The U.S. bishops Nov. 12 approved
the development of a pastoral statement on the dangers pornography
poses to family life that would serve as a teaching tool for church
leaders.
On Day Two of their annual fall general assembly in Baltimore, the
bishops voted 226 to 5 to allow the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family
Life and Youth to develop the statement.
Developing such a statement falls in line with an objective of the U.S.
Conference of catholic Bishops' 2013-16 strategic plan to address
pornography and its dangerous effects on family life.
The committee planned to bring a draft to the bishops in 2015. It would
be the first formal statement on pornography issued by the bishops as a
body.
In presenting the case for such a statement, Bishop Richard J. Malone of
Buffalo, N.Y. (and current administrator of the Diocese of Portland,
Maine), the incoming chair of the committee, said that pornography poses
continuing pastoral challenges for the clergy and the faithful.
"The more pornography spreads, the more violent and debased it becomes
and the more it exploits the men and women who are part of the
industry," he explained.
Citing the explosion of pornography on the Internet and its exploitation
of women, men and children, Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South
Bend, Ind., outgoing chairman of the bishops' Committee on Laity,
Marriage, Family Life and Youth, told Catholic News Service prior to the meeting that committee members felt it was time for the USCCB to bring its moral voice to the worldwide debate.
"There's a lot of concern about the increasing availability and
consumption of pornography and its effect on marriages and families and
on youth," Bishop Rhoades explained. "Pornography has become more
pervasive than it's ever been in history.
"Pornography is having such a detrimental effect that we thought it
would be good to have the bishops as a whole body address this issue.
It's not been before that whole body. It's risen to that level of
concern, I think," he said.
Family Safe Media, an online service offering families tips for dealing
with profanity, promiscuity and violence in the media, estimates that
4.2 million websites -- 12 percent of the all websites worldwide --
feature pornography. It projects that the industry generates $57 billion
annually through a variety of media.
Bishop Rhoades cited several concerns arising from pornography's
pervasiveness, including children facing increasing exposure to it,
addiction, and marital infidelity and divorce.
"Another factor is priests reporting as confessor the growing number of
those confessing pornography use," the bishop added. "Priests are
seeking assistance on how to council people. There's a growing number of
women viewing it, but the vast majority is still men," Bishop Rhoades
said.
"It has destroyed that trust and the intimacy between a husband and wife. That can be very tragic," he added.
Bishop Rhoades was ending his three-year term as committee chairman at
the end of the bishops' meeting. His successor, Bishop Richard J. Malone
of Buffalo, N.Y. and apostolic administrator of the Diocese of
Portland, Maine, will oversee the drafting of the statement.
"I think it's a very opportune time, in my opinion, for the bishops as a
whole to address this, to invite people to freedom in Christ and his
mercy. That's part of the whole healing of this, the spiritual aspect,"
Bishop Rhoades told CNS.
"There needs to be that pastoral outreach to those affected by it, those addicted by it, and providing practical help."
Bishop Rhoades was unable to attend the bishops' Baltimore meeting
because he was in Paderborn, Germany, to concelebrate the Nov. 10
beatification Mass for Mother Maria Theresia Bonzel.
The German-born nun founded the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual
Adoration, an order that has houses and operates a university in Bishop
Rhoades' diocese.