bought with a price

Pastoral on Porn Prompts Nationwide Interest, Reprinting

By Gretchen R. Crowe
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the Issue of 4/12/07)

Extensive national interest in “Bought with a Price: Pornography and the Attack on the Living Temple of God,” Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde’s pastoral letter on pornography, prompted a second printing of the document this month, bringing the total amount of copies published to 17,500.
Widely believed to be the first pastoral letter written exclusively on pornography in the United States, “Bought with a Price” has, according to Communications Associate Joelle Santolla, “filled a void” for those seeking guidance on an issue that can be difficult and uncomfortable to address.
The initial order of 10,000 copies was depleted quickly, with requests coming from around the country and Canada via an online order form. An additional 7,500 copies are being reprinted this month. Santolla said that each diocesan parish received 100 copies, and one was sent to every U.S. bishop and every state legislator.
In the 23-page document, Bishop Loverde identifies the nature of the “plague” of pornography, specifically addressing youths and young adults, married and engaged couples, members of the clergy or religious orders, and anyone else who might be most tempted by pornography.
The bishop doesn’t sugar coat anything, making it clear that “those who engage in such activity with full knowledge and complete consent commit a mortal sin.”
Catholic blogs came to life in early December calling “Bought with a Price” a “hard-core pastoral” and “a great work in defense of all peoples.”
Because bloggers could link directly to the Web page with the pastoral letter, “for the first time, the home page wasn’t the most visited page, the ‘Bought with a Price’ page was,” Santolla said.
The letter is available in its entirety on the Web site, www.arlingtondiocese.org, without copyright in order to encourage anyone and everyone to print it and read it. Two shorter pamphlets, one targeting youths and young adults, the other married couples, are available for a quarter each.
“Those were two distinct audiences that we wanted to make sure the message got to,” Santolla said.
In February, Bishop Robert W. Finn from the Diocese of Kansas City, Mo., released “Blessed Are the Pure in Heart: A Pastoral Letter on the Dignity of the Human Person and the Dangers of Pornography.”
Paul D. Simoneau, director of the Office of Justice and Peace for the Diocese of Knoxville, Tenn., packages the two pastoral letters together to give out to groups and parishioners in Knoxville.
“Each has a different approach and the approaches complement each other,” Simoneau said, adding that he brings up the issue of pornography wherever he goes.
“To me, the family represents a huge justice concern,” he said. If pornography is undermining the family “then this had got to be a focus of this office.”
Simoneau printed copies of Bishop Loverde’s letter from the Web site before buying 300 copies (at $1 each), of which he has nearly run out. He distributed them to the Knights of Columbus, the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women, diocesan directors, parish men’s groups and the Catholic Campus Ministry at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
He sat down with his boys, 16, 15 and 13 years old, and walked them through the letter. He also talked about it with his oldest daughter.
“I have six children and three of them are boys and I don’t want to see their future vocations sidetracked by pornography,” Simoneau said. “It’s a drug — it’s as addictive, if not more so.”
Stewart Lagarde and his wife, parishioners at St. Patrick Church in New Orleans, have ordered 1,600 copies between the two of them to use on retreats and to pass out in local churches — anything to get copies into people’s hands.
“So many spoke to us and said ‘I’ve got to get this for my daughter’ or ‘I need two copies for my children at home’” Lagarde said. The letter was written “in a loving way that could reach people. It was inspired, beautifully written and very clear.”
Father Richard Rego, S.T.L., chaplain of the St. Gianna Latin Mass Community in Tuscon, Ariz., distributed 200 copies to the families in his community
because pornography is “a huge problem,” he said.
Father Rego said that the issue is destroying young Catholic couples.
“If a married man is watching this, he’s certainly not thinking about his wife” and vice versa, he said. “Our people are being sucked into this. Bit by bit, it’s filtering into their homes.”
Father Rego said Bishop Loverde’s letter “addressed the problem as well as it could be addressed.”
Bishop Loverde “has done a huge service not only to his own diocese, but to the American Church,” he said. “Anybody who takes the time to read it will come to the realization that (pornography) is a devil on the loose.”
Bishop Loverde’s and Bishop Finn’s letters are the “Holy Spirit’s response to get the Catholic world on the move to address the devil,” Father Rego said.
While interest spread throughout the country, it flared locally as well — something Santolla said was important.
St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church in Fredericksburg, St. Lawrence Church in Springfield, St. Rita Church in Alexandria and the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington all ordered additional copies. Christendom College in Front Royal ordered 375.
Anne Carroll, director of Seton School in Manassas, used “Bought with a Price” for her senior religion class’ unit on marriage.
Carroll said that her students learned both how pornography harms more than those directly involved and how it objectifies. They were most interested in the bishop’s concrete advice on dealing with the issue, and she suggested that the students write their thoughts to the bishop. About half of them did.
“It showed that they really did understand the letter and how important it was,” Carroll said.
Though she didn’t believe her younger students were mature enough to read the letter at school, Carroll said she did recommend it to parents and left it to their discretion.
“A lot of people don’t understand how pervasive it is,” Carroll said. “Everything we’re trying to do in Catholic school is going to be undermined if they’re viewing these kinds of images.”
The Office for Family Life gives copies of the letter to couples who are preparing for marriage as a “tangible Catholic document” on the subject that people can refer to, said Thérèse Bermpohl, director.
“I’ve heard from so many people — it’s been overwhelmingly positive,” she added. “It’s a well-written document that went right to the heart of the problem.”
Santolla said it was encouraging to see both local and national interest in “Bought with a Price.”
“You could really tell that bishop had filled a gap — that people were waiting for it without even knowing that they were waiting for it,” she said.
For more information go to www.arlingtondiocese.org/offices/communications boughtprice.html.

Gretchen R. Crowe can be reached at gcrowe@catholicherald.com.