Thou Shalt Pirate Pornography

A few people are pointing this out as an example of some of the religious hypocrisy endemic in organized Catholicism. While they’re making a good case about it — this is in fact hypocritical, if you consider piracy stealing — I’d rather point out that this makes these people every bit as human as anyone else. They are not special, they are not sacred, and they are not better than anyone else in any way.

What am I talking about this time? Another sex scandal, perhaps? Well, tangentially, maybe. But in this case, it’s priests admitting to downloading DVD screeners of yet-unreleased movies, and logs of holy men downloading some perfectly ordinary lesbian and BDSM pornography.

But not just any holy men… the IPs in question belong to people inside the Holy See.

Helped by Scaneye, TorrentFreak decided to take a look at the recent downloading habits of people living in the most religious city-state in the world – the Vatican.

The Vatican is a small place so downloading levels are very low. However, we did notice that one particular IP address came up a number of times, on each occasion linked to TV shows such as Chicago Fire, Lightfields, The Neighbours and Touch. Another IP address showed an interest in The Americans.
[…]
In the interests of science we researched each of the titles (including the curiously named RS77_Episode 01) and discovered that downloaders in the Vatican have one or two unusual ‘niche’ interests. We won’t link to our discoveries here, but feel free to do your own ‘research’ using the titles shown above. There isn’t a commandment that covers these films directly, but some might argue there should be.


I think it’s good that these priests are exploring their sexuality safely, in a way nearly only possible in today’s digital age, without risking hurting anyone else.

I fully admit that there’s a slim possibility someone unrelated to the priesthood is potentially using a priest’s internet connection to surreptitiously download very large files to something other than a desktop or laptop actually attached to a valid internet connection actually owned by the Holy See’s infrastructure. I think that possibility is vanishingly slim, though. I think it’s far more likely that someone on the inside is succumbing to the “sins” of the flesh.

I just wish that translated into more leniency in their draconian and horribly outmoded body-shaming and sex-shaming. I realize it’s one of their chief methods of controlling the populace — telling people that their basic human nature means they’re broken and that only they sell the cure — so they’re grossly unlikely to ever step back from that particular precipice. But it’s heartening to know that even while the Catholic Church is rotten to its core, the people comprising it are still human beings.

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Thou Shalt Pirate Pornography
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5 thoughts on “Thou Shalt Pirate Pornography

  1. 2

    Well, of course they can claim that it’s someone’s job to screen all the porn — so they know what they should condemn. After watching it over and over and over and over and over.

    But really. It’s just ho-hum hypocrisy. Frankly, I’d rather have them doing this than fondling altar children.

  2. 5

    I live with my husband and young adult son. The Netflix account is in my name. When I was offered the opportunity to have my viewing choices announced on Facebook attached to my real name, I said “Hell, no” as fast as I could.

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