Pope Francis: Sexual pleasure a gift from God’ but avoid porn

“Sexual pleasure is a gift from God” but Catholics must avoid pornography, Pope Francis has said.

The pontiff made the remarks during a catechesis devoted to the “vice of lust” at his general audience in Saint Peter’s Square on Wednesday.

Sexual pleasure was something to be cherished, he said, but it was being “undermined by pornography”, and “satisfaction without a relationship can generate forms of addiction”.

“We must defend love,” the pope said. But he added: “Winning against the battle of lust can be a lifelong undertaking.”

Francis appeared to be responding to his conservative critics, who were incensed last week after a book resurfaced featuring sexually explicit content written decades ago by the Vatican’s head of doctrine.

The book, now out of print, by Víctor Manuel Fernández, an Argentinian cardinal close to Francis who was already known as the author of another sexually charged book written in his youth, included a chapter describing the differences between male and female orgasms.

In 2022, during a talk with seminarians about the dangers of social media, the pope warned against the “devil” of digital pornography, while admitting that priests and nuns also watch online porn.

“It is a vice that so many people have. So many laymen, so many laywomen, and also priests and nuns,” he said. “The devil enters from there.”