Pope Francis has warned priests and nuns about the dangers of watching pornography online, saying it “weakens the priestly heart”.
The Pope, 86, was responding to a question about how digital and social media should be best used, at a session in the Vatican. Pornography, he said, was “a vice that so many people have… even priests and nuns”.
“The devil enters from there,” the Pope told priests and seminarians. As to how to navigate social media and the digital world, he said that they should be used but told them not to waste too much time on it.
“The pure heart, the one that Jesus receives every day, cannot receive this pornographic information,” he said. He advised the group to “delete this from your phone, so you will not have temptation in hand”. Church teaching sees pornography as an offence against chastity.
It is a vice that many people have, many laymen, many laywomen, and also priests and nuns. The Devil gets in that way,” Francis said Monday, according to the European Times.
“And I’m not just talking about criminal pornography like that involving the abuse of children, that is already degeneration. But pornography that is a little ‘normal.’ Dear brothers, be careful about this,” he warned seminarians at a meeting in Rome.
The famously tolerant 85-year-old pope had been asked by a student of the church whether devotees should use the technologies of the modern world, such as cellphones.
You have to use them, you have to use them just for that, as the help to get by, to communicate: That’s fine,” the pope said.
“There is another thing, which you know well: digital pornography. I’m going to spell it out,” he said. “The pure heart, the one that receives Jesus every day, cannot receive this pornographic information. That today, is the order of the day. And if you can delete this from your mobile phone, delete it.”
