Facebook Twitter RSS

Columns

Pornography’s threat to the well-being of society

Thursday, 23 May 2013 22:57

The startling growth of the pornography industry in the last 15 years represents a grave threat to the well-being of society. Many of the social ills and behavioral disorders plaguing our world today—teenage sexual promiscuity, crisis pregnancy, adultery, abortion, divorce, sexual abuse, sexual deviancy, rape, and incest—can be linked to the spread of pornography.

The numbers illustrate the scope of the problem…

• In 2006, the world-wide pornography industry’s estimated revenue was $97 billion (up from $57 billion in 2005).

• Porn industry revenues are larger than those of the top technology companies combined—Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Apple, Netflix, and Earthlink.

• There are 420 million pornographic web pages, 89% of which are U.S.-based.

• 40 million U.S. adults visit pornographic websites regularly.

• Children aged 12–17 are the largest group of consumers of online pornography.

It should be obvious from these statistics that many Christians struggle with pornography addiction. One estimate puts the number of churchgoing men who are porn users at 50%. Another study found that one in six women is struggling with an addiction to porn.

How does pornography harm individuals and society?

Children, teens and young adults are being victimized by an industry that objectifies people by eliminating the human dimension of their lives. Everyone involved in the pornography industry—whether its production, distribution, sale or use—“cooperates and, to some degree, makes possible this debasement of others” because sexuality “is reduced to a demeaning source of entertainment and even profit.”

Young men are being taught to value women based on the airbrushed images they see in porn. This violates the sexual latency of children and promotes teen/college-age promiscuity, resulting in out-of-wedlock/crisis pregnancies and the spread of STDs at epidemic levels.

Pornography as Addiction

Pornography addiction is defined as “a psychological addiction to, or dependence upon, pornography, theoretically characterized by obsessive viewing, reading, and thinking about pornography and sexual themes to the detriment of other areas of one’s life.” The statistical evidence, as well as the testimony of experts in the field of sexual addiction, shows that pornography is the foremost addiction in the world today due to its pervasiveness and its growing level of acceptability in our culture.

Addressing Porn Addiction on a Natural Level

Pornography addiction is a multi-dimensional problem requiring a multi-faceted solution. Such addiction involves the mental, emotional, physical, relational and spiritual components of a human being.

In his book “Healing the Wounds of Sexual Addiction,” Dr. Mark Laaser explains that sexual addiction is a result of trauma or wounds experienced over the course of one’s life. Emotional, physical or spiritual abuse during childhood, inflicted by family and the culture at large, can trigger an addiction in adulthood as an attempt at “self-medication” in response to the trauma.

There are practical measures that offer significant hope for those struggling with pornography. Here are five ways that those addicted to pornography can begin the recovery process:

1. Decide to get well and resolve to stop viewing all forms of pornography.

2. Remove all sources of temptation that may prevent one from healing.

3. Be willing to make sacrifices, which may involve changing current duties or habits

4. Become familiar with the process by which one begins to repeat addictive behavior.

5. Find a support group or a network of “solid” people to help in one’s recovery.

Addressing Porn Addictionon a Supernatural Level

1. Without God’s grace, those seeking freedom from pornography addiction may find the five basic steps just outlined very difficult. Fortunately, all believers can seek grace by:

2. Praying daily

3. Seeking education and formation in the virtues

4. Practicing patience and perseverance (Self-mastery is the work of a life-time)

5. Turning one’s thoughts to God’s merciful love when tormented during recovery with images and temptations.

Additionally, Catholics are blessed to be able to partake frequently in two great sources of sacramental grace: the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Communion.

Addressing Porn Addiction on a Pastoral Level

It is important for all spiritual fathers to lead their sons and daughters towards freedom and healing. How does one accomplish this goal on a pastoral level?

First, educate the community of believers about the problem. Priests must equip themselves with the knowledge to speak confidently and passionately about the issue of pornography. Two excellent resources for clergy are the pastoral letters on this topic by Bishop Paul S. Loverde of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia and by Bishop Robert W. Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City - St. Joseph, Missouri.

Second, be willing to summon men to this effort from the pulpit. Invite the men of the parish to form a weekly men’s group. Pastors can facilitate this process by putting these men in touch with the growing Catholic men’s movement in the United States.

Third, encourage the parents of young people in the parish to take measures to protect their children from pornography, especially on the Internet. Parents need to take every precaution to safeguard their children and home from the dangers of pornography, for example, by purchasing filter programs.

