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.”

This article appears in December 7-14 2015.