Internet presents new challenges, opportunities

“One of the greatest challenges to ministry and daily life has been the Internet,” Msgr. Edward J. Arsenault said to some 100 priests from the Diocese of Corpus Christi gathered in convocation.
Msgr. Arsenault, together Dr. Nancy Kluge, a mental health therapist, presented a program entitled “Walking into the Light, Realities of the Internet” as part of a continuing education program for members of the presbyterate. The two presenters are with the St. Luke Institute in Washington, DC, a mental health treatment center that promotes the health and well-being of Catholic clergy and women and men religious.

The day long workshop, held on Oct. 11 at the Holiday Inn-Emerald Beach in Corpus Christi, featured four sessions with opportunities for questions and answers. The morning sessions dealt with “Internet Pornography Unveiled” and “The Internet: A New Pastoral Vulnerability.” The afternoon sessions covered “Cybersexploitation and the Clergy” and “Addressing the Problem.”
While the Internet and associated technologies can be beneficial to all, it also brings great risk, Msgr. Arsenault said. This technology has dramatically enhanced how we communicate, he said, and allows for new opportunities for ministry.

Still, there is little data and few research studies on the relative new phenomenon of the Internet, Msgr. Arsenault said. He acknowledged that “we know less than what we are able to talk about definitively.”

What is certain is that there is also a “dark side.”

Revenue from Internet pornography exceeds the income of the three major television networks—CBS, NBC and ABC—combined. It makes more money than Microsoft, Apple, Google, Yahoo, Netflix, eBay, amazon.com and Earthlink combined. It generates more dollars than all the professional sports leagues put together.

“There is no last page on Internet pornography,” Msgr. Arsenault said. There are more than 100,000 Web sites peddling pornography and new ones are being added everyday.
The result is that this proliferation of Internet pornography has given rise to the “newest and most challenging mental health problem,” Msgr. Arsenault said. It is presenting priests with new pastoral challenges.

Asking for a show of hands on how many priests in the audience had pastorally counseled parishioners who struggled with Internet pornography, almost everyone raised their hand.
Why has this become such a problem? Because sex on the Internet is accessible, it addresses problems of isolation, it provides anonymity, it is affordable and it satisfies individual fantasies.

Most Internet pornography abusers go through five stages: discovery, experimentation, escalation, compulsion and hopelessness. Exposure to Internet sexual content can trigger sexual behavior. The Internet offers a new outlet for acting out on sexual impulses, Msgr. Arsenault said.
The fast paced development of Internet technologies complicates treatment options. By the time one understands a problem caused by Internet abuse, Msgr. Arsenault said, a newer option becomes available and the treatment approach that had been developed to address the original problem is no longer effective under the new circumstances.

The proliferation of social networking media continually changes the playing field. From Facebook and Twitter, to web-based chatting, to video-based chatting, to Internet based “newsgroups”, to peer-to-peer file sharing, to simulation technology, the opportunities seem endless and combating the problem seems fruitless.

Msgr. Arsenault said that a successful model for treating the problem must include prevention, education, intervention, assessment, treatment, continuing care and relapse prevention. Living the good life and good human formation can prevent the problem.

The bottom line, however, is that one may not know someone has a problem with Internet pornography until he or she tells you or is caught. Msgr. Arsenault encouraged the priests to “make it easy” for the offender to own up to his or her problem. He said they should “develop a culture of self-referral.”

“Listen with compassion to the person viewing pornography and be aware of the powerful compulsion and shame,” Msgr. Arsenault said.

Listen also to the spouse with compassion, with awareness of the sense of betrayal and personal failure. He said they should encourage the two spouses to seek professional help.
He told the priests that they could best serve their parishioners by becoming educated about the problem.