The pope said even priests and nuns give in to temptation and watch pornography online.
Francis, responding to a question in the Vatican, said, “It’s a vice that has so many people, so many lay people, so many lay women, and also priests and nuns. The devil gets in there.”
He said he was not just referring to “criminal pornography like that of child abuse”, but also “normal pornography”.
Pope urged future priests to remove these sites from their phones “so you don’t have temptation in your hands.”
Francis warns: “I tell you, it is something that weakens the soul. It weakens the soul. The devil enters through it: he weakens the priestly heart.”
In 2020, there was embarrassment for the Vatican when the Pope’s official Instagram account liked a revealing photo of Brazilian glamor model Natalia Garibotto.
She claimed to have gained 600,000 followers as a result and Vatican staff have launched an investigation into how this happened.
In Monday’s comments, reported on the Vatican’s website, the pope also touched on the digital world more generally.
He said people need to “know how to use it well” rather than being constantly distracted by things like news and music.
Francis also revealed he received a mobile phone when he became a bishop 30 years ago – which he described as the size of a shoe.
However, he said he only made one call to his sister before returning it.
