Church survey on porn addiction Bombay diocese studies impact of pornography

Posted on January 31, 2017, in UCANews

Survey seeks to understand its attitude toward work, relationships, family and community

Cover photo: A demonstration against internet pornography credit IANS

(Note: One of the longstanding complaints about the Catholic Church has been that it never believes or uses scientific and professional methods in James kottoormany of her pastoral activities due to which  many undertakings end up as monumental failures. It thinks that an ordained priest is competent to take up any work – running schools, colleges, hospitals, weeklies, TV Channels, anything where a lot of money rolls. All these areas need people with professional training and know-how. Priests are trained only to preach and pray, contemplata trader (hand over what is meditated over) not to handle money matters.

              Take one simple example. Why there are such a proliferation today of independent portals of news and views in the church? Because none of the official Church controlled weeklies (there are no English dailies so far even after 2000 years of church history) because none will be allowed to function professionally but only the ones which parrot the master’s voice. Authorities not ready to see, hear or read any unpleasant truth about themselves. To that extent they are now getting a barrage of unflattering revelations about them from independent channels run by the laity. For fear of competent laity they don’t even set up Parish Pastoral Councils (PPCs) and Parish Finance Committees (PFCs) in parishes and dioceses ordered by Vatican II more than fifty years ago.  Who is to blame if not themselves not ready to function transparently?

                    So it is very heartening to see Mumbai Archdiocese venture upon an open survey of threats caused by Pornography to family ties. It is in the right spirit of what Francis Papa did and is doing. What did he do before conducting two Family Synods? He ordered and conducted surveys of families before both the Synods. That the Church in India did not cooperate with him well is a sad story which shocked many. Christian families are sick. Let us make it undergo all kinds of medical tests to find out what afflicts them in the area of sexual behaviour starting with the impact of pornography on their moral conduct. james kottoor, editor)

 Mumbai: A Catholic archdiocese in India has taken up the country's first survey considering the effects of watching pornography in order to help counsel families for whom it has become an issue.

                 The online national survey, created by Bombay Archdiocese, aims to study pornography use across India, focusing on people aged 15 and above who watch pornography at least once a week. Bombay is India's largest archdiocese covering Mumbai (formerly Bombay), which is the biggest city in the country.

               The detailed survey enquires into the patterns of use among regular pornography viewers, seeking to understand their attitude toward work, relationships, family and community.


              The family service centre of Bombay Archdiocese, uses the term "porn addiction" to describe situations where pornography use has become associated with negative consequences.

"If we have good marriages, we will have good families. Happy and stable families are the foundation of a strong nation," said Father Cajetan Menezes, who heads the survey project as the director of the family service center.


               "There were regular complaints from wives that husbands forced them to watch pornography — a crime under Indian law," he said."When we looked around we found no credible Indian study on the impact of pornography on marriage and family. We wanted to study it," he said.


               The first phase of the survey began in 2014 in Mumbai among some 1,000 people, more than half of them between 15-25 years. Majority of the others in the survey were married. It found that pornography was in a "subtle way destroying families," said Father Menezes.

               "I call it the new plague. Very few see this as a problem, but we want to be prophets of our time and forewarn people. High-speed internet is becoming common and this addiction is going to grow very fast," he said.


                Father Menezes said the results of the first survey prompted them to conduct training seminars to help people recover from the addiction. They also started a support group called "Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous" that meets twice every month.


               Alwyn Dantis, coordinator of the project, said while the first survey was a general one, the current survey is a more detailed one. The earlier survey showed that "addiction is not easily identifiable but highly addictive" and negatively impacted responsibility and relationships.

 
               The present survey is still in the "data gathering phase and it is too early to reveal any findings. However, once we gather enough data we will be able to provide some preliminary findings," Dantis told ucanews.com

                       

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