Pornography:
one of the greatest enemies of the family today
"Mothers and fathers of the
world, will you not protect the souls of your children? You must take action
against those who are propagating the evil. Parents, have you examined what your
children have been reading? Their eyes, which are the mirror of the soul, are
being polluted—their souls being destroyed by the pornography being sold for
profit and gain. Why is there no action, My children, to safeguard your
children? Many parents will cry bitter tears of anguish, but too late, too
late!" - Our Lady of the Roses, August 14, 1975
For those who say that immodest dress or reading immodest/pornographic material
affects no one, Jesus Christ, God Himself, says otherwise: “You have heard that
it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say to you,
that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed
adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28) St. Paul writes, “Put ye on
the Lord Jesus Christ: and make no provision for the flesh and its
concupiscences.” (Romans 13:14) St. Paul also writes:
“Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom
of God? Do not err: Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers: Nor the
effeminate nor liers with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor
railers nor extortioners shall possess the kingdom of God. And such some of you
were. But you are washed: but you are sanctified: but you are justified: in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)
Fr. John Hardon has stated that people are only as chaste
as their faith in Jesus Christ as the living God is strong. He also said that
“Christian chastity recognizes the sexual appetite as holy. Sexual pleasure is
transcendently holy. Sins against chastity are acts of profanation against a
divinely conferred power.” Those who do not control their sex appetite end up
not controlling any other desire. Chastity is rewarded in this life: chaste
people are happy people, the unchaste are not. As we grow in self-mastery and
self-sacrifice we grow in holiness and happiness which God wants us to have now
as a foretaste of the happiness of Heaven.
When a person becomes ensnared by a sinful vice they are in grave spiritual
danger, because their salvation is in the balance. As Gerald May writes in
Addiction and Grace, “Addiction is the most powerful psychic enemy of humanity's
desire for God". And pornography has tremendous addicting power.
The Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, has written extensively on the devastating
effects of lust and pornography on the human person. He explains that “The heart
has become a battlefield between love and lust.”. He also writes that men and
women
“‘can fully discover his true self only in a sincere giving
of himself.’ Lust in general—and the lust of the body in particular—attacks this
‘sincere giving.’ It deprives man of the dignity of giving, which is expressed
by his body through femininity and masculinity. In a way it depersonalizes man,
making him an object ‘for the other.’”
Regarding concupiscence, the Holy Father writes:
“Concupiscence means that the personal relations of man and
of woman are unilaterally and reductively linked with the body and sex, in the
sense that these relations become almost incapable of accepting the mutual gift
of the person. They do not contain or deal with femininity/masculinity according
to the full dimension of personal subjectivity. They do not express communion,
but they remain unilaterally determined by sex. Concupiscence entails the loss
of the interior freedom of the gift…. The body remains as an object of lust and,
therefore, as a ‘field of appropriation’ of the other human being. In itself,
concupiscence is not capable of promoting union as the communion of persons. By
itself, it does not unite, but appropriates. The relationship of the gift is
changed into the relationship of appropriation.”
How big the problem is
To understand how big the problem is, in 1996 Americans spent over $8 billion on
pornographic entertainment, which is more than what the United States spent at
the box office or on rock and country music. In the same year, 665 million
hard-core pornography videos were rented.
Following are some of the appalling facts about the
dangers of pornography and sexually related crimes:
“A 1985 study found that boys--ages 12 to 17--are the
largest consumers of sexually explicit material. This trend is alarming
considering the fact that many experts say pornography actually promotes
dangerous misinformation about sexual relations and advances sexual dysfunction
and medically risky practices.”
“Enough Is Enough Campaign reports that 87 percent of
convicted molesters of girls and 77 percent of convicted molesters of boys admit
to using pornography, most often in the commission of their crimes.”
“According to the National Center for Missing & Sexually
Exploited Children, conservative estimates indicate that one in five girls and
one in ten boys will be sexually victimized before reaching adulthood.
Unfortunately, many children do not report what has happened to them out of
fear, shame or embarrassment. In fact, less than 35 percent of these cases are
ever reported to law enforcement officials.”
“There are more than 400,000 registered sex offenders in
this country.”
More than 65 studies have shown that dangerous offenders
(child molesters, killers, rapists, incest fathers) are not only more likely to
commit their crimes if they employ pornography, they are likely to precede their
violent acts with the extended use of deviant materials. Male sex offenders soon
begin to display addictive and compulsive behavior when using porn. Their
mechanisms for relieving stress soon all become related to deviant sex. They
offend more and more often.
