Day 2 (Thu 9 Dec 10) – Pornography

 

CCC 2354 Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials.

Taken from pornomore.com – http://www.pornnomore.com/SecretEpidemic.htm

Paul Rasavage is one of those professional, suit-and-tie-wearing family men who never misses Mass.

He raised his children Catholic and his oldest daughter is a Carmelite. As a successful oil refinery engineer, he’s long been a pillar of his small community and the San Joachim and Ann Catholic Church in nearby Alder Grove, British Columbia.

But Rasavage, 49, has lived with a secret few in his parish know about to this day. In his mid-40s, this seemingly perfect Catholic family man was helplessly addicted to pornography, an addiction, he said, that began in early adolescence.

“I remain an addict, but I’m no longer indulging my addiction,” Rasavage said. “Anyone who is addicted to pornography will remain addicted for life. It’s an addiction just like drug or alcohol abuse, and it never goes away.”

Rasavage said he’s far from alone among Catholic men. He said an alarming number of those upstanding pillars of the parish secretly view Internet pornography on a regular basis, which he fears will harm most of their marriages and possibly land them in hell.

Father Mark Bautista agrees. As pastor of several major parishes during his 11 years as a priest, Father Bautista said he has noticed a staggering increase in porn addiction among Catholic men, women and children.

Based on confessions he’s heard throughout North America, Father Bautista said it’s safe to assume that up to 30% of men in any given parish are regular viewers of pornography, mostly via the Internet.

Furthermore, Father Bautista said it appears that up to 3% of Catholic women are regular consumers of porn, and he routinely hears porn confessions of girls and boys as young as 13.

“I began seeing a dramatic increase that seemed to correlate with the growth of the Internet,” said Father Bautista, who recently took over as pastor of San Joachim and Ann Parish and volunteers as spiritual adviser to a porn-addict support group launched recently by Rasavage. “Porn — which used to be the forbidden fruit of men who were willing to risk being seen walking into an adult bookstore — is now open to all, and people get caught up in it by accident while they’re surfing the Web.”