17 Apr 2010

Bishop blames priestly abuse on TV, internet porn

5:15 pm on 17 April 2010

In the latest incendiary comments on sex scandals in the Catholic church, a prominent bishop in Mexico has blamed Internet pornography and eroticism on television for child abuse by priests.

Reuters reports that Bishop Felipe Arizmendi told bishops at their annual meeting near Mexico City that with the invasion of eroticism, it was not easy to stay celibate or to respect children.

He said loose morals in society had made it difficult to keep seminarians committed to the faith.

"If on television and on the internet and in so many media outlets there is pornography, it is very difficult to stay pure and chaste," Bishop Arizmendi said. "Obviously when there is generalised sexual freedom it's more likely there could be cases of paedophilia."

The Catholic hierarchy has been rattled by revelations of sexual abuse around the world. Mexico, home to the world's second-largest Catholic population after Brazil, has been rocked by its own share of allegations.

Last year, the Pope ordered an inquiry into the powerful Legionaries of Christ order, whose Mexican founder, Marcial Maciel, was discovered to be a sexual molester of young boys. Maciel, who died in 2008, was also known to have fathered at least one child.