Sexual pleasure is a “gift from God”, but lust is “a demon”, Pope Francis told attendees of an address at the Vatican on Wednesday.
The head of the Catholic Church told an audience during a catechesis—a religious instruction—that sexuality is “very beautiful,” but only when it is controlled.
The pontiff said: “Sexual pleasure that is a gift from God is undermined by pornography: satisfaction without relationship that can generate forms of addiction.
“We have to defend love, the love of the heart, of the mind, of the body, pure love in the giving of oneself to the other. And this is the beauty of sexual intercourse.
Only a few days had passed since the Vatican’s head of doctrine’s sexually explicit writings were rediscovered, when the Pope gave his speech.
Authored by Víctor Manuel Fernández, a friend and cardinal of Francis, the book goes into explicit detail on orgasms, domination, and sexual desire.
Fernández stated that women “may crave more” during a climax and were “often insatiable.”
Although the Spanish-language book is no longer in print, orthodox Catholics condemned it and put pressure on the cardinal to resign.
Although some have interpreted the Pope’s speech as a response to conservative opponents, Francis has a history of conflict with the Catholic establishment; in October 2022, he acknowledged that even priests and nuns consume porn.
Amid mounting calls for the Catholic Church to modernise, Francis has also become more receptive to the idea of revisiting the celibacy norm.