TITLE: Commentary on NCR Article: "Secret Epidemic"  NEW!

by Father Val J. Peter, JCD, STD, Executive Director, Father Flanagan's Boys Home

TITLE: "Secret Epidemic" 

(This article appeared in the March 14, 2004 Edition of the National Catholic Register

by Wayne Laugesen

TITLE: "PornNoMore.com" 

(This article appeared in the September 18, 2003 Edition of the Philadelphia Archdiocesan Newspaper - "Catholic Standard and Times")

by Susan Brinkmann

CS&T Correspondent

“I am struggling with an addiction to internet porn,” reads an e-mail from someone named Kemi. “And by the grace of God I have become totally disgusted with this bondage in which I find myself, and from which I am helpless to get myself out.”

“I have NO control,” another man writes about the same problem. “I have to be on this computer for business and yet to push the wrong button is so easy! I get lazy . . . and then its so easy to listen to Satan. Thank you for the courage to start this ministry. I feel like you are God-sent!”

These are just a few of the e-mails received on a new Catholic web site called PornNoMore.com. Created by Paul Rasavage of Maple Falls, Washington, the idea came while battling his own addiction to pornography.

Rasavage, a Catholic, was attending Sexaholics Anonymous (SA) at the time and found himself missing the sacramental aspects in faith dimension of the SA program. He began to mull over the idea of starting a support group for Catholic men and women that emphasized the sacraments and prayer as a way to overcome this ravaging addiction.

Like so many others, Rasavage’s first exposure to pornography occurred at the age of five when he discovered pornographic magazines hidden in the bureau of his uncle’s bedroom. Because the magazines were hidden, he knew they were somehow forbidden, which only made them more attractive. “Porn became the forbidden fruit,” he said, “a secret place to hide, to take refuge and seek relief from the world’s cares and personal problems.”

By the time he reached adolescence, conflicting messages about the use of pornography from the pulpit and society brought him confusion rather than clear direction. “Most of society looked on pornography as something benign and harmless. Hugh Hefner was busy elevating it to the level of social prominence and acceptability . . . . Most of us thought, “Nobody’s fighting back. It must be okay.’”

It wasn’t. The proliferation of pornography went on to reach epidemic proportions. A March 2000 Zogby poll reported that one in four American men seek sexual fulfillment on internet porn sites.

Almost a third (31 percent) of children aged 10-17 from households with computers said they have seen pornographic web sites.

The Attorney General Commission on pornography found that 12 -17 year old boys are among the highest consumer group of pornography. Even more alarming is a 1997 report from the Internet Online Summit revealing that an appalling 70 percent of children who view pornography on the Internet do so in public schools and libraries.

Not only is porn corrupting, it’s also dangerous to society. There has long been a well-proven link between crimes of rape, child and wife abuse, and the use of pornography. For instance, the Los Angeles Police Department in 1991 found that during in a period of ten years, two-thirds of all child molestation cases involved pornography.

One of out of every six persons in our federal and state prisons is a sex offender, and sex crimes are second only to drug crimes. As long as ago as 1988, the FBI reported that 81 percent of violent sex offenders regularly read or viewed pornography.

In spite of these grim statistics, a cavalier attitude about porn continues to pervade our culture. “As an engineer working in today’s business climate, I discovered that the occasional soiree into the local topless bar was acceptable practice. . . .” Rasavage said. “Often, the manager was part of the group in attendance, joking . . . that we were there to ‘interview secretarial candidates.’ We all fell into satan’s seductive snare.”

Rasavage sank deeper into his vice. “Over the years, the content of pornography became more and more extreme. The fundamental principle of any addiction is the need for more and more of the drug in order to achieve the same level of ‘high.’ Pornography is that drug. And for the sexual addict, our drug is also required in ever stronger and more potent doses.”

In the meantime, he had gotten married and started a family. “The idea that any of this was harmful to me, to my wife and children, to my marriage, didn’t even cross my mind. But deep down, I knew . . . . it was wrong. God worked on me . . . leading me to recognize the depths of depravity and addiction to which I had fallen. I had convinced myself that I was a good Catholic family man.” Although he gave the outward appearance of being a decent husband and loving father, on the inside, “I was a mess.”

Eventually, he hit rock bottom. “I reached a much more serious level of addiction than I had ever known before and it frightened me. I hated myself for what I had become. I realized two things: First, I needed to stop, and second, I couldn’t do it alone. I was truly helpless.”

He spoke to his parish priest who recommended the 12-step program, Sexaholics Anonymous. Even though there is a strong spiritual aspect to the program, Rasavage felt like something was missing - the sacraments.

One night, he and his family were watching a movie about a young Catholic man named Alessandro Serenelli whose use of porn and alcohol landed him in prison by the age of 20.

Serenelli had attempted to rape an eleven year old girl named Maria Goretti. When she refused his advances, he stabbed her to death. She lived for twenty four hours after the assault, long enough to tell a priest, “I forgive him and I want him to be with me in Paradise one day.”

During the eighth year of his confinement, the unrepentant Serenelli had a remarkable dream. Maria appeared to him, dressed in immaculate white robes. At first, he tried to flee, but she began to hand him beautiful white lilies, one by one, and entreated in a soft voice, “Take them!” He accepted the flowers, and as he did, the blooms changed into flaming lights that seemed to pierce his very soul. Before the dream ended, she had handed him fourteen flowers, one for each stab wound he had inflicted upon her. Just before departing, she said, “As I have promised, your soul shall someday reach me in heaven.”

As he watched her go, a profound contentment washed over his heart, cleansing it of all the lust, hatred, violence and despair. From that moment on, Alessandro Serenelli was completely converted.

Rasavage immediately connected with Serenelli. “If someone as corrupt and degenerate as Alessandro Serenelli can be converted and saved, so can any of us. . . . For that reason, I felt it was completely appropriate to name our apostolate the Serenellians, after him. His manifest example goes to prove that God always turns evil into an even greater good.”

Rasavage knew it was time to start his own Catholic group and decided that they claim Alessandro as their mentor. Calling themselves the Serenellians, members dedicate themselves, through prayer and work, to combating the evils of pornography. There are no dues or fees of any kind, just the commitment to “spiritually serve the suffering souls who are wallowing in the mire of impurity. . . .”

Rasavage is currently looking for a priest who is “internet savvy, perhaps semi-retired, who has experience in guidance and counseling addicts and who would be willing to fill the role of spiritual director for the Serenellians.”

Only God knows how many more Alessandro Serenellis can be found in the dark recesses of this vice. “I wish to be pure. I wish to be holy,” writes Eric, an unknown visitor to PornNoMore.com. I wish to be so in love with God, that my addiction is broken.”

The harvest is definitely ripe.