Sermons in plain English on Catholic dogma, doctrine, and devotion.
What and who is Audio Sancto?
Audio Sancto is a website created and maintained by Catholic laymen who record and publish sermons [traditional minded homilies] by Catholic priests, with the permission of the priests who preach them.
I know, I know, another post on porn - what is this guys deal right? Well, it would seem that unless someone gets the facts out to the people in the streets few know how damaging or addicting pornography can be. And, really I don't know too many people who are soooo strange that they actually search out pastoral letters from Bishops (hidden jems if you ask me) and obscure studies performed by groups that the average person walking down the street won't look come by in passing. What prompted this post was a sermon I heard yesterday at Mass, along with a dinner conversation later that evening. The following is a brief summary of what the sermon and conversation consisted of last night.
Sources: Blessed Are the Pure In Heart - A Pastoral Letter on the Dignity of the Human Person and the Dangers of Pornography -- Most Reverend Robert W. Finn, Bishop of Diocese Kansas City ~ St. Joseph
The following is just a sample, I realize that most people do not want a 22 page document to read - if you do, the link is above.
The scope and costs of Pornography
According to 2004 IFR research, U.S. porn revenue exceeds the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC (6.2 billion). Porn revenue is larger than all combined revenues of all professional football, baseball and basketball franchises. The pornography industry, according to conservative estimates, brings in $57 billion per year, of which the United States is responsible for $12 billion. Internet Pornography and Loneliness: An Association? Vincent Cyrus Yoder, Thomas B. Virden III, and Kiran Amin. Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, Volume 12.1, 2005.
The Internet accounted for US $2.5 billion of the adult industry’s revenues. Dirty Downloads Ready to Go on iPods, Ron Harris, www.macnewsworld.com, 2005.
According to a March, 2004 figure, there were 800 million rentals each year of adult videos and DVDs Overdosing on Porn, Rebecca Hagelin. http://www.worldandi.com/.
Current estimates are that $20 billion is spent annually on adult videos (sales and rentals).
Half of all hotel guests order pornographic movies. These films comprise 80% of inroom
entertainment revenue and 70% of total in-room revenue. Sex-Film Industry Threatened With Condom Requirement, Nick Madigan. The New York Times, 24 August, 2004 .
Cable pay per view amounted to $2.5 billion.
Magazines accounted for $7.5 billion. Scope of Internet Pornography
In 2004, there were 4.2 million pornographic websites; 372 million pornographic pages.
Daily there were 68 million pornographic search engine requests (25% of requests).2003.
Sex is the number one topic searched on the Internet. Overdosing on Porn, Rebecca Hagelin. www.worlandi.com, March, 2004.
Daily there are 2.5 billion pornographic emails (8% of total emails). 2004.
The most common ways people have accidentally reached pornographic content on the Web are pop-up windows (55%), misrepresented links (52%), misspelled URLs (48%) and auto links within emails (23%) Fifty Percent of Workers Spend Nine Days a Year on Personal Surfing at Work. Cerberian Inc. and SonicWALL, 20 July 2004 .
There are 100 thousand websites offering illegal child pornography (U.S. Customs
Service estimate). Adult Internet Pornography Statistics
70% of 18 to 24 year old men visit pornographic sites in a typical month. 66% of men in their 20s and 30s also report being regular users of pornography. First-person: The Culture of Pornography, R. Albert Mohler, Jr., Baptist Press, 28 December 2005 .
20% of men and 13% of women surveyed admitted to accessing pornography at work. Internet Pornography Statistics. Internet Filter Review, 2004.
There are 40 million US adults who regularly visit internet pornography websites
One out of three visitors to all adult web sites are women.
Women favor chat rooms two times more than men. Effects of Pornography
40% of adults surveyed believe that pornography harms relationships between men and women. Consensus Among American Public on the Effects of Pornography on Adults or Children or What Government Should Do About It, Harris Poll, 7 October 2005. http://www.harrisinteractive.com/.
30 percent of surveyed adults said their partner’s use of pornography made them feel more like a sexual object Marriage Related Research, Mark A. Yarhouse, Psy.D. Christian Counseling Today, 2004 Vol. 12 No. 1. August, 2004.
One out of every six women grapples with addiction to pornography. Internet Pornography and Loneliness: An Association? Vincent Cyrus Yoder, Thomas B. Virden III , and Kiran Amin. Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, Volume 12.1, 2005.
47% of Christians surveyed said pornography is a major problem in the home.
As little as six hours exposure to soft core porn (anything designed to arouse one sexually) is enough to destroy the viewer’s satisfaction with his or her spouse; decrease the value of faithfulness; decrease the ability to be with one person and cherish that person; and increase the thought that women enjoy rape. Survey 2004 Children and the Internet
Children use the Internet. 96 percent of kids have gone online; 74% having access at home and 61% use the Internet on a typical day. Kids stay connected, USA Today snapshots. 5 January, 2004.
