To help families protect themselves from the dangers of pornography, the Diocese of Allentown is taking proactive steps, which kick off the weekend of March 8-9, the first Sunday of Lent.
Called “Safe Haven Sunday,” Masses across the Diocese that weekend will provide special prayers, teachings, and resources to support and protect individuals, marriages, and families against pornography.
The weekend is inspired by the U.S. bishops’ 2015 pastoral letter “Create in Me a Clean Heart: A Pastoral Response to Pornography,” where they explain, “The use of pornography by anyone in the home deprives the home of its role as a safe haven and has negative effects throughout a family’s life and across generations.”
Safe Haven Sunday has since become an annual event to address the issue of pornography in parishes and dioceses nationwide. This is the first year the Diocese of Allentown is participating.
“The goal of this first Safe Haven Sunday is that the faithful of the Diocese of Allentown will see that the Church sees this problem, is willing to be courageous about it, and wants to walk alongside everyone, especially parents of young children so that everyone is kept safe,” saidFather Allen Hoffa, Pastor of Holy Guardian Angels in Reading.
Father Hoffa is also Chair of the Lumen Christi Commission, formed in the Diocese of Allentown in 2018 by Bishop Alfred Schlert to protect the faithful of the Diocese from pornography.
Fueled by wide access to the internet, the availability of porn has expanded to every country throughout world over the past 75 years, and porn is now one of the leading forms of adult entertainment, raking in over $100 billion worldwide.
Today, there are 4.2 million websites available with pornography, and every second of the day, it’s estimated that nearly 30,000 people of all ages view porn.
Safe Haven Sunday also kicks off a four-year program in the Diocese to help the faithful live porn-free lives.
Year one of the four-year program focuses on safeguarding our children.
Year two encourages critical conversations, addressing pornography prevention, intervention,and healing.
Year three challenges people to reassess their connections, asking themselves if they’re connecting to pornography instead of God, family, and friends?
Finally, year four focuses on healing marriages and families, and addressing the challenges and damage that porn causes.
Another way the Diocese of Allentown is helping the faithful is by providing online training to all diocesan priests this year, which helps priests to successfully navigate the issue of pornography in their parishes.
“During this Jubilee Year of Hope, this is one of the great gifts of hope our priests can give to the people they serve – a better understanding of this pornography problem so that the priests can better minister to their people,” Father Hoffa said.
Through increased education and conversation about the evils of pornography over the next four years, the Diocese of Allentown hopes to provide prevention, intervention, and healing among its faithful.
“When a person is using porn, they are not fulfilling their potential,” said Father Hoffa. “They are walking away from Christ and choosing to focus in a selfish way on themselves.”
For more information on Safe Haven Sunday in the Diocese of Allentown, visit www.adlumenchristi.org/about-2.
If a person in the Diocese of Allentown is struggling with pornography addiction, Father Hoffa said that they can call the Lumen Christi Commission at 610-921-2729 ext. 2205 or 610-207-3441, or email [email protected],
All calls and emails are strictly confidential. The Lumen Christi website is at www.adlumenchristi.org.
By Gia Myers
