The U.S. bishops approved a statement on pornography on Nov. 17 at their fall general meeting in Baltimore. “Producing or using pornography is gravely wrong. It is a mortal sin if it is committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent,” said the approved version of “Create in Me a Clean Heart: A Pastoral Response to Pornography.” According to the document, the sin of using or producing pornography requires “the Lord’s forgiveness and should be confessed within the sacrament of penance and reconciliation.” It adds, “Those who produce and distribute pornography harm the common good by encouraging and even causing others to sin.” Bishop Richard J. Malone of Buffalo, N.Y., chairman of the committee that prepared the statement, described pornography as a “dark shadow in our world today.” He said that it is a “particularly sinister instance of consumption” whereby men, women and children “are consumed for the pleasure of others.”
Pornography Deplored
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
In a time of increasing disaffiliation from and disillusionment with the institutional church, a new theological perspective on the church is needed—one that places Jesus’ own teaching at the center.
This week on “Jesuitical,” Zac and Ashley are thrilled to speak with their friend and colleague Father James Martin about his new podcast, “The Spiritual Life with Fr. James Martin, S.J.”
Pope Leo XIV renewed his “appeal for peace” in an interview after a surprise visit to the Vatican Radio Center.
There are so many things you can enjoy when you are poor—and some, it seems, that are easier to enjoy when you’re poor because you cannot lean on the crutches and the shortcuts that litter the path of the rich.