“The topic is ridiculed or its producers are described as fanatics. The truth is that we must thank its brave filmmakers, who, convinced of human dignity and with a deep Catholic faith, have dared to raise a cry: ‘God’s children are not for sale,’” the bishop said.
González also pointed out that in the last 100 years, the film industry has played a leading role in imposing social trends in fashions, music, language, social behavior, and models of masculinity and femininity, acquiring the ability “to spread throughout the world even the acceptance of moral, or immoral, behaviors, from the concept of family to global political models, the position of religion, or various models of spirituality or materialism.”
The Colombian bishop also addressed in his article the drama of the sexual abuse of children and said that for some years now, some media outlets have worked “with great cunning and great effectiveness” to silence the Catholic Church “on the issue of child abuse, presenting it as the most corrupt institution in the treatment of children.”
“But the facts clearly demonstrate how, on the contrary, sadly the institution of the family is the area where the greatest number of abusive acts against minors occur. The forced and long lockdowns due to the pandemic were the trigger for the numbers of these crimes to rise scandalously,” he noted.
The bishop explained that “irregular family environments where stepfathers, stepchildren, and other people who live under the same roof live ‘too close together,’ forming a strange and artificial family nucleus are the kind that abound today. This reality, added to the uncontrolled proliferation of pornography and the effort to promote gender ideology in school, makes our children easy victims of abuse and corruption.”
As part of the effort to deal with the problem, the prelate invited the faithful to take a course on the “prevention and management of domestic violence with emphasis on the comprehensive protection of children and adolescents,” which will be taught from Sept. 8 to Oct. 28.