.
You consecrate your life and you do it by your choices in life. All individuals have that sovereignty by virtue of God. You don't ask any agency, you simply work that in you life, choosing to seek the Kingdom of God, and all you need is added to you, and your life is consecrated. Or else the word has no meaning.
As you work toward belief and faith, you will find others on the same path and come together. You attend a church. If you don't like the church, you go to another. And with you goes every ounce of your personal relationship with God.
Look at it like a town. If you don't like the town you vote with your feet and move. While you're there, the town has jurisdiction over you. But it has only temporary and limited jurisdiction, so long as you're there and over nobody not there.
It really has no real and lasting authority because you can leave at any time since you are self sufficient.
God gives each of us our own souls and spirits, and has made promises to us, as individuals based on our individual choice to seek Him.
Even though most of us like to gather in groups to walk our paths, we are self sufficient according to the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels, in our way to find the Father and salvation by doing things only an individual can do. And this happens to be exactly what the church says it has the authority to do for us.
It can have no such authority. It would be a dramatic scriptual crisis; the scriptures gives individuals by clear and unambiguous scripture the way to salvation, those who will choose it, and only by torturous gerrmandering does the Catholic church claim that power over men.
This is like saying, "I'm going to build a wall for you, and, since you have the tools, you lay the block."