ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Catholic communications conglomerate Shalom Media has released new episodes of its anti-porn propaganda video and audio series “The Porn Disaster.”
The series prominently features Father Allen Hoffa, chairman of the committee Lumen Christi Committee, an influential anti-porn group from Pennsylvania. Lumen Christi is affiliated with Integrity restored the powerful Catholic anti-porn organization behind the widespread propaganda tract ‘Porn Slaves’.
The series description states that the programs will explain what fuels “this insatiable appetite” for adult content, asking, “Is pornography just a form of entertainment or a serious addiction?”
“The Porn Disaster” is hosted by Patricia Keane and also features Hoffa’s fellow Catholic priest Chris Hayden, eating disorder therapist Kielty Oberlin and Gerard O’Donoghue, described as “father of six.”
The twelve episodes of the series are available via Shalom Media’s YouTube channel Shalom World.
Shalom Media is based in Edinburgh, Texas, and is currently overseen by Indian-born local priest Roy Palatty, of the Congregation of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate. Shalom Media has deep ties with India and the Catholic Church in Asia. It was founded and led in the late 1980s by Indian businessman and church convert Benny Punnathara. Punnathara’s biography states that he was given the title of Chevalier by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 for “outstanding contributions to the Catholic Church and society.”
The controversial bishop behind Lumen Christi
Lumen Christi – the name means “Light of Christ” in Latin – was founded in 2018 by controversial Bishop Schlert of Allentown, with the aim of helping him “protect the faithful from the plagues of pornography.” It includes both clergy and laity, who are tasked with “combatting” adult content.
The ultimate of the group mission is “implementing initiatives and programmatic changes across the diocese so that souls do not remain vulnerable to the evils of pornography.”
“Unfortunately, through technology, pornography is so easily accessible that there is no age, gender or social demographic that is immune to its deadly influence,” Schlert told his fellow commissioners at Lumen Christi’s first meeting. “Pornography exists in darkness, but the light of Christ can overcome it through grace and forgiveness.”
A press release issued by the Diocese of Allentown at the time explained that Lumens Christi would “use books, podcasts, therapists and training workshops designed by Integrity Restored.”
A few months after founding Lumens Christi, Schlert found himself at the center of a scandal when a grand jury report revealed that several Pennsylvania dioceses, including Allentown, were under investigation over allegations that more than 300 Pennsylvania priests had committed sex crimes. their bishops had covered it up, the National Catholic Reporter reported at the time.
“There have been other reports of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church,” the grand jury wrote in the report, which was made public in August 2018. “But never on this scale. For many of us, those earlier stories took place somewhere else, somewhere far away. Now we know the truth: it happened everywhere.”
Six dioceses in Pennsylvania were surveyed: Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton.
“In Allentown, Fr. Michael Lawrence confessed his sexual abuse of a boy to a monsignor, who ruled through the diocese that the experience would not be a “trauma” for the victim, the National Catholic Reporter reported.
In December 2018, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro told reporters that it was “unconscionable” that Schlert “led the diocese after handling the cases of predatory priests,” according to the Morning Call news site. reportedcalling the Allentown Diocese “Exhibit A” as evidence that the church helped cover up sexual abuse of minors.
Lumen Christis website prominently features Shalom Media’s “The Porn Disaster” series and also promotes partner organizations and sites such as Integrity Restored; controversial faith-based porn filter Covenant Eyes; ostensibly non-religious Utah anti-porn activist group Fight the New Drug; plus a video interview with NCOSE’s chief propagandist Haley McNamara.
Main image: Catholic anti-porn priest Allen Hoffa