In this article, which was originally a talk given at the annual Courage and EnCourage conference in July 2009, at Villanova University, I first discuss the pastoral letter of Bishop Robert W. Finn on the Dignity of the Human Person and the Dangers of Pornography. Then I summarize St. Augustine's theory concerning the necessity of a united will to overcome an addictive habit, specifically, his insights into the freedom of the will and other aspects of the will. I propose that Augustine's insights be used as an important part of the pastoral approach to helping a person addicted to pornography.
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References
1.
RobertBishop, FinnW.Blessed Are the Pure in Heart: A Pastoral Letter on the Dignity of the Human Person and the Dangers of Pornography (New Haven, CT: Knights of Columbus Supreme Council, 2007). Copies can be obtained from the Knights of Columbus, P.O. Box 1971, New Haven, CT 06521-1971 or phone (203) 752-4018. It is also available online at the CatholicCulture.Org website at http://www.catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?id=7438.
2.
Professionals in various fields are themselves reflecting on the consequences of pornography. The Witherspoon Institute at Princeton is currently engaged in a two-year project, “The Social Costs of Pornography,” to examine the nature of pornography in its moral and social consequences. In December 2008, they held a study meeting where the most up-to-date research was presented and discussed by leading experts in the fields of psychiatry, psychology, neurophysiology, philosophy, sociology, law, and political theory. The results of this study, with recommendations, are soon to be published.
3.
I give attention to Augustine's section on aspects of the will because bad habits can easily become addictions, as we know from habits of smoking, drinking, shopping, and sexual disorders. There is a fine line between bad habit and addiction. Augustine's habit of impurity came close to sexual addiction.
4.
FinnBlessed Are the Pure in Heart, 6.
5.
FinnBlessed Are the Pure in Heart, 6–7.
6.
FinnBlessed Are the Pure in Heart, 8.
7.
FinnBlessed Are the Pure in Heart, 9.
8.
FinnBlessed Are the Pure in Heart, 12.
9.
Published by Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1993.
10.
FinnBlessed Are the Pure in Heart, 7.
11.
FinnBlessed Are the Pure in Heart, 14–15.
12.
The importance of this is explained by St. Ignatius of Loyola in the Spiritual Exercises, rule 13 of his guidelines for the discernment of spirits.
13.
Published by the Daughters of St. Paul.
14.
Published by the Daughters of St. Paul. 16.
15.
Published by Ascension Press, West Chester, PA, in 2007.
16.
HarveyJohn F. O.S.F.S., Moral Theology of the Confessions of Saint Augustine (1951; Eugene, OR: WIPF and Stock, 2009), 96.
17.
HarveyJohn F. O.S.F.S., Moral Theology of the Confessions of Saint Augustine (1951; Eugene, OR: WIPF and Stock, 2009), 97.