In a survey reported in 2000, 21 percent of teens say they have looked at something
on the Internet that they wouldn’t want their parents to know. A World of Their Own. Newsweek, 8 May 2000. Children Internet Pornography Statistics
90% of 8-16 year olds using the Internet have viewed pornography on line (most while doing homework). 2004
Eleven years old is the average age of first Internet exposure to pornography. 2004.
Among underage viewers of pornography, children 12 years old to 17 years old are the largest consumers of Internet pornography. 2004.
A survey of 600 households conducted by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children found that 20% of parents do not know any of their children’s Internet passwords, instant messaging nicknames or email addresses. Only 5% of parents recognized the acronym POS (parent over shoulder) and only 1% could identify WTGP (want to go private?), both of which are used frequently by teens when instant
messaging Ads target online victimization of children. USA Today, 20 May 2004.
Incidents of child sexual exploitation have risen from 4,573 in 1998 to 112,083 in 2004, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Reports of Child Exploitation up. USA Today Snapshots, 17 February, 2005 .
Child Pornography generates $3 billion annually. Internet Filter Review. 2004.
[Many people wonder why I harp so much on men being real men - if Men were Men this would not need to be a post.]
Next -
The Social Costs of Pornography, a study performed by The Witherspoon Institute.
The consultation on "The Social Costs of Pornography was organized by the Witherspoon Institute in conjunction with the Institute for the Psychological Sciences in Washington, DC and held at Princeton University, December 11 - 13, 2008. The consultation was hosted by Robert P. George, Senior Fellow of the Witherspoon Institute and McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University. This meeting assembled leading experts in the fields of psychiatry, psychology, neurophysiology, philosophy, sociology, law, and political theory to present a rigorously argued overview of the problem of pornography in our society and to make recommendations. The primary purpose of the meeting was to examine the real nature of pornography in its moral and social consequences.
It is essential to note the scholars who participated in this consultation represent a wide range of political perspectives, but share a common interest in addressing pornography's devastating social cost. At the two-day-long consultation, ten scholars delivered papers on subject-specific aspects of pornography's impact, and approximately twelve scholars served as discussants throughout the meeting. This format ensured that the papers will be energetically critiqued in order to promote a fair and in-depth assessment of the issues in question.
NOTE: The following videos may contain graphic language that conveys the reality of contemporary pornography and its impact on men, women, and children.
Pornography's Effect on Interpersonal Relationships
We have more pictures (BB Picasa Pics) from the retreat at Angels Lake. Thanks to BB for the pics, the conversation, and the use of his chair after he went home. Also, a BIG thanks to his wife for allowing him to come, as they had a child less than two weeks before the retreat. May God bless her for that great sacrifice.
The Oratory of St. Francis of Assisi finally gets a website - and not a shabby one at that. The site was added very recently and fills a void that many of the faithful have wanted. When doing a search for St. Francis, many are directed to the diocesan website, which leaves a bit to be desired.
"Pax et Bonum!
Welcome to St. Francis of Assisi Church, an Oratory of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. All of the Sacred Rites celebrated at St. Francis are exclusively conducted to the Liturgical Books of 1962. St. Francis is at the service of, and open to all the Faithful of the Diocese of Lincoln by the expressed permission of His Excellency Fabian Wendelin Bruskewitz. The church is newly renovated and is open daily for liturgy, devotions, and meditation. Masses are offered daily and Confessions are heard before every Mass. Visitors are always welcome and we look forward to meeting you. May God reward you!"
In Jesu et Maria, Rev. Fr. Roberto Cano, FSSP
At the website you can find out more regarding the Traditional Latin Mass, the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, Mass times, photos, and more. Please take some time to browse, learn, and then come enjoy the beauty that is found in the Traditional Mass.
Excerpt from a newsletter from Steve Wood at Dads.org
September 2010, Volume 16, Issue 4
Smart Fathers and Smartphones One of the goals of a smart dad is to find a job or profession that supports the family financially and that also allows him to get home for dinner with the family. I realize that some special situations and professions make regular family dinners a goal difficult to achieve. Nevertheless, it should be a father’s goal to have regular dinners with the family. It’s one of the simplest ways to build family solidarity and to keep teens from submerging into negative peer culture.
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia has released their fifth special report on the importance of families eating together. Here’s what they discovered:
“Over the past decade and a half of surveying thousands of American teens and their parents, we have discovered that one of the most effective ways parents can keep their kids from using substances is by sitting down to dinner with them. Compared to teens who have frequent family dinners (five to seven per week), those who have infrequent family dinners (fewer than three per week) are:
• Twice as likely to use tobacco or marijuana; and
• More than one and a half times likelier to use alcohol.
The research shows clearly how important it is to get to the dinner table with your kids.”
This year’s special report looked into the effect of Blackberries, cell phones, smartphones, and other electronic gadgets on family dinners. The researchers found that electronic disruptions sabotaged the positive effect of family meals. For family meals to have positive effects fathers and all other members of the family can’t be texting and focusing on a smartphone every time it vibrates. The researcher’s advice was simple, clear, and direct: all members of the family should turn off all phones and electronic gadgets during family meals.
I concur with the advice from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse. Smart dads turn off smartphones during family meals.
Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI on Sports “Sports are not merely the exercise of muscles, but the school of moral values and of training in courage, in perseverance, and in overcoming laziness and carelessness. There is no doubt that these values are of greatest interest for the formation of a personality, which considers sports not an end in itself but as a means to total and harmonious physical, moral and social development.”
(John Paul II, 1984 Address to European Olympians in L.A.)
“Sport has a notable educational potential above all in the realm of youth and, because of this, it is of great importance not only in the use of free time, but also in the formation of the person. Hence, it is necessary that, in our time – in which we see the urgent need to educate the new generations – the Church continue to support sports for young people, fully appreciating also competitive activity in its positive aspects, as for example, in the capacity to stimulate competitiveness, courage and tenacity in the pursuit of objectives avoiding, however, all tendencies that pervert its very nature with recourse to practices that are also dangerous to the organism, as is the case of doping.”
(Benedict XVI, 2009 Address to Pontifical Council for the Laity’s seminar on sports and education)
Vampires The latest stage of the descent into the occult paganization of youth is the vampire craze. The Twilight vampire-romance novels, movies, and DVDs are a runaway success. The first Twilight film grossed over $392 million worldwide. The first Twilight book stayed on the New York Times Best Seller list for 91 weeks. The Social Security Administration reports that Bella, the love-struck heroine in the Twilight tales, is now on the list of the top 200 girls’ names. It says a lot about our culture when parents name their baby daughter after a girl who turns into a vampire.
A few months ago, I called a Catholic priest out-of-state whom I had never met or spoken to before. He was shaken when I called, having just hung up the phone from talking to his priest friend. It seems that two teenagers had called his friend asking the priest if he could put them in touch with a vampire. This depressing call revealed just how debased and toxic our culture has become.
A Barna research report (Teens and the Supernatural – Barna.org) found that “three quarters of America’s youth have engaged in at least one type of psychic or witchcraft-related activity, beyond mere media exposure.” The report stated that 77% of Catholic youth have experimented with psychic and witchcraft-related activities (such as: consulting Ouija boards, participating in séances, casting spells, mixing magic potions, etc.).
Here are a couple of good resources for fathers seeking to protect themselves and their teens from the vampire plague:
The Spiritual Counterfeits Projects, an Evangelical anti-cult and occult organization, has a special issue of its journal devoted to the vampire craze.
The well-known Catholic author, Michael O’Brien, has written a book entitled Harry Potter and the Paganization of Culture.
Although O’Brien masterfully analyzes the literary value of Potter, Twilight, and other fantasy literature, the chief value of this book is its mature spiritual discernment. Many Catholics have made a huge mistake thinking that the chief questions about the Potter and Twilight novels are primarily questions of literary merit. This notion completely misses the threat posed by these novels which is deceptive and attractive spiritual portrayals of the dark side.
Consider that the unparalleled success of both the Potter series and the Twilight series came from authors who say that their stories just burst into their minds. Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight novels, said, “Bella and Edward were, quite literally, voices in my head. They simply wouldn’t shut up.” J.K. Rowling said that “the character of Harry Potter just popped into my head, full formed. Looking back, it was all quite spooky!” Are these just two literary coincidences or two inspirations from the demonic?
O’Brien warns, “Christian parents everywhere are facing the dilemma of raising their families in the midst of a tsunami of cultural corruption.” Teens calling a Catholic priest for help in locating a vampire, parents naming their daughters after Bella the vampire, and the extreme popularity of all things related to vampires, are just three indications of the paganization tsunami sweeping over our land. O’Brien’s book carries my strong recommendation for those fathers who desire wisdom in protecting their children from an invasive cultural corruption.
"Toward the Heights"............
A common phrase used to describe Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati's life. Bl. Pier Giorgio saw life as a way to always reach the top - whether it be climbing the Mountains of Europe or, more importantly, reaching the heights in his Spiritual Life as well.
May the man of Beatitudes pray for us that we may have the same drive and desire to serve Our Lord as we serve others.
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