A Final Word on the Issue of Pornography

The problem of eliminating pornography addiction among Catholics and other Christians is not solely the responsibility of men or of the clergy. All who desire to protect the common good and defend Christ’s Church must do their part. We need to remember that pornography addiction is an intimacy disorder and that those who are struggling with it are extremely wounded people.

The sexual revolution continues to destroy millions of lives. Many marriages have been destroyed, and women and children have paid the highest price. Let us remember that we engage in this fight for the well-being of our culture and of all humanity, and for the souls of pornography’s countless victims today and in the future.

Mark J. Houck is the co-founder and president of the lay apostolate called The King’s Men (www.thekingsmen.us)

African American families and the Culture of Life

Columns

Thursday, 23 May 2013 22:57

In a September 2007 visit to Austria, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his great concern about the future of Europe. He stated that Europe “may extinguish itself, in numbers and spirit, if it embraces abortion and rejects Christianity.” He proposed that “rather than legalize abortion, governments create a climate of joy and confidence in life … in which children are not seen as a burden, but rather as a gift to all.”

As an African American Catholic Bishop who was born in a family of fourteen children, it should not be surprising that the issue of abortion, particularly in the African American family, is of extreme importance to me. My knowledge that my father, mother, and siblings were all baptized into the Catholic Church on the same day (June 20, 1954), while my mother was six months’ pregnant with me, had a lot to do with forming in me a pro-life attitude. The witness of my parents taught all my siblings and me to respect the dignity of every human person and to always welcome the gift of life. Our family priest also left a solid impression on all of us as he mailed every letter sealed with a stamp, “Stop Abortions.” He understood the damage that abortion was doing to humanity and what it would eventually do to the black family.

Over hundreds of years, African Americans have traditionally been pro-life. A pregnant unmarried couple could count on someone in their families to help raise, love and educate their child well into adulthood. This has happened more than once in my own family.

Today, discerning what is morally correct is a difficult challenge for many in the African American community because the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973 “legitimized” abortion as a legal “option.” The voices that would normally alarm the community, in the pulpits of many of our predominantly Black churches, are now often silenced or muted.

In my own homilies, I have often referred to African Americans as an endangered species. Abortion is currently taking a deadly toll on pregnant Black women because abortion facilities, which promote the Culture of Death, seem strategically placed in or near African American neighborhoods to make abortions easily accessible, especially to the poor. Statistics show that abortion has the greatest impact on Black, unwed women who live in an urban environment where there may not be much support from family, friends or social service networks.

Since the Roe v. Wade decision, the number one cause of death in the African American Community is abortion. We have lost over 13 million lives. To put that in perspective, that is one third of our present Black population. 1,452 Black children are lost each day to abortion!

In my opinion, the abortion challenge in the African American community is deeply interwoven with many other concerns. The Black family constantly strives for social justice in confronting racism, poverty, violence, a lack of education, high unemployment, substance abuse, incarceration, AIDS, teen pregnancy, a lack of affordable housing, and many other needs, especially in urban areas. This endless and seamless garment of social concerns often tends to push the primary moral issue of abortion onto the back burner, when in reality it clearly must be at the heart and center of our discussion on the survival of African American people.

Through evangelization, preaching, and solid catechesis, the Catholic Church will need to intensify its efforts to reach the broader African American community, to help everyone understand how critical this issue is for the survival of African Americans. Stated plainly: With abortion in the black family, there is no future, only further extinction.

What Can Be Done?

First and foremost, the local Ordinary and his diocesan staff need to make the issue of abortion in the African American community a priority. This entails a commitment to allocate funds to conduct workshops to train the laity in Pope John Paul II’s “theology of the body” and his encyclical The Gospel of Life, along with the encyclicals of Pope Benedict XVI, all of which promote the Culture of Life.

African American Catholic laity should be welcomed by their pastor and parish staff to be trained in the various life issues and become more involved with the parish pro-life committee.

At the same time, we have a profound social justice obligation to continue to provide funding and volunteer support for programs that offer assistance to unwed pregnant teens, women and families in the black community, both Catholic and non-Catholic.

Because the black family has been affected physically, psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually by racism and social injustices, and is being damaged even further by the trauma of abortion, there is an urgent need to offer healing to all those involved in an abortion decision. The invitation of Pope John Paul the Great to women who have had an abortion needs to resound in every Catholic Church:

Do not lose hope. Try rather to understand what happened and face it honestly. … Give yourselves over with humility and trust to repentance.

