Is looking at Pornography a mortal sin?

[JesusmyLord]

I was on tweeter. Someone retweeted some woman who is fully nude. I searched nudes on twitter. But while i was searching I decided to uninstall twitter and pray the “In the name of Jesus, I bind yoi spirit of lust and send you to the foot of the cross to be Judged by our Lord.”
Is it a mortal sin to look at pornography?

 

[Greenfields]

It’s very good you chose to turn away from it,a very grave sin and possibly mortal .Now for confession.
God bless.

 

[Roseeurekacross]

do what greenfields says.

Is it twitter or tweeter?

 

[Vico]

…

Catechism

2354 Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials.

2521 Purity requires modesty , an integral part of temperance. Modesty protects the intimate center of the person. It means refusing to unveil what should remain hidden. It is ordered to chastity to whose sensitivity it bears witness. It guides how one looks at others and behaves toward them in conformity with the dignity of persons and their solidarity.

2522 Modesty protects the mystery of persons and their love. It encourages patience and moderation in loving relationships; it requires that the conditions for the definitive giving and commitment of man and woman to one another be fulfilled. Modesty is decency. It inspires one’s choice of clothing. It keeps silence or reserve where there is evident risk of unhealthy curiosity. It is discreet.

2523 There is a modesty of the feelings as well as of the body. It protests, for example, against the voyeuristic explorations of the human body in certain advertisements, or against the solicitations of certain media that go too far in the exhibition of intimate things. Modesty inspires a way of life which makes it possible to resist the allurements of fashion and the pressures of prevailing ideologies.

 

[Sophie111]

If by pornography you mean sexually explicit material or acts for the purpose of inciting lust then yes this is what we call grave matter. That is not spiritually or personally healthy.
Whether it is a mortal sin depends on the degree of consent you gave to it and how concupiscence arose and was encoraged or not.
It is not worth getting anxious about the distinction when it comes to grave matter. Simply go to confession, confess it, learn to be more vigilant about surprises on the Net and get into good social networks

 

[Lee1]

On a related note.
If I want someone to relate to me as a person, an individual and if you include religious sensibilities as a spiritual being then I need to be dressed.

If I want them to relate to me as a sex object then I need to be in various states of undress.

Pornography corrupts our view of individuals; their personalities, characters or their spiritual selves are of no interest to someone who habitually looks at pornography. Instead we reduce our experiences and become embittered by the hollow purposeless nature of our lives. And that is of our own doing.

Pornography is mental self abuse and a sin through corrupting our relationship with others and God.

We worship God and aspire to great spiritual wealth or we worship flesh and suffer death of spirit. The latter is not simply breaking a rule it’s breaking our own life.

 

[Rutherford2]

If your Twitter causes you to sin, delete and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your social networks than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. Lol!

 

[GladTidings]

Yes, it is a mortal sin to look at pornography if it is done with full knowledge and consent.

Also, as a side note, it is better not to talk to demons or spirits. Even if it is your intent to tell them to leave you alone. Even if you use the name of Jesus. This is something most priests will tell you. Even they do not do this.

Instead, do the sign of the cross, pray an Our Father, or Hail Mary, etc. And of course, go to confession.

Check out Acts 19:13 - 20 which talks about people who talked to demons.

 

[GospelOfMatthew]

Yes it is a grave sin, confession is very important. I am glad to hear that you decided while in your using of porn to turn to Jesus for help, that is a hard thing to do but it is needed. Jesus can pull you out of the pits if you grab his rope.

I would suggest adding filters to your phone and computer(s), disable any incognito or private searches and add safe-search as well as other anti-porn filters. Also to let you know, masturbation is also a sin and using that goes along with porn.

The reason why porn is a grave sin isn’t because nudity in and of itself is evil, that would be saying the human body is evil but we are made in God’s image! Rather, porn shows the body as something separate from the spirit and St. James tells us the body separate from the spirit is dead. The issue is porn shows a person as only a body and an object and not as a daughter or son of God who deserves respect!

If you need any further help or advice on how to fight these temptations to porn and masturbation, just send me a private message, I’m very happy to help you fight these temptations!

St. Michael the Archangel, pray for us!

 

[Mboo]

CCC

2354 Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials

So if we look at pornography made with cartoons it’s not a sin anymore?

