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I need some serious help!! We all know about the saying you are your brother's keeper so I know it is my responsibility to do this.
I recently found out that my father watches pornography and masturbates. He is married and does not go to church.
I am 14-years-old and am seriously bothered by this.
Can you please advise me on how to handle this problem?
James
{
How do I handle a situation where I've found out my father watches pornography and masturbates? }
Mike replied:
Hi, James —
Thanks for the question.
You said:
Can you please help/tell me how to approach this problem?
Our ministry is mainly focused on clearly up misconceptions about the faith and teaching the faith, nevertheless, if you are looking for advice, here is my two cents:
I would first, pray for your father on a regular basis; personally, I would recommend praying the Rosary, then,
depending on whether you are a Catholic or Protestant, I would share your concerns with your local pastor, priest or minister and ask them for a recommended approach to resolving this problem.
I don't mean, in anyway, to rationalize sinful behavior but we have to keep in mind that our struggles with the sins of the flesh are due to the effects of original sin called concupiscence. We will always have these struggles until we are 6 feet under the ground. : )
The Church understands this as attested to in the Catechism and refers to it below as A hard battle.
The consequences of Adam's sin for humanity.
.
.
405 Although it is proper to each individual, (cf. Council of Trent: DS 1513) original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam's descendants. It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice, but human nature has not been totally corrupted: it is wounded in the natural powers proper to it, subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion of death, and inclined to sin - an inclination to evil that is called concupiscence. Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ's grace, erases original sin and turns a man back towards God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle.
406 The Church's teaching on the transmission of original sin was articulated more precisely in the fifth century, especially under the impulse of St. Augustine's reflections against Pelagianism, and in the sixteenth century, in opposition to the Protestant Reformation. Pelagius held that man could, by the natural power of free will and without the necessary help of God's grace, lead a morally good life; he thus reduced the influence of Adam's fault to bad example. The first Protestant reformers, on the contrary, taught that original sin has radically perverted man and destroyed his freedom; they identified the sin inherited by each man with the tendency to evil (concupiscentia), which would be insurmountable. The Church pronounced on the meaning of the data of Revelation on original sin especially at the Second Council of Orange (529) (DS 371-372) and at the Council of Trent (1546). (cf. DS 1510-1516)
407 The doctrine of original sin,
closely connected with that of
redemption by Christ, provides
lucid discernment of man's situation
and activity in the world. By
our first parents' sin, the devil
has acquired a certain domination
over man, even though man remains
free. Original sin entails "captivity
under the power of him who thenceforth
had the power of death, that is,
the devil". (Council of Trent (1546): DS 1511; cf. Hebrews 2:14) Ignorance of
the fact that man has a wounded
nature inclined to evil gives
rise to serious errors in the
areas of education, politics,
social action (cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter His Holiness Pope St. John Paul II Centesimus Annus 25) and morals.
408 The consequences of original
sin and of all men's personal
sins put the world as a whole
in the sinful condition aptly
described in St. John's expression, "the
sin of the world". (John 1:29) This expression
can also refer to the negative
influence exerted on people by
communal situations and social
structures that are the fruit
of men's sins. (cf. John Paul II, Reconciliatio et Paenitentia 16)
409 This dramatic situation of "the
whole world [which] is in the
power of the evil one" (1 John 5:19; cf. 1 Peter 5:8) makes
man's life a battle:
The whole of man's history has
been the story of dour combat
with the powers of evil, stretching,
so our Lord tells us, from the
very dawn of history until the
last day. Finding himself in the
midst of the battlefield man has
to struggle to do what is right,
and it is at great cost to himself,
and aided by God's grace, that
he succeeds in achieving his own
inner integrity.
