When it is all said and done, one can unfortunately consider pornography to be but a mere symptom of a more serious malady and affliction.

That malady and affliction is the disease of infidelity – infidelity of husband to wife, father to his children and to his responsibilities as caretaker and head of the family, worker to employer, employer to worker, the priest to his vows, judges to defending the constitution, politicians to selflessly serving the people they represent, corporations to their customers, but most significantly, infidelity of creatures to their Creator. The list goes on and on.

As many Catholic leaders have recently stated, a renewed, steadfast spirit of fidelity is the best, surest and only remedy for our current plague of infidelity.

Our apostolate, the Serenellians, focuses on healing the individual along with his or her family within the context of recovery from addictions to pornography and lust in its many guises.

It is important to recognize that not just the individual, but the entire family must be healed because, as the family goes, so goes society.

Destroy the family through infidelity and what do you have? – a collection of selfish individuals.

Our society is all about "ME". Our culture espouses that I need only be faithful and subservient to "ME" and "ME" alone. I am the center of my own universe with all of creation revolving around me, my wants and my desires.

This is the twisted and perverse message that constantly bombards us and our children. All of the social ills that we are painfully experiencing today are the fruits of the "Greed is good" culture. Pornography is but one of these bad fruits.

It took a lot of time and a great deal of effort to transition from the loving, caring, nurturing society, selflessly conscious and aware of the needs of others that we once were, (at least as I remember it back in the late 50’s & early 60’s), to where we are now. So it will, of necessity, take just as much time and commensurately the same tremendous level of effort needed to turn us back around.

Society is but a reflection of the family.

Just as good fruits come from good trees, a healthy society mimics a healthy family.

Bad fruits come from sick and diseased trees - and families.

Ours is a society that mimics the dysfunctional family. In its reflection we see the addict in his wretchedness, his loneliness, his misery and hopelessness.

Before we can begin healing and recovery, we must recognize the addiction for what it is.

Not merely as individuals, but collectively as a nation we must admit that we have a problem.

Then, and only then, can we as Americans turn around and take that first step toward recovery.

Secondly, we must confess not only our sins but our helplessness and recognize the need for the strength and assistance in recovery that is beyond our own, that which comes from a higher power. We must turn back to God, seeking His help in light of our own pitiful collective weakness and ineptitude.

This is the most difficult step for us – recognizing that we aren’t really gods after all, rather, that there is but one living and true God who, in spite of it all, in spite of all of our bad behavior, our years in denial of Him who made us, that He still loves us enough to have given His life for us on the Cross.

Unfortunately, sadly as it sounds, we, addicted America, are still in denial.

We are still playing god. We haven’t yet hit bottom.

What can we do?

In short, we effect this desired social change by helping one addict at a time, one family at a time.

Each instance of working and helping to heal one person or one family, is, in and of itself, a significant step, an act of love taken toward the healing and reclamation of our entire society.

We make this struggle personal by touching these addicts one by one with love, compassion and forgiveness. We learn their names, we listen to their stories, we give them a sympathetic ear and, always under every circumstance, we pray on their behalf.

In this light, we quickly recognize that, as single solitary individuals, we do make a difference, regardless of how the enemy may try to deceive us.

It is ever important to keep in mind that our battle is not against mere flesh and blood but against principalities and powers. As such, this fight is on a different plane using non-conventional weapons.

Frontal attacks against this or that porn shop or agonizing over some unenforced law is futile.

Rather, by healing individuals from their addictions, the desire for pornography decreases, one addict at a time, one magazine and one video at a time, one store at a time. As the number of addicts drops, the demand for the drug also drops, eventually to the point of driving the availability of the drug into non-profitability and, ultimately, into non-existence.

There is no other way.

As Mother Teresa said, "God does not call us to do great things, but small things with great love."

Love is our weapon.

God Bless!

paul, for the Serenellians