You Can Free Yourself From Pornography Through Prayer!
An article by Olivia de Fournas published in Famille chrétienne in September 2020.
The platform SOSPorno.net (launched on September 24, 2020) is intended to help Internet users free themselves from pornography addiction by contacting e-missionaries and praying for deliverance.
Mr. Jean-Baptiste Maillard is convinced that, “many people can be healed from pornography if we help them turn to the Lord”. The co-founder of Lights in the Dark, an association that evangelizes via the Internet, launched a new website, SOSPorno.net, on September 24, 2020. It allows people affected by this addiction to confide their problems to others and pray for their own healing. All the Internet user has to do is to simply connect to the SOSPorno.net site. On the bottom right-hand side of the page, they are invited to enter into a totally anonymous chat with one of the 60 or so “e-missionaries” of Lights in the Dark. These volonteers took turns during the 3-day Congress Mission that took place earlier in the year (https://app.congresmission.com/), “to listen to Internet users, to pray for and with them, and to give witness to God’s love”.
After discussing together, the person is offered a deliverance prayer, entrusted to the intercession of Blessed Carlo Acutis. This prayer was written by two mothers and approved of by Mgr Jerome Beau, Archbishop of Bourges, and Dom Jean Pateau, Father Abbot of Fontgombault Abbey (France). Blessed Carlo, an Italian boy, who died at the age of 15 in 2006 of acute leukemia, was chosen because he will be beatified on October 10, 2020 and was given as an example to teenagers by Pope Francis (notably in his apostolic exhortation Christus Vivit). Familiar with the spirituality of this young servant of God, Jean-Baptiste immediately saw the hand of Providence when the two mothers came to present their prayer to him: “Carlo was aware of the dangers of the Internet, and of ’empty pleasures’, he knew how to act creatively to proclaim the Gospel, and to proclaim value and beauty.” The founder of Lights in the Dark also obtained, through a Capuchin priest in Assisi, the support of Carlo’s mother who wrote “Molto bene autorizzo” (“Very good, I give my authorization”).
However, the deliverance prayer from pornography does not stop when the Internet user signs off: 3,000 members of the “invisible monastery Carlo Acutis” continue praying and offer follow-ups by e-mail, with the contact info of a local priest or therapist. “There is no limit to what can be done. Our initiative is complementary to what already exists and we believe that prayer can transform lives!” Others who feel called to respond to the needs of the members of our society affected by the scourge of online pornography can also join the ranks of e-missionaries. Jean-Baptiste Maillard, also co-author of the book « Évangéliser sur internet, mode d’emploi » (Evangelize on the Internet: Instruction Manual in English, 2019) offers a workshop, available online on the Congress Mission website, “Transforming Lives on the Internet”(2).
(1) www.sosporno.net
(2) The French workshop « Tranformer des vies avec internet », took place in Paris in 2020.