MADISON — Pornography is not a topic most adults are comfortable speaking about. This is especially the case when it comes to parents addressing it with their children.
Regrettably, it’s the topic that’s becoming more and more necessary to address in our digital age. Too many parents, grandparents, and guardians think that internet-based pornography is beyond the interest of their children. We need to be informed on this matter. Statistics tell us another story.
Faced as we are with the ongoing specter of sin and even crime on the part of some priests, religious, and bishops of the Church, Bishop Robert Morlino has given clear direction that in the Diocese of Madison we will do all we can to continue to strengthen our efforts in the protection of children and vulnerable persons, to expand our work in oversight and transparency, and to increase our focus on rooting out sin at every level.
To that end, the following additional actions have already gotten underway in the past several months, with a great deal still to come:
• Prayer, sacrifice, reparation — Prayer alone cannot suffice where there is clear need for concrete and decisive action. However, the grace of God is essential in achieving any good and our prayers do have an effect. The Church has been wounded through the terrible sins of her members and her ministers, and there must be spiritual as well as practical efforts made to repair the wounds.
To this end, the bishop himself has undertaken added prayer, sacrifice, and reparation for the purification of the Church and the healing of victims. He has also called for the faithful in the diocese to join with him in these prayers.
• Review of all files — As many dioceses are now doing, the Diocese of Madison is in the process of scheduling a full, independent review of all priest personnel files. This will serve to make absolutely certain that not only have past cases been properly handled, but that historical instances of abuse are identified, even where no current victims might be known.
• Added work hours devoted to Safe Environment and Victim Assistance — Responsibilities have been shifted among diocesan personnel and work hours have been added through the separation of the previously combined roles of “Director of Safe Environment” and “Victim Assistance Coordinator.” This separation of roles has already allowed for greater focus on both the constant improvement of safe environment processes and on caring for the needs of victims and accusers.
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A growing concern today involves the role of pornography as the next generation’s instructor in human sexuality.
For many young people, pornography has become the only guide to sexuality they have ever known. For Catholic parents, this raises the critical challenge of how best to approach these matters with their children, given that kids as young as eight or nine may already be acquiring information and viewpoints about human sexual behaviors from internet pornography.
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A recent issue of Time Magazine features a fascinating and deeply troubling article on the prevalence of pornography in our culture.
The focus of the piece is on the generation of young men now coming of age, the first generation who grew up with unlimited access to hardcore pornography on the Internet. The statistics on this score are absolutely startling.
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Addiction can be extremely harmful, and in some cases, fatal for those individuals ensnared by it. It can be seriously disruptive and damaging to those around them.
Who is to blame when it comes to addiction? Family and friends may think to themselves, “Why can’t Jane just stop drinking?” Or, “Doesn’t Joe understand that his gambling addiction is bankrupting the family?” Or, “Can’t Bob see how his pornography habit is destroying his marriage and his relationships?”
For those facing addiction, it seems they ought to be able to recognize their behavior as harmful and turn away from it by a resolute decision. Family and friends, however, can face years of frustration when they see their loved ones fall into a slow motion “crash and burn,” spiraling downwards as they remain unwilling or unable to step away from their addiction.
Abortion. Euthanasia. Pornography as art. We are constantly debating issues we know to be objectively wrong. Yet, time and again in our discussions, we hit a brick wall: “Well, that’s what you believe, but don’t force your opinions on me.”
