MADRID, Spain (ChurchMilitant.com) – A Spanish bishop is sounding off against pornography, saying government efforts to curb its use will fail unless people learn the kind of Christ-like love that undergirds marriage and family.
Pedro Sánchez and Giorgia Meloni
Bishop José Ignacio Munilla, the bishop of Orihuela-Alicante, Spain, wrote in a message shared on Ash Wednesday that efforts in his home country that aim to protect minors from harmful online content fundamentally miss the mark.
The governments of Spain and others have announced initiatives to restrict access to pornography and certain violent or morally questionable content.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, a socialist, revealed in late January plans next summer to safeguard minors from these influences. This will include greater restrictions on minors’ online access, limits on youths’ mobile phone usage, and education that addresses “equality,” among other strategies.
His announcement follows a similar initiative by Italy’s conservative prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. Italy is requiring cell phone providers to filter porn from devices registered to minors, among other measures.
The fact that such politically disparate leaders have advanced policy to address pornography underscores the extent to which it has become a concern globally.
Experts claim violent pornography damages emotional education and contributes to increased sexual violence among teens. A 2020 survey of 13- to 17-year-olds in Spain found that 68% watched pornography in the past month, with over half having discovered it before age 12. Other studies have found that porn usage physically damages the brain.
Serial killer Ted Bundy, who cited pornography as fuel for his murder spree, said that the most common interest among serial killers is pornography, and that pornography “can reach in and snatch a kid out of any house today.”
Bishop Reframes the Issue
Bishop Munilla’s reflection amounted to a broader societal challenge in terms of how to combat pornography.
He delved into the evils of pornography, questioning the effectiveness and moral clarity of Spain’s undertaking.
The bishop argued the country’s efforts are insufficient — that they pose a superficial barrier to content that remains freely accessible to adults.
“Do we really believe that this initiative is a clear moral message aimed at our young people?” Munilla asked. “Or, on the contrary, is it just a mere technical obstacle that hinders young people’s access to content that is widely consumed by adults?”
He rued about the effort, “Basically, it is the same moral authority that a parent, a marijuana user, may have when he prohibits his child from smoking joints.”
He suggested a total ban on pornography could be more effective and morally consistent.
Munilla argued governments fail to tackle the root problem of pornography, which he equates to a form of prostitution. Through porn usage, he insisted, “the dignity of women is openly despised and humiliated, just like that of men.”
He expressed concern that prostitution has not been properly addressed.
The bishop noted the pervasive impact of pornography on society, saying that “the moral problem is very serious and widespread.”
Pleasure vs. Love
Reflecting on the broader cultural acceptance of pornography, Bp. Munilla suggested society has traded tangible enslavement for the intangible enslavement of pleasure.
He further observed:
In short, the border between good and evil is not [at] legal age. That which is radically bad for the adolescent is equally bad for adults. The prohibition of minors from access to pornography certainly has added reasons; but the greatest global challenge of our culture is to learn to love, so that we can reverse the trend towards the destruction of marriage and family, in which we are immersed.
He urged Catholics to grow in self-mastery during Lent in order to grow in their ability to love.
“Loving,” Bp. Munilla wrote, “is giving what cannot be bought or sold; is giving yourself. But in order to ‘be,’ it is first necessary ‘to possess’; that is, to possess ourselves.”
The bishop ultimately warned, “Porn kills love! Furthermore, with the passage of time we are realizing that when we separate love from sex, the latter becomes a drug with addictive power.”
Pope St. Paul VI
Pope St. Paul VI reaffirmed this concept in Humane Vitae, an encyclical on marriage, the family and the true meaning of human sexuality. He, too, warned of the societal damage that would result from the decoupling of marriage and sexuality.
The Catholic Church teaches chastity — the integration of sexuality in a relationship between a “complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman” in marriage or, for those who are not married, abstaining from sexual practices. Pornography, according to the Church, is a “grave offense” which “does grave injury to the dignity of its participants.”
According to Covenant Eyes, a program that helps people break addictions to pornography, 56% of divorces involve one party having “an obsessive interest in pornographic websites.”
