The Pope made the remarks during a session in the Vatican where he was responding to the question about how digital and social media should best be used.
Pope Francis has warned priests and nuns about cutting themselves off from Jesus by watching pornography online, saying pornography "weakens the priestly heart". According to the Pope, Jesus only receives pure hearts that aren't corrupted with pornographic content.
Pope Francis
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He was forward about the question of pornography among the Catholic leadership saying that "it is a vice that so many people have… even priests and nuns."
However, he cautioned that it is only a way for the devil to corrupt individuals and cut them off from Jesus.
“The devil enters from there,” the Pope told priests and seminarians.
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According to him, Jesus only receives those hearts that are pure, untainted by sexual mentation. That once the person allows such material in their heart, it cannot be accepted by Christ.
In fact, the pure heart cannot host such sexual material.
“The pure heart, the one that Jesus receives every day, cannot receive this pornographic information,” he said.
On how to navigate social media and the digital world in general, the 86-year-old Roman Bishop said that people are free to use them. He asked only that they practice self control and not waste a lot of their time on the internet.
As for the Catholic leadership, he urged them to remove pornographic material and sites from their gadgets. That it will put space between them and the temptation to indulge such content.
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He advised the priests, nuns and seminaries to “delete this from your phone, so you will not have temptation in hand."
According to the church's teaching on chastity, pornography is an offence against the Catholic values.
