Even Priests, Nuns Watch Porn Online, Says Pope As He Warns Of 'The Devil'

Taking up the issue of digital pornography, Pope Francis said: "It’s a vice that so many people have, so many laymen, so many laywomen, and even priests and nuns".

Pope Francis addresses pilgrims during his weekly general audience at Saint Peter's Square in the Vatican on October 26, 2022.

Source : AFP

New Delhi: Pope Francis has said that even priests and nuns have had the experience or the temptation of watching pornography online as he warned seminarians about the dangers of the same at a session in the Vatican. He said that it "weakens the priestly heart".

According to a report by the BBC, the Pope's statement came while he was responding to a question about how digital and social media should be best used.

He said pornography was "a vice that so many people have... even priests and nuns". "The devil enters from there," the Jesuit pope told priests and seminarians at the session, as quoted by the BBC.

On the use of social media and the digital world, the 86-year-old said that they should be used but he asked the priests and nuns to not waste too much time on it. He stressed that social media should be best used to “share the joy of being Christians”, AlJazeera reported.

"The pure heart, the one that Jesus receives every day, cannot receive this pornographic information," the BBC quoted the Pople as remarking.

“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 laywomen, and even priests and nuns,” the pontiff said, according to a transcript cited by AlJazeera.

“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 added.

“The devil enters from there. It weakens the priestly heart,” he warned.

The Pope has condemned pornography before. Earlier in June, he called it “a permanent attack on the dignity of men and women”. He had said that it should be declared a “threat to public health”.

In his latest address, Pope Francis also asked the group to "delete this from your phone, so you will not have temptation in hand". Church teaching considers pornography as an offence against chastity, the BBC report mentioned.