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Bishop decries pornography ‘plague’ after Sorensen sentencing
archived from: 2013-01-11
by: Robert P. Lockwood

On Jan. 2, Father Bartley Sorensen was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Alan Bloch to eight years and one month in prison, an additional five years of probation and a $25,000 fine for possession of child pornography.

“Viewing child pornography is a criminal act for which society will hear no excuse, accept no extenuating circumstances or grant any mercy,” Bishop David Zubik wrote in a letter to the priests and deacons of the diocese after the sentencing. “It is criminal in the eyes of society; it is criminal in the eyes of the church.”

Father Sorensen was arrested in December 2011. An employee of St. John Fisher Parish, where Father Sorensen had recently been appointed pastor, discovered him viewing child pornography on his computer.

The employee informed the diocese, which immediately turned the information over to civil authorities.

Father Sorensen pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography last May and has been in jail since that time.

In his letter reflecting on the issue, Bishop Zubik described “a culture where pornography is everywhere and readily available.”

“The viewing of any type of pornography is wrong and immoral,” he said. “It is addictive. It destroys.

“No one is immune from this plague — NO ONE — no woman, no man, no teenager, no child and, yes, no clergy.”

Bishop Zubik wrote that the “culture of adult pornography is a culture that also creates child pornography. It is one and the same.”

He asked that all work together in “rooting out this evil from our society.”

“Today and every day I urge you to pray for all the victims of pornography, especially for the children who are victims of child pornography worldwide. Their pain cries to heaven for justice.

“At the same time, I urge your prayers for all who are trapped in the web of pornography and those affected by it, particularly the families that have been destroyed by it,” Bishop Zubik said.

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