According to National Public Radio, nearly a third of
children age 10 to 17 said that they had seen a pornographic web site.
Dr. Victor Cline, a clinical psychologist, who has treated
over 300 sex addicts documents the slippery slope to addiction. He says the four
steps are: addiction, escalation, desensitization, and acting out.
The primary effects of pornography
According to the “Prolife Encyclopedia,”
(1) Even "soft" porn is harmful--to everyone.
(2) All pornography desensitizes the viewer.
(3) Pornography is addictive.
(4) Pornography degrades marriages.
(5) Pornography increases crime in dangerous offenders.
(6) Pornography encourages and facilitates other crimes.
Pornography is harmful to everyone. Eighteen separate studies have shown
pornography desensitizes all viewers, and may lead to extremely violent
behavior.
Pornography desensitizes the viewer. All pornography--soft, hard, and
even so-called 'neutral' sex-education materials, desensitize the viewer,
enabling him to be conditioned to sexual acts, violent and nonviolent, as an
essential part of human behavior. This conclusion has been reached in 26
separate studies.
Leading sexual violence researchers Neil Malamuth, Ed Donnerstein, and Dolf
Zillman state that, in general, "Pornography desensitizes. Exposure to these
materials, whether violent or nonviolent, coercive or noncoercive,
experimentally increases male aggressive behavior against women, and decreases
both male and female sensitivity to rape and the plight of the rape victim. Both
males and females, after viewing this material, judge the female rape victim to
be less injured, less worthy, and more responsible for her own plight."
Pornography is addictive. Several studies have shown that all persons,
normal and unbalanced, who view pornography develop a craving for ever more
deviant materials. Many persons even begin to employ more violent methods in
their sexual relations. As with drug users, those who use pornography seek more
and more deviant materials to maintain their previous level of sexual arousal.
Pornography degrades marriages. Pornography users generally view material
that shows attractive women performing almost any type of act with any number of
men (or animals, for that matter). The users begin to expect that their wives
should also perform acts that are at least a little more 'adventurous’ or
'experimental' that those they are used to, and will become dissatisfied when
their non-using partners will not live up to their porn-induced fantasies. They
may even become dissatisfied with their wive's physical imperfections.
Pornography increases crime in dangerous offenders. More than 65 studies
have shown that dangerous offenders (child molesters, killers, rapists, incest
fathers) are not only more likely to commit their crimes if they employ
pornography, they are likely to precede their violent acts with the extended use
of deviant materials. Male sex offenders soon begin to display addictive and
compulsive behavior when using porn. Their mechanisms for relieving stress soon
all become related to deviant sex. They offend more and more often.
About two million pedophiles, rapists, child molesters,
sadists, and those who solicit teenaged or child prostitutes commit more than
two million crimes annually. This number accounts only for those incidents that
are reported--the total number is obviously much higher.
Those who naively cling to the belief that pornography is 'victimless' should
wake up and look at the facts. Thousands of persons have been tortured, raped,
and murdered by warped human beings as a direct result of pornography. There are
thousands of such cases cramming police files all over the nation.
Ted Bundy. Ted Bundy, an infamous serial killer responsible for the
murder of as many as 36 to 50 young women and girls, granted an interview with
Dr. James Dobson on January 24, 1988, the day before he was executed. Ted Bundy
stated in this interview, "In the beginning, it [pornography] fuels this kind of
thought process ... Like an addiction, you keep craving something that is
harder, harder, something which gives you a greater sense of excitement--until
you reach a point where the pornography only goes so far, you reach that
jumping-off point where you begin to wonder if maybe actually doing it would
give you that which is beyond just reading or looking at it."
Arthur Gary Bishop. Arthur Gary Bishop, who was executed in Utah in 1983
for sodomizing and killing five boys aged 4 to 13, stated that: "Pornography was
not the only negative influence in my life, but its effect on me was
devastating. I am a homosexual pedophile convicted of murder, and pornography
was a determining factor in my downfall."
The Miami Pillow Case Rapist. FBI scientists at Quantico, Virginia,
commented on the role of pornography and its effect upon the Miami Pillow Case
Rapist: "He collected Playboy, then Penthouse magazines ... and dreamed of rape.
Then he slipped over the threshold of fantasy into the reality of sexual
assault."
FBI findings. The Federal Bureau of Investigation found that eighty
percent (29 of 36) of recent mass murderers used pornography extensively and
used it as an integral part of their murderous sexual activity, which often
included serial rape-murders. Some of these killers photographed their dead
victims and pasted cutouts of their faces on hard- and soft-core pornographic
pictures as preparation for their next 'kill.' The FBI and police nationwide
have reported finding extensive pornography collections in the homes of
virtually every mass-murderer and child molester that they arrest.
Pornography and Rape. Chapter 18 of the Attorney General Pornography
Commission's study noted that the eight major men's magazines (Playboy,
Penthouse, Hustler, Chic, Club, Gallery, Genesis, and Oui) have a circulation
rate five times higher in Alaska and Nevada than in North Dakota. It is very
significant that the rape rates in Alaska and Nevada are eight times higher than
in North Dakota!
Conclusions. Other researchers have confirmed that 64 percent of all
homosexual child molesters and 86 percent of all rapists used pornography at or
immediately before the time of their crimes.
The great damage caused by pornography
Father John Hampsch, a psychologist, has seen reports of demonic interference:
"The most obvious way we let Satan into our lives is through sin. Serious and
habitual sin can be a gateway. An innocent person can be affected by hexes or
curses but I would say most cases of possession needing serious deliverance come
about through involvement in the occult, with practices such as Ouija board or
tarot cards or some kind of New Age practice. The other form is through some
kind of sin addiction such as alcohol, drugs or pornography. A case I was
dealing with recently was addicted to pornography and he suffered from demonic
manifestations."
The Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for Social
Communications states, "Pornography and sadistic violence debase sexuality,
corrode human relationships, exploit individuals, especially women and young
people, undermine marriage and family life, foster anti-social behavior, and
weaken the moral fiber of society itself."
Parents must remove pornographic material from
their homes
Pornographic material is one of the major factors destroying the innocence of
children and young adults today. There is no way, without a special grace, that
children will remain pure of heart with this material accessible within their
homes. The warning in the Bible about prostitutes can also be applied to the
sinful images of pornography: “With her many persuasions she entices him; with
her flattering lips she seduces him. Suddenly he follows her, as an ox goes to
the slaughter...” (Proverbs 7:21-22)
When people become involved in immorality, they often become angry and people
around them are often as a loss to understand why they have become so
unmanageable. A person addicted to pornography often does not make the
connection that they are angry and unhappy because of their immorality.
Parents need to be firm and say, “We can’t have this material in the house.”
Priests who have dealt with families plagued by pornography insist that parents
must be very firm and remove all material, all catalogs, all videos, all
magazines, anything of a pornographic nature in the house. For those who are
addicted (have acquired the vice) to reading pornographic material, they may
even have to be deprived of using the computer (or at least have a filter
installed), as pornographic material is so easily accessible through the
internet.
A particular problem with some parents is that many are in denial regarding
their child’s viewing of pornography. In pride or weakness, some parents are
afraid that exposing their child’s problem will “reflect badly” on their status
as a good parent. They may even lie to cover over the fact that their child is
addicted to this material. But if a parent is truly loving, the first concern
will be the salvation of their child and will not fear any embarrassment or
shame that may result from dealing firmly with the pornography problem. It may
be difficult eradicating the problem, but it is the right thing to do, the
loving thing to do. The longer this problem is allowed to take root in a family,
the greater the damage and the harder it will be to reverse the situation.
The material must be eliminated from the house entirely, so that no one may be
tempted to fall again into sin. Parents can be accessories to the sin of their
children by silence, defense of the evil done, or by not punishing the evildoer.
It is not true that a parent is helpless in the face of this problem. Firm
measures need to be taken. Remember, Pornography destroys people interiorly:
“What are you reading but filth and pornography! You will
not save your soul in that manner. Your children will be lost to Heaven in that
manner. As parents you must treasure your children's souls. Keep them shining in
goodness and holiness and purity. Many children of tender age have been robbed
of this purity. Woe to the man who scandalizes the young!” (Jesus, August 5,
1978)
This problem is common, and very serious. Do not
underestimate the power that pornography has to warp the mind and imagination.
Women in a family marred by pornography are in constant danger from men who have
been twisted by this material. If you were to hear just one story from a woman
abused in her childhood as a direct result of pornography-inspired depravity,
you would understand that pornography is not “harmless,” but scars its victims
deeply for a lifetime. A family with a pornography problem may dysfunctionally
adapt to accommodate this perversion: family members often cope by denial,
silence, or looking the other way in a “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no
evil” manner. Wives and mothers will often lie to cover up the gravity of their
husband’s/son’s problem. Sons are exposed to the sin of their fathers, often
carrying the pornography vice into the next generation of the family. The
repercussions of this problem are incalculable, in its devastating effects on
family relations, in its power to warp the conscience and imagination, and in
its evil power to inflict apostasy away from the Catholic Faith.
If a child is exposed for years to this material, he/she may be weakened for a
lifetime and be easily susceptible to falling again and again into this vice.
That is why the material must be removed entirely, and it is very wise to seek
help through your parish priest (a good priest, not a liberal one who no longer
believes in hell or sin anymore), and also a good friend who will act as a
“guardian angel” to help his friend be protected and supported in changing his
behavior and living a life of purity once again.
If you or someone you know has a vice of viewing pornographic material, Pray to
Our Lady, the Queen of Purity, for the grace to lead a life of pure love and to
accept a man or a woman not as an object of lust, but as a person made in the
image of God, a temple of the Holy Spirit, someone to be loved, honored and
respected. Our Lady said, “Why is there no action, My children, to safeguard
your children?” When we arrive for judgment before Jesus after our death, let us
not have failed to protect our family and ourselves from this horrible spiritual
poison of pornography.
"Take from your homes diabolical literature.
It's an abomination in the eyes of your God for parents to have pornography in
their homes. They warp the minds of the young and shut the Kingdom of Heaven
from them; the doors remain closed.” – Jesus, July 25, 1979
Our Lady of the
Roses awesome Bayside Prophecies...
http://www.tldm.org/../Bayside/These prophecies came from Jesus, Mary,
and the saints to Veronica Lueken at Bayside, NY, from 1968 to 1995.
PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN "Mothers and fathers of the world, will you not protect the souls of your
children? You must take action against those who are propagating the evil.
Parents, have you examined what your children have been reading? Their eyes,
which are the mirror of the soul, are being polluted--their souls being
destroyed by the pornography being sold for profit and gain. Why is there no
action, My children, to safeguard your children? Many parents will cry bitter
tears of anguish, but too late, too late!" - Our Lady, August 14, 1975
SET UP TASK-FORCE TO STOP PORNOGRAPHY "My child, you must set up a task-force to stop the waves of evil in
pornography that is engulfing your country and the world. Action is needed!
There are many true spirits who will help you in this fight. It is truly a
battle of the spirits!" - Our Lady, August 14, 1975
A WAY OF LIFE "I ask that a task force be set upon the world to eliminate the products of
the forces of evil that seek to debase, destroy the souls of your children.
Remove from your homes the corrupters of souls: the pornography, the infernal
box—your television—and the destructor of souls, modesty and purity—the
nakedness of the body.
"Parents, you shall be judged for the destruction by permissiveness, of your
children's souls. Clothe them in goodness, holiness, and piety, and make modesty
a way of life for the young." - Our Lady, August 21, 1975
EXAMPLE OF QUEEN OF HEAVEN "The world must follow the example of the Queen of Heaven. Modesty, purity
of heart and purpose." - St. Michael, December 7, 1973
SACRED TEMPLE OF GOD "Impress, My child, upon your world the existence of hell that man seeks to
deny. There are fires of hell. These fires will be felt on those who have lost
their modesty to modernization, who expose the sacred temple of God, placed when
their spirit entered their body—expose them to ridicule! The flames will burn
every inch of that which is exposed." - Our Lady, November 20, 1971
AS BEFITS A WIFE AND MOTHER "Women shall not approach the sacred Body dressed as pagans, exposing the
temples of their spirit to shame! Cover yourselves, My children, or you will
burn!
"I repeat: women will dress as befits a wife and mother, clothing themselves
with modesty and holiness. Children will follow the example of their parents.
Therefore, if your example is poor, your children will be your thorns. The sins
of the parents are surely visited upon the children." - Our Lady, March 18,
1975
We
encourage everyone to print or email copies of this web page to all the Bishops
and all the clergy. Also, email or send this web page to the news media
and as many people as possible.
Pornography:
one of the greatest enemies of the family today