The Father of mercies is ready to give you his forgiveness and his peace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. You will come to understand that nothing is definitively lost and you will be able to ask forgiveness from your child, who is now living in the Lord.

With the friendly and expert help and advice of other people, and as a result of your own painful experience, you can be among the most eloquent defenders of everyone's right to life. … You will become promoters of a new way of looking at human life.

(The Gospel of Life, no. 99)

In addition to caring for those wounded by abortion through the Church’s Project Rachel ministry, greater emphasis must be placed on helping the Christian family through better catechesis on the Sacrament of Marriage, the gift of children, and the resources of Natural Family Planning. As long as American culture persists in viewing sexual activity as recreational, marriage as optional, and children as burdens, it will be very difficult to build a Culture of Life. The Church should also offer counseling programs to help spouses and parents live out their roles in the Christian family.

Evangelization is truly the key, as it leads to developing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and to a deeper understanding of his teachings. This, in turn, promotes a desire to act according to the virtues exemplified by Jesus and taught by our Catholic faith. The Church should be willing and ready to share its resources, information and catechesis with our non-Catholic friends and leaders within the African American ecumenical community.

At its core, the Gospel of Life “is the proclamation of a living God who is close to us, who calls us to profound communion with himself and awakens in us the certain hope of eternal life. … It is the proclamation that Jesus has a unique relationship with every person, which enables us to see in every human face the face of Christ” (no. 81). This is the hope, the truth that alone can conquer the fear and despair that drive women to seek abortion. Through clear catechesis, expanded pastoral efforts, vigorous engagement in our parishes and in the public square, through love and prayer, we can end the scourge of abortion. The Culture of Death will be defeated in the African American community and throughout our nation when we—as individuals and as Church—proclaim and witness with our lives to God’s love, the sacredness of human life, and the meaning of human sexuality and marriage. Let us embrace this task with the urgency and the enthusiasm it demands!

Bishop Martin D. Holley is an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., chairman of the USCCB Subcommittee on African American Affairs, and a member of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities.

Male grief and trauma following abortion

Thursday, 23 May 2013 22:57

We are the hollow men

We are the stuffed men . . .

Our dried voices, when

We whisper together

Are quiet and meaningless . . .

Remember us—if at all—not as lost

Violent souls, but only

As the hollow men

The stuffed men.

T.S. Eliot, “The Hollow Men” (1925)

Abortion has become a personal and social eraser of choice for our unwanted, ill-timed, and “defective” offspring. With mainstream mental health professional associations encouraging this procedure by advising that it is psychologically safe, women and men have embraced abortion as a stress reliever. Yet the evidence is mounting that abortion carries serious and significant mental health risks for many women.

Planning, with a presumption in favor of living

Thursday, 23 May 2013 22:57

Life Chain participants in Cape May County gather for a photo on Sunday, Oct. 5. The Life Chain was held in Rio Grande, at the intersection of Rt. 47 and Rt. 9.

In 2005, the President’s Council on Bioethics (PCBE) issued a report critical of living wills in advance care planning. It questioned whether patients could knowingly elect to forgo life support in advance of a hypothetical future in which they might become incapacitated. Instead it called for greater use of proxy directives (appointing family members or friends to make medical decisions for incapacitated patients) as they offered the best hope for accommodating the known wishes and best interests of such people.

Absent from the PCBE’s report, however, was any discussion of the questions living wills raised for people already disabled, especially whether their wills should include instructions to forgo life support. Those concerns are unique and some comment about the use of living wills by such people is warranted. Before taking up that task, I will first explain some key terms and then outline the analysis the PCBE put forward.

Hope and trust in life, Respect Life Sunday 2008

Thursday, 23 May 2013 22:57

Preparation for Respect Life Sunday, which is nationally celebrated on the first Sunday in October, begins in earnest in mid August. Along with the organizational tasks that need to be accomplished, it is a time for me to reflect upon the events, victories and challenges of the past year, and to look and plan ahead for the coming one.

During this past year we have experienced the defeat of the stem cell bond issue. No one expected this to happen. Yet it did. God’s presence and guidance was with us as we worked hard to prevent thousands of embryonic human persons from being destroyed by extracting their stem cells.

Shortly afterward, the death penalty was abolished in New Jersey thanks to the hard work of many of you, organizations committed to this cause and the New Jersey Conference of Catholic Bishops, who spoke with one voice to uphold the dignity of even those among us who have committed the most heinous of crimes.