VATICAN CITY—Pope Francis has warned the faithful against indulging in pornography saying it undermines sexual pleasure.
He spoke during a catechesis dedicated to the vice of lust at his weekly general audience in the Vatican on Wednesday.
The pontiff said: “Sexual pleasure, which is a gift from God, is undermined by pornography. Satisfaction without relationship can generate forms of addiction.
“We must defend love. Winning the battle against lust, against the objectification of other people, can be a lifelong undertaking. Chastity is a virtue that is not to be confused with sexual abstinence. Chastity is beyond sexual abstinence.
It is the will to never possess the other person.
“To love is to respect the other, to seek his or her happiness, to cultivate empathy for his or her feelings, to dispose ourselves in the knowledge of a body, a psychology and a soul that are not our own, and that must be contemplated for the beauty they bear. To love is beautiful”.
