ROME – Pope Benedict XVI advised Roman Catholics to engage in "visual fasting" with regard to media images during the Lenten season leading up to Easter.
This advice came during a February 7 meeting with Rome's clergy according to Zenit.org, a news outlet dedicated to covering the Pope and the Vatican. During Lent, the Pope said, "we need a space that is free from the permanent bombardment of images."
The Pope said that God can liberate humankind from "the inflation of images" that come from the media. His recommendation came as answer to a question about how clergy could evangelize to people as to the nature of what constitutes "true beauty" in contemporary society.
Catholic pundits have seized on the Pope's words as a springboard for anti-porn rhetoric. Writing for Zenit.org, Father John Flynn called for Catholics "to fast, not only during Lent, but permanently, from the ever-increasing presence of pornography."
Chances are good that the church's stance on "true beauty" doesn't include images like double anal and bukkakke.
