Yet many would prefer to just pretend it isn't a problem.
Wagglebee. Thanks for the post. I am sorry so many see fit to attack the article and use it as an occasion to attack the Catholic Church. The simple truth is that pornography is no longer a matter of getting a mail order of skin mags in a plain brown wrapper.
Yes the Cardinal did speak about sex in the movies and tv. Though I would not call such things pornographic they are coarse and cheap. They separate sex from any kind of moral anchor and show whoring and fornication as the healthy norm for adults. That cannot contribute to the building up of civilization.
But he also spoke of the internet and that is where most of the guttersex can be found.
The internet has made pornography widely available and there are really no controls to keep the material completely away from children.
Pornography is used by pedophiles as a means of seducing their victims by normalizing the sexual activity.
Pornography also reinforces the sexual predators fantasies and gives the predator the assurance his behavior is not isolated but shared by a great many others.
Pornography degrades woman and children by showing them as objects. Something that is against all Christian teachings about the dignity of the person.
For those who still think pornography is just a matter of
potrayal of sex between an adult man and woman do a web engine search on any abnormal sexual behavior or fetish.
Maybe simply start out with Sadism. I bet you would get lots of hits offering very candid sites.
The Cardinal is not naive. Those who do not understand just how degrading and harmful hard core porn is are the ones living in a fairy tale land.
It's a multi billion dollar industry in the midst of a multi trillion dollar general media industry. Citing absolute figures doesn't by itself give a good idea of how big a problem is. Maybe if it was put that if every man, woman, and child in the USA spent the same amount on that porn revenue stream, they would be shelling out fifty dollars or more, it would be meaningful. (I don't have the exact numbers. I could be wrong by a factor of ten or more.)
Excellent article, Cardinal Rigali! Well done, good and faithful servant. Now if only some of your episcopal brethren would get off their duffs...
on this, i agree with the Cardinal - the pornography itself is not necessarily harmful, but the obsession with it is, as is the level of porn and porn-oid saturation with which pop culture is currently inundated.
Stupid me, I thought the pedophile priests of the Catholic Church had a hand in the problem. What a hypocrite this guy is.
Rigali bump!!!!!
In my opinion, just as destructive as an addiction to alchohol or drugs.
Is there a Pornography Anonymous that is patterned after AA?
Even my liberal sociology professor agreed that pornography was a serious problem that damaged human relationships. And certainly child porn horrific.
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Yes, Your Eminence and, in your opinion, how does it compare with child-rape?
Puh-leeze.
I think divorce is a bigger problem and porn is not very closely related.