UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
NCR Editorial Staff | Nov. 21, 2013
EDITORIAL Thirty-seven percent of male clergy of various faith traditions report Internet pornography as “being a current struggle,” and 57 percent of that group report compulsive Internet pornography use, according to a paper, “The Internet and Pornography,” delivered during a 2012 symposium on clergy sexual abuse sponsored by the Vatican at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Representatives of 110 national bishops’ conferences and 30 religious orders attended that symposium.
“The most significant signs of this vulnerability are issues related to loneliness and isolation, the lack of self-care, higher expectations of themselves, entitlement, and lack of education about this aspect of the Internet,” the paper said.
The paper notes that research on clergy and pornography use is too scant to make wide generalizations, and that no research on Roman Catholic clergy could be found, but initial impressions from the research that is available support a need for more study and seem “to suggest that clergy in the Roman Catholic Church will need better training and education on this issue.”
In July 2011, the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, commonly called the Dallas Charter, was updated to include child pornography in its definition of sexual abuse against a minor, a change necessitated by a similar change in canon law. The latest annual audit of diocesan compliance with the Dallas Charter found in the audit period (July 2011 to June 2102) that five clerics were removed from ministry solely because of allegations of possession of child pornography. That was about 2 percent of all allegations, but pornography is involved in a much higher percentage of all cases of sexual abuse of a minor by clergy.
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