Healing and Hope Amidst Pornography and Masturbation Addiction (with Dr. Sarah Denny Lorio)
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What effect does pornography and masturbation have on relationships and marriage? How can we maintain hope in times of doubt? Fr. Josh Johnson is joined by Dr. Sarah Denny Lorio to dissect the assumptions, fears, and practicals of these issues. They also tie the conversation into Dr. Sarah Denny Lorio’s dissertation comparing St. Pope John Paul II and Margaret Sanger’s views on women’s freedom.
Snippet from the Show
Do not doubt the power of your prayers for your future spouse.
Glory Story (3:00)
Listener Question (9:48)
Hi Fr. Josh! I love your podcast! I'm writing to you from a place of tremendous pain and fear. Since I am 29, I grew up right when the internet became commonplace in every home and so many people were exposed to pornography at a young age. In the wake of this, so many men are emasculated and have intimacy disorders. They aren't mature in faith and don't know how to live with integrated emotions, and have not developed the virtue of chastity. Basically the years spent on this vice have robbed them of becoming men. But also the years of this vice have robbed me, and countless other young women. We long to have a man see our worth and beauty and love us for who we are, and pursue us. But they never came. There is real real fallout from this epidemic, and I experience so much pain about it. But more than any other pain is the pain of betrayal by all men. It's this pain that no where am I safe, no where will men defend the dignity of women, no where will I find a man who doesn't struggle with this. That fills me with so much fear of never being, in the words of JPII, "safe under the gaze of a man." If the statistics appeared differently I might have hope. But I don't say I have hope anymore of ever finding someone who hasn't struggled with this or is sufficiently deeply healed from it. And I just don't know how to face that; I am so afraid.
-Anonymous
Prayer (31:11)
Litany of Healing and Repentance by Fr. Boniface Hicks, OSB
Response: Jesus, heal my heart with Your love
For the times I’ve felt abandoned...
For the times I’ve been betrayed...
For the times I’ve been rejected...
For the times I’ve been forgotten...
For the times I’ve been disappointed...
For the times I’ve been let down by the Church...
For the times I’ve been lonely...
For the times I’ve been desperate...
For the times I’ve been lost...
For the times I’ve been dejected...
For the times I’ve been used...
For the times I’ve been neglected...
For the times I’ve been starved for love...
For the times I’ve been deprived of affirmation...
For the times I’ve lost my way...
For the times I’ve gone astray...
For the times I’ve made the wrong choice...
Response: Jesus, come close to me.
Whenever I feel unseen...
Whenever I feel ignored...
Whenever I feel unimportant...
Whenever I feel useless...
Whenever I feel alone...
Whenever I feel abandoned...
Whenever I feel like it would be better if I didn’t exist...
Whenever I feel misunderstood...
Whenever I feel used...
Whenever I feel forgotten...
Whenever I feel angry...
Whenever I feel anxious...
Whenever I feel depressed...
Whenever I feel envious...
Whenever I feel lustful...
Whenever I feel afraid…
Response: Please forgive me, Jesus
For the times I’ve used others...
For the times I’ve failed to see...
For the times I’ve hardened my heart to a person in need...
For the times I’ve failed to do the right thing...
For the times I’ve given in to peer pressure...
For the times I’ve lied when someone needed me to tell the truth...
For the times I’ve looked away when someone needed my help...
For the times I’ve closed my ears to the cries of the helpless...
For the times I’ve chosen comfort over courage...
For the times I’ve turned my back on someone who was hurting...
For the times I’ve ignored my feelings...
For the times I’ve silenced the cry of my heart...
For the times I haven’t been Your mercy for others...
For the times I’ve invalidated my own feelings...
For the times I’ve believed the lies of others...
For the times I’ve repeated the lies of others...
For the times I’ve suppressed righteous anger...
For the times I’ve given up in despair...
For the times I’ve failed to share You with someone who needed You...
For the times I’ve wrongly hid my faith from others...
For the times I’ve misrepresented You in my words and actions...
For the times I’ve caused scandal by my words or actions...
For the times I’ve brought hatred instead of love...
For the times I’ve brought division instead of peace...
For the times I’ve brought gossip instead of charity...
For the times I’ve torn down when I could have built up…
Response: Jesus, help me to believe
When I doubt the power of Your love...
When I doubt Your love for me...
When I struggle to trust...
When I doubt that I am worthy of love...
When I doubt that I have a place in anyone’s heart...
When I wonder if I am enough...
When I doubt I have what it takes...
When I feel helpless...
When I feel useless...
When I doubt that I have anything to offer...
When I doubt that I can make a change...
When I doubt that my efforts matter...
When I feel hopeless...
When I want to give up on my neighbor...
When I want to give up on my enemy...
When I want to give up on the Church...
When I want to give up on myself...
When I want to give up on You, Jesus…
Jesus I need you.
Jesus I trust in you.
Jesus I love you.
Jesus, meek and humble of heart,
Make my heart like unto yours.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus Christ, You are the Good Shepherd who rescues the lost. You are the Divine Physician who heals the sick. You are the Savior Who washes away our sin in your Blood. You are the Beloved Son who shares your sonship with us along with the love of the Father. We know that even if we do not feel it, you will continue this work of healing in our hearts. We trust that you love us and desire our wholeness and flourishing. Fill each of our hearts as we worship you and receive You in all your love in this Holy Eucharist. We make this prayer in your Name, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
About Dr. Sarah Denny Lorio
Dr. Sarah Denny Lorio holds a PhD in Bioethics from the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome, and her doctoral research argued for a “third way” of sex education that teaches young people fertility awareness-based methods both as preventive medicine and as proximate vocation preparation. Throughout the last 12 years, Sarah has taught at both the university and high school levels: working as an ethics professor at Loyola University in New Orleans, teaching and coaching young women at Archbishop Chapelle High School in New Orleans, and speaking and leading international trips for college students as a campus minister at Louisiana State University. Trained in two methods of fertility awareness–Creighton Model FertilityCare System (2013) and FEMM (2024)–her passion is to empower women through a deeper knowledge of the great gift and beauty of their bodies and sexuality. In her work, she consistently seeks to integrate the demands of medicine with the dignity of womanhood and highlights the essential role of human freedom in the education of young women. She is in the process both of developing a high school curriculum that brings light to these realities as well as creating similar resources for parents. She currently lives in New Orleans, LA, and works remotely as a Personal Consultations Fellow with the National Catholic Bioethics Center.