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Published: June 15, 2007
“Disordered desires”
Catholic apostolate formed to help people overcome addiction to pornography
Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1997 film Boogie Nights explored the business of adult films and took place in California’s San Fernando Valley -- the porn capital of the world. The pornography produced in the San Fernando Valley reaches worldwide, and catering to those who want to see pornography remains the fastest growing business on the Internet.
 A new Catholic apostolate, the Serenellians (www.pornnomore.com), is trying to help those caught in the grips of pornography addiction. The Serenellians get their name from Alessandro Serenelli, who killed St. Maria Goretti in a fit of lust and later repented.
Paul Rasvage, 52, is an oil refinery engineer, family man and a self-confessed pornography addict (who no longer indulges). He started the website in 2002. “We exist to minister to those who wish to break their addiction,” he says.
Comparing pornography to the war on drugs and prohibition, Rasvage says he doesn’t believe that legal initiatives against pornography are enough. “Just trying to stop the illicit material is no good,” he explains. “You have to deal with the disordered desires, the root cause.”
Uncompromisingly Catholic, the Serenellians web site lists a number of available resources for fighting these desires, including Church teachings, documents and classics by saints. The flagship “weapon” is a workbook called Pure of Heart by Rosemary Scott, which offers spiritual counsel, practical advice and meditations on chastity and purity.
For Rasvage, combating pornography and its companion, masturbation, is made more difficult by the reluctance of the addicted to discuss their problem and a lack of Catholic teaching and counsel in homilies and in the confessional. “The Catholic clergy seems to be in a state of denial,” he says. “The sex scandals that we continue to go through are a result of their refusal to deal with this subject. There are a few brave souls out there -- Bishop Chaput in Denver, Bishop Loverde in Virginia and Bishop Finn in Kansas City are three who have ‘taken the bull by the horns’ and written on the subject.”
A common complaint from Catholic men is that many priests dismiss confessions of porn viewing and masturbation as “normal” or “nothing to worry about.” Rasvage says that the problem started after Vatican II because, “Since then, we’ve been taught to focus on God’s mercy, not His justice. But His justice is still there. If the Catholic Church reflects society as a whole, then the vast majority of Catholic men have a problem with pornography. That’s my educated guess.”
Rasvage’s solution is brutal self-honesty: “I must admit that I am a weak, disordered person as a consequence of original sin and I cannot heal myself without God’s grace. There is no remedy without God. It’s a lifelong battle”
The Serenellians web site gets between 3,000 and 7,000 “hits” per month. The largest number come from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, but people from other countries are starting to notice too. “We are viewed in China, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia,” says Rasvage. “A lot are starting to come from France.”
Posted Friday, June 15, 2007 4:27 AM By phil floersh
A real jewell in the Catholic Church's crown. Never heard of this apostolate but it is very necessary in today's world. The liberals hate it!!!!
phil
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Posted Friday, June 15, 2007 4:51 AM By Paul Tarsus
Yes the one who created all mankind and the universe is a God of infinite love and mercy. But God is also the one true just judge who will one day ask for an account of our lives when we are before this one and only true just God who is the ultimate just judge of all humanity. There will be no appeals to any higher courts, because God is the only judge that will count at the last judgement. Turn away from all sin and darkness while you all still can. God so loved us that he gave his only begotten son Jesus Christ to be crucified on the Cross for the foregiveness and redemption of all the sins of all mankind. This very same Jesus Christ even gave recourse to mankind to the Divine Mercy Chaplet in the 1930's to Saint Faustina as a last recourse to his Divine Mercy before his Second Coming. Today June 15, 2007, is the Feast Day of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. "Justified by Christ's sacrificial death, we shall be saved through him." (Rom 5,9) Today we celebrate the mystery of Jesus' love for us. He received us as children for his Father's sake; his blood was shed on the cross to make us whole; from the right hand of the Father he continues to send on us the Holy Spirit and to lead us on the past of eternal salvation as the good Shephed." Harden not your hearts. Turn away from all sin and darkness and seek forgiveness and it will be forgiven. Sacred Heart of Jesus have mercy on us on this the feast day of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in June, the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus!
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Posted Friday, June 15, 2007 5:37 AM By L. Allen
There's another website to see on this topic: www.dads.org
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Posted Friday, June 15, 2007 5:38 AM By Chuck
Homosexuals seem to be controllng all of America. In Assachusettes the pathetic crazy citizens could not even must 1/4 of all elected representatives in the state to ban man on man marriage!!! You can thank anti-catholic-bishop-O'Malley for this.
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Posted Friday, June 15, 2007 5:40 AM By stlouisix
God's Mercy is MEANINGLESS without His Justice! Stop and think about that for a moment. What is the need for mercy if God's justice is never a concern? The Bible says that "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God." We all better remember that when taking God's justice for granted as being "no real concern," i.e., trashing a much needed Gift of the Holy Ghost, Fear of the Lord, a filial fear out of respect for Who God is which is the ideal, albeit a terrifying fear of the damnation of eternal hell also serving its purpose. Hell is that very real place that is never preached about any more from our pulpits! Recall that final impenitence is the recognized sin against the Holy Ghost that is unforgiveable, per traditional Catholic teaching. A true contrition does not exist, and your sins are not absolved if you are impenitent, i.e., are not sorry for your sins with a firm purpose of amendment, a necessary part of any valid "act of contrition." Jesus forgave sinners but He also told them to "Go and sin no more," the latter conveniently forgotten in the modern Church increasingly unrecognizable as Catholic! God bless the people trying to tell the Catholic Truth, Who is a Someone, not a something, here in regard to the heinous evil that is pornography!
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Posted Friday, June 15, 2007 7:29 AM By Hhwest
What would be a root cause to be addicted to pornography?
I cannot imagine anyone wanting to sit and look at fility pictures. What is the point? How could anyone keep a pure mind and heart, if they indulge in something so stupid.
I think you would have to be "obsessed with an unnatrual and very selfish need; insanity comes to mind. Actually I guess you also could be possessed by the evil one to keep you in the Hell Hole.
There is no excuse for any priest to say it is "normal", when this kind of thing can lead to abuse of wives, abuse of children, rape and even murder. The priests who say this is normal will have a lot to answer for. It is good that they started this New Catholic apostolate, Serenellians, to try and save Souls. It sounds like pornography is a huge problem and all the Bishops and priests better be on board with promoting this program.
It is good that they s
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Posted Saturday, June 16, 2007 12:39 AM By Kenneth M. Fisher
Chuck,
They would have had the 1/4 if it had not been for ELEVEN "KNIGHTS" OF COLUMBUS who voted for the sodomites.
If you would like to read what I wrote about this scandal, email me at: crcoa@dslextreme.com, and I will reply with that article. I posted it on my Group Email and I will have it posted on our Website at: crcoa.com.
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founder & Chairman
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
crcoa.com
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Posted Tuesday, June 19, 2007 5:48 PM By Joanne
I don't really buy the idea of pornography "addiction," and I would have to guess that if it does in fact exist, it affects only a tiny percentage of people who look at porn. And even if porn addiction does exist, what then? Ban it because someone might become addicted to it?
It seems to me like the focus in this debate should be on the people in the porn. Porn is similar to abortion in the sense that no one freely enters into it. There is always some dysfunction and desperation there, which is of course what the producers of porn and abortion profit from.
And what do homosexuals have to do with the tidal wave of *heterosexual* porn out there?
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Posted Thursday, June 21, 2007 2:30 PM By Kenneth M. Fisher
Joanne,
By addiction they mean it is very compulsory! I myself had ecclesiastical permission to view it in order to fight it, and I can tell you that it was only by the Grace of God that I finally realized that I was becoming compulsive and had to make a clean break or perish!
Chuck, the count is now 12 Judas Knights and climbing!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founder & Chairman
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
www.crcoa.com
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Posted Sunday, September 09, 2007 8:08 PM By laura
I would like to ask for prayers from people because once again a caught my husband looking at porn..he promised last time(when i as pregnant )that he was not going to do it again. We marry in 2005 in a baptist churhc wih a ethodist pastor(his family is diferente religion)so I wanted to respect them but in december 2 2006 We married in a catholic church in my country and i was so happy..We had some ohter issues but nothing like this. I caught him touching himself while looking and it destroy me it hurt me it broke my heart. But i said i would not cry for him anymore and i did not. He cry and say he was sorry, I did not talk to him til later that day and i told him i love him but i'm not sue i can forgive him. And that he needs to admit he has an addiction.i think he got what i said I don't believe in divorce but neither in cheatting and he is doig that.But today he went to mass with me and ask the priest if he can talk to him so he is going tomake an app with the priest. So please pray that Jesus will fill his heart and that he will open it for the best thing there is GOD! he does not consider himself being any religion my daughter was baptized catholic and i will make sure she is because this is the true religion i just want him to get better and be part of this family.
Pray for us
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