 

[Mboo]

I finally think that, it is the sins against the 6th commandment that will send 90% of people to Hell, and that, very few people will go to Heaven because of this sin.
The strongest natural passions are related to this sin. In our human nature, we can not have a strong desire to kill or steal, but naturally we have strong passions that push us to seek sexual satisfaction, and in the face of this passion without an efficacious grace of God we will always end up choose sin.
Indeed, it is a very pleasant sin, which generally does not harm anyone (on the contrary very often, we rather give joy to our partner), and makes us suffer when we do not commit it.

 

[Mboo]

To answer the OP. I think we should leave the logic of profit (we wonder if doing such a thing is a sin because we wanting to enjoy the goods of the world a little, or because we are afraid of suffering in Hell) for to enter into a logic of charity (we want to make sacrifices for God because it is right)
So we ask ourselves the question “is not watching porn is a sin”? the answer to this question is obvious, and we do not care about porn, we make that sacrifice for God. He sacrificed his Son for us, sacrificing in return these little things even allowed, is only justice.

 

[poche]

Yes, it is a mortal sin to deliberately look at pornography.

 

[Vico]

… real or simulated sexual acts … the illusion of a fantasy world …

There are two commandments related to chastity, sixth and ninth. In the ninth the emphasis is on thought and in the sixth on acts. Both production and consumption, real and simulated acts, are to be avoided.

Catechism

2525 Christian purity requires a purification of the social climate . It requires of the communications media that their presentations show concern for respect and restraint. Purity of heart brings freedom from widespread eroticism and avoids entertainment inclined to voyeurism and illusion.

 

[Mboo]

There are two commandments related to chastity, sixth and ninth. In the ninth the emphasis is on thought and in the sixth on acts. Both production and consumption, real and simulated acts, are to be avoided

The ninth condemns adulterous thoughts, if anyone has thoughts of sex concerning his wife, or his future wife, it is not a sin.
And the CCC’s passage on pornography emphasizes the fact that we have real actors who violate the intimacy of the sexual act, so a priori this reason is not valid if we have cartoons.

 

[Vico]

Vico:

There are two commandments related to chastity, sixth and ninth. In the ninth the emphasis is on thought and in the sixth on acts. Both production and consumption, real and simulated acts, are to be avoided

The ninth condemns adulterous thoughts, if anyone has thoughts of sex concerning his wife, or his future wife, it is not a sin.
And the CCC’s passage on pornography emphasizes the fact that we have real actors who violate the intimacy of the sexual act, so a priori this reason is not valid if we have cartoons.

The ninth is more general.
Baltimore Catechism

1. What is forbidden by the ninth commandment?
   The ninth commandment forbids all thoughts and desires contrary to chastity.

For pornography it states that it is a violation of chastity.

2354 Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against chastity …

There may be unchaste cartoons. There may be unchaste thoughts about a future wife.

 

[Mboo]

There may be unchaste cartoons

One can not speak of the chastity or the intimacy of a drawing, chastity concerns the real humans not the drawings. So in my opinion the peculiar motives of pornography as presented by the teaching of the Church does not concern cartoons.

There may be unchaste thoughts about a future wife

If we have sexual thoughts for his future wife, but in relation to the future family we want to build, in my opinion it is not an impure thought.

 

[Vico]

Vico:

There may be unchaste cartoons

One can not speak of the chastity or the intimacy of a drawing, chastity concerns the real humans not the drawings. So in my opinion the peculiar motives of pornography as presented by the teaching of the Church does not concern cartoons.

There may be unchaste thoughts about a future wife

If we have sexual thoughts for his future wife, but in relation to the future family we want to build, in my opinion it is not an impure thought.

The noun chastity has other applicable definitions, Merriam-Webster:

d. restraint and simplicity in design or expression
… describes the familiar campaigns with an admirable chastity of diction.— Richard Brookhiser

All thoughts involving the topic of sex are unchaste. It is when it involves sexual things proper to marriage.

 

[Mboo]

All thoughts involving the topic of sex are unchaste. It is when it involves sexual things proper to marriag

So a sexual thought about marriage is chaste

 

[Vico]

Vico:

All thoughts involving the topic of sex are unchaste. It is when it involves sexual things proper to marriag

So a sexual thought about marriage is chaste

Willful houghts of adultery or fornication or homosexuality or beastiality, real or imagined, are sinful.

For example, for the engaged, the Catechism states:

2350 Those who are engaged to marry are called to live chastity in continence. They should see in this time of testing a discovery of mutual respect, an apprenticeship in fidelity, and the hope of receiving one another from God. They should reserve for marriage the expressions of affection that belong to married love. They will help each other grow in chastity.

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a6.htm