Fr Paul Nicholson on the pernicious evil of pornography

Fr. Paul Nicholson is one priest who is a true evangelist. God bless him. May Our Lady protect him in his ministry.

Fr Nicholson provides us with a very sober assessment of the ubiquitous invasion of pornography into the lives of young people. This is something that virtually no priest or bishop seems to want to address. And yet, it is a soul destroyer, a life destroyer, and a family destroyer. 

No surprise, but "Catholics" have taken to pornography, like a flea to a dog. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the crisis of sexual morality (driven more recently by its easy access via the internet, and new technologies e.g. Instagram) is so serious that it has been  dealt with by two popes in detail. Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI called for a concerted Pastoral Plan to deal with grave misunderstandings about human sexuality. The Popes were ignored with the inevitable result of the vast majority of Catholics dissenting from Church teaching. Now we know why: churchmen, virtually to a man have failed. The situation is so grave with Faith, religious indifferentism and ethics eating away at the body of the Church, that Pope Benedict calls it a "profound crisis" of Faith. 

One frightening reality is that a significant minority of regular, Sunday going Catholics (predominantly males, but not exclusively) are habitual pornography consumers. Apparently, "sexting" is incredibly popular amongst youngsters. How can this be? Was the lure of the modern world so strong that priests, parents and schools were no match? Or, have there also been grave failings amongst pastors, parents and schools? The sense of decency, morality, sin has been totally numbed. 

Pornography insinuates itself via the promotion of the sexually bizarre; as well as abnormal sexual practices. It parasites on art, as the lie does on truth.  Hence, it tries to masquerade as normal. A local Toronto example (BRAZEN: Sexual Stigma Overcome) of the penetration of deviancy and pornography into society was a "group art exhibition" about  which, according to the information provided, called for exhibits stressing "safe sex, queerness and kinkiness". Abstinence is a "a scar left on the psyche". A "positive" review of the event may be read here. 

Do events such as the above contain lapsed Christians? How many Catholics  are there who have turned their back on Christ and His Church? How is this all possible? Fr. Nicholson encourages us to see the vast possibilities of evangelization; to bring back those who have fallen away, to reach out to those who have never know Christ, His beauty, and His Church. The importance of teaching our young people to live chastely is central to being faithful to Our Lord, and thereby living a truly human existence. We must begin to think what are we doing to promote chaste living amongst our youth; our young Catholic people? Many dioceses are becoming more and more concerned with "devout" church going families, succumbing in various degrees to unchaste and impure living. The Archdiocese of New York has even developed a program to assist confessors when dealing with pornography; so prevalent has it become. 

We usually do not just sit on our thoughts; an impure mind, soon leads to an impure lifestyle. The numbing of the conscience to the reality of sin opens full wide the door to sexual libertinism and moral degeneration. This is further exacerbated with a society that has, or is establishing gender ideology as a new religious dogma; replete with intolerance towards those who adhere to Christian morality. 

A final thought: what has your bishop done to implement the Popes call for a Pastoral Plan on sexual ethics?