We are suspending our chastity support groups indefinitely due to poor attendance. We are still available for one-to-one sessions. Please email us at pornfree77@gmail.com if you need someone to talk to.

Internet Pornography Burrows Deeper Into Culture

By Father John Flynn, LC

ROME, FEB. 24, 2008 (Zenit.org).- In Lent we should think of fasting not only in relation to food and drink, but also from images, recommended Benedict XVI. The Pope’s advice came during a question-and-answer session with Rome’s clergy, held Feb. 7.

The question dealt with how best to evangelize people as to what is true beauty in the context of contemporary culture. Part of the Pontiff’s reply dealt with the use of images and also the problems created by mistaken ideals of beauty. During Lent:, “we need a space that is free from the permanent bombardment of images,” Benedict XVI commented.

One application of the Pope’s counsel would be to fast, not only during Lent, but permanently, from the ever-increasing presence of pornography.

- read the rest of the article here

At our first meeting of 2008 held on Jan 19, Porn Free members came together to recall our achievements since we began our ministry six months ago. We also took a look at what we are currently doing, and we would like to share them with you:

Our ongoing works

1. We are getting more priests involved in directing to us people struggling with pornography. We have been giving out our name cards for priests who hear about people’s struggles with pornography usually through confession, so now our priests are able to refer more people to us.

2. Through the above method, and through our word of mouth, we are working to increase awareness of our support group(s) available for those who are in need of support.

3. We are working with Morning Star Community Services to establish a support group for family members of porn addicts.

4. We are working to establish a panel of priests to provide the Sacrament of Reconciliation for our weekly chastity support group.

5. For January 2008, we conducted two “God Is Love” talks on Jan 19 and 26.

6. We have been raising awareness of increased use of Theology of the Body in sexuality education programmes such as Wonderfully Made! and Family Life Society’s Celebration of Life.

7. We continue to raise awareness of the dangers of pornography.

8. We continue to raise awareness of the availability of resources for those struggling with pornography.

9. We continue to increase publicity of talks held on related topics.

10. We are currently working to tweak the design for our Porn Free name cards. We are about to go for our first reprint, as our first print run of 1,000 cards are almost all given out.

11. We are working to conduct our first TRANSFORMATION package at a local parish.

We are already involved with many things, as you can see, but we strive to grow in this year 2008. Here are our goals for the year:

Our goals to achieve in 2008

1. We want to be able to provide support to family members of pornography addicts.

2. