ASIA : VIETNAM : TRAINING TO END PORNOGRAPHY ADDITION

UCAN REPORT: Course trains counselors to tackle users' addiction to sex on the internet
ucanews.com reporter, Ho Chi Minh City
Vietnam
December 9, 2011
Catholic Church News Image of Church steps up pornography fight
Father Antoine Nguyen Ngoc Son speaking at the course

The Church is training counselors to try and help a growing number of people who say they are addicted to internet pornography.

Around 50 Catholic social workers, educators and volunteers were attending a five-day course, which ends today, to help porn addicts try and overcome their addiction.

The course, run by the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace, was being held at the Pastoral Center in Ho Chi Minh City.

“The aim is for pornography addicts to realize that this is not a normal activity and that what they are doing can be damaging to them and others,” said Father Antoine Nguyen Ngoc Son, secretary general of the episcopal commission.

Father Son said participants on the course are learning about the negative impacts of pornography and the best way to offer advice and spiritual guidance.

He said out of around 25 million regular Internet users in the country, about 10 million of them regularly visit porn sites.

Salesian Father Francis Xavier Nguyen Minh Thieu, one of six trainers on the course, said more and more teenagers are visiting porn sites or playing sex games on computers, which has led to an increase in the number of rape case and reports of sexual abuse within families.

Father Thieu also noted an increase in the number of marriage breakdowns as partners of porn addicts are either ignored or forced to play out sexual fantasies which might often be violent in nature.

http://www.ucanews.com/2011/12/09/church-steps-up-fight-against-pornography/

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