by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI
“Pornography is insidious. It kills the soul, steals the heart and destroys the mind.” (Laurie Hall)
News of hackers stealing and sharing on social media and attempting to sell hundreds of photos of nude and semi-nude photographs of women and children is cause for concern in our beloved island.
While the police are right in warning the public that the viewing and sharing of the images constitute a crime, our nation should also be concerned about the moral crisis that we must address.
If we are to promote moral and spiritual values in T&T, we must raise our awareness of the harm that pornography can do to individuals and to society. This global epidemic is a multi-billion dollar ‘industry’. Our Catechism tells us that “pornography is a grave offense”:
“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.” (CCC2354)
Today’s Gospel, Luke 9:51-62, should remind us that once we “set our hands to the plough” and say we are followers of Christ, we must strive to abide by the teachings of Christ. God created us in His image and likeness, with a dignity that we should protect and promote.
As the World Team Foundation states: “The theological foundation against pornography begins with the premise that every human life has dignity and is sacred (Genesis 1:27). Thus, to be against pornography is to be pro-life. With this premise, therefore, illegal pornography should be opposed because: A. It exploits and degrades people B. It undermines families. C. It distorts personal and social relationships. D. It reduces the gift of sexuality to a level that lacks personal dignity, human tenderness, mutual love and ethical commitment that are part of God’s plan.”
A useful document on this issue is the US Bishops: Create in me a clean heart: A Pastoral Response to Pornography. It was approved at the Bishops’ Nov 2015 General Assembly. See: http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and dignity/pornography/index.cfm for access to the Pastoral Statement as well as other related resources.
Inter alia, it states: “Those who produce and distribute pornography harm the common good by encouraging and even causing others to sin… There are many victims of pornography. … All child pornography is automatically trafficking and a crime, because it involves the sexual exploitation of a minor for commercial gain and it is against the child’s will due to the inability to give consent…Many people struggle with pornography use, including faithful Catholics, people of faith, people of no faith, married and single people, fathers and mothers, the young and the old, clergy and those in consecrated life.”
Pope Francis has warned parents of the dangerous effects the internet can have on children – including internet “filth”: “There is dirty content, pornography, semi-pornography…” (June 2015).
In his post-synodal apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love), released on April 8, 2016, he criticises pornography as one of many negative messages that “can deform sexuality. Young people … should be helped to recognise and to seek out positive influences, while shunning the things that cripple their capacity for love.”
T&T’s Children’s Act, 2012 states that a person is liable to be imprisoned for ten years if he/she obtains, publishes, distributes or purchases child pornography. In October 2015, Justice Frank Seepersad noted when delivering his judgement on a “revenge porn” case: “The distribution of sexually explicit images including the uploading of such material unto the internet, without the consent of the depicted subject cannot be condoned in civilised society.”
Phil Burress, who was addicted to pornography for 25 years, is now President of the Cincinnati, Ohio-based Citizens for Community Values (www.ccv.org) warns: “If you want your young people to grow up thinking that women and girls are to be used and abused, then ignore the problem. I hope that today’s parents will not ignore this problem.”
All people of goodwill are called to mobilise efforts to educate people about the dangers of pornography. Schools, in particular, should warn students about this evil.
If we are to build a culture of life, a culture of peace, we must reject pornography. Let us pray and work to rid the country and the world of this destructive evil.
