Pope Francis passed away on April 21, 2025, which was also Easter Monday. As the Church and the world mourn his passing and remember his impact, we want to take this opportunity to recall some of his teachings about this issue of pornography.
Responding with Compassion
Pope Francis recognized the problems posed by pornography for the Church and for the world, and he spoke out powerfully against it. But he had tremendous compassion toward those who struggle with pornography. Beyond being the pope, he was also a priest, who heard many confessions throughout his life as a priest.
Pope Francis stated early in his papacy that he viewed the church as a field hospital that needs to attend to the wounds of people.[1] Those who view pornography have wounds, and he knew this. Having said that, it is worth our time to read and meditate upon the words of Pope Francis on pornography, and appreciate the way in which he spoke out powerfully against it.
The Two-fold Danger of Pornography
Pope Francis understood well how pornography damages both the participants and the viewers. He told a group of priests and seminarians that “pornography weakens the soul and the priestly heart.”[2] He understood the technology involved and told the same group to set up their phones and computers to block all access to pornography.[3]
He was aware that technology, and therefore, pornography, affects both adults and children. In an address to the participants in the congress on child dignity in the digital world he said:
“We have to keep our eyes open and not hide from an unpleasant truth that we would rather not see. For that matter, surely we have realized sufficiently in recent years that concealing the reality of sexual abuse is a grave error and the source of many other evils? So let us face reality, as you have done in these days. We encounter extremely troubling things on the net, including the spread of ever more extreme pornography, since habitual use raises the threshold of stimulation; the increasing phenomenon of sexting between young men and women who use the social media; and the growth of online bullying, a true form of moral and physical attack on the dignity of other young people. To this can be added sextortion; the solicitation of minors for sexual purposes, now widely reported in the news; to say nothing of the grave and appalling crimes of online trafficking in persons, prostitution, and even the commissioning and live viewing of acts of rape and violence against minors in other parts of the world. The net has its dark side (the “dark net”), where evil finds ever new, effective and pervasive ways to act and to expand. The spread of printed pornography in the past was a relatively small phenomenon compared to the proliferation of pornography on the net.”[4]
Taking a Stand Against Pornography
Not only did Pope Francis reiterate frequently the teaching of the church about pornography, but he also advocated legal action against pornography. He recognized that pornography is a public health crisis, and that we all have a role to play in combating it. In an audience with the members of the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe on October 6, 2022, he said:
“We should also speak about the scourge of pornography, which has everywhere burgeoned due to the internet, can only be condemned as a continuing attack on the dignity of men and women. It is a matter not only of protecting children – an urgent task of the authorities and of all of us – but also of declaring pornography as a threat to public health. “We would be seriously deluding ourselves were we to think that a society where an abnormal consumption of internet sex is rampant among adults could be capable of effectively protecting minors” (Address to the Participants in the Congress on “Child Dignity in the Digital World”, 6 October 2017). Networks of families, in cooperation with schools and local communities, have an essential role to play in preventing and combating this plague, and in bringing healing to those trapped in the maelstrom of addiction.”[5]
Porn and Godly Sexuality
Pope Francis did not see sexuality in a negative light. Rather, he saw pornography as something that takes away from what sexuality was created for by God. He also recognized the addictive nature of pornography.
In a teaching about lust during a general audience on January 17, 2024, Pope Francis said:
“Sexual pleasure, which is a gift from God, is undermined by pornography: satisfaction without relationship that can generate forms of addiction. We have to defend love, the love of the heart, of the mind, of the body, pure love in the giving of oneself to the other. And this is the beauty of sexual intercourse.”[6]
Pope Francis recognized that pornography is not just a bad habit or even just any kind of sin, but has strong ties to the devil. He even went so far as to call pornography both a language of the devil and a gateway for the devil. In his general audience on September 25, 2024, he remarked :
“Modern technology, for example, besides the many positive resources that are to be appreciated, offers also countless means to “give an opportunity to the devil”, and many fall in the trap. Think of online pornography, behind which there is a flourishing market: we all know this. It is the devil at work, there. And this is a very widespread phenomenon, which Christians should beware of and strongly reject. Because any smartphone has access to this brutality, to this language of the devil: online pornography.”[7]
Throughout his papacy, Pope Francis spoke out against the dangers of pornography, and warned of its strong connection to the devil. He knew that all of us are vulnerable to its impact, and he knew that pornography has impacted everyone in the church, including children, single people, married couples, and priests.
The Virtuous Use of Technology
Pope Francis advocated for the virtuous use of technology as well as for both clergy and laity to live lives of holiness. Though Pope Francis spoke out strongly against the evil of pornography, it was not to cast its users into the toxic shame that keeps them stuck, but to advocate for the dignity of the people involved who are being misused and to lovingly convict those who use pornography to never stop seeking God’s love and mercy.
We are grateful that Pope Francis spoke out prophetically against pornography, and we pray that the next pope does the same.
[1] https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2013/september/documents/papa-francesco_20130921_intervista-spadaro.html
[2] https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2022/10/pornography-weakens-the-soul-pope-tells-young-priests-seminarians
[3] Ibid
[4] https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/audiences/2024/documents/20240925-udienza-generale.html
[5] https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2022/06/10/0447/00922.html
[6] https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/audiences/2024/documents/20240117-udienza-generale.html
[7] https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/audiences/2024/documents/20240925-udienza-generale.html
0 comments.