Pope Francis, in a recent address, called sexual pleasure a ”gift from God” while talking about the dangers of pornography. According to the Guardian, the 87-year-old religious leader told his followers on Wednesday that ”sex was something to be cherished”, but it is ultimately being ”undermined by pornography.”
”We must defend love. Winning against the battle of lust can be a lifelong undertaking,” he said. The Pope, born in Argentina, warned that porn could give rise to addictive behaviours, and that lust leads to a ”dangerous vice.”
“Lust plunders, it robs, it consumes in haste, it does not want to listen to the other but only to its own need and pleasure; lust judges every courtship a bore, it does not seek that synthesis between reason, drive and feeling that would help us to conduct existence wisely,” the pope said, according to the Telegraph.
This is not the first time the head of the Roman Catholic Church has spoken about the dangers of porn. In October 2022, he called soft porn a temptation that “weakens the priestly heart”. He also admitted that he was aware of priests and nuns who watched porn, and advised them to remove temptation by eliminating it from their phones.
“Each of you thinks if you’ve had the experience or had the temptation of digital pornography. It’s a vice that so many people have, so many laymen, so many lay women, and even priests and nuns,” Pope Francis said.
“And I’m not just talking about criminal pornography like child abuse, where you see live cases of abuse: that’s already degeneracy. But of the more ‘normal’ pornography,” he continued.
Lately, Pope Francis–one of the most progressive leaders of the Catholic Church–has been quite frank while discussing topics of sexuality. Last year, he formally approved allowing priests to bless same-sex couples as long as they are not part of regular Church rituals or liturgies. He responded to the criticism from some priests who refused to implement the new rules, suggesting that those in the Catholic Church who have resisted it have jumped to “ugly conclusions” because they do not understand it.
Before that, he also praised the virtues of sex in a documentary released in April 2023, calling it “one of the beautiful things that God has given to the human person.”
“To express yourself sexually is a richness. So anything that detracts from real sexual expression lessens you and depletes this richness,” he also said, referring to masturbation.
