Here’s a topic you don’t often hear Catholic priests and bishops and lay leaders discussing even though everyone acknowledges it’s a huge problem (just look at your spam folder in your email program). Bishop Paul Loverde of Arlington, Virginia, has written a pastoral letter on pornography called “Bought With a Price: Pornography and the Attack on the Living Temple of God.” I haven’t had a chance to read the whole thing yet, but I’m glad to see it being made available.
One of the common factors in much of the Scandal was the prevalence of pornography, especially homosexual and child porn, among the pervert priests molesting kids. But it’s not just molesters for whom it is a danger. Loverde addresses sections of his letter to young people, to married couples, and to priests, giving them each advice related to their state in life.
I shudder to think of the world that our children will grow up in. Even if none of our kids is exposed to it, the reality is that nearly every other kid will be. And it’s not like the stuff I saw when I was a kid. When I was a teen, usually one of the guys would sometimes smuggle one of his dad’s magazines out of the house, and bad enough as they were—and I’m not minimizing how bad they were—at least they were just photos of naked women. Now, the perversion available at the click of the mouse is astounding. Just the simple act of perusing the subject lines of email in my spam box has given me much more education in sexual perversity and degradation than I’d ever want.
This is one reason why no child should have his own email account and when they’re old to have one, it should be closely monitored by mom and dad with very strong spam filtering software on it. Obviously, they should never have a computer in their own room and all Internet activity should be in public areas of the house.
Many of our society’s ills can be traced to pornography, porn addiction, and the deleterious effects it has especially on husbands or potential husbands whose ability to form intimate and fulfilling relationships becomes impaired or for priests whose biological desires once inflamed are thwarted and can become perverted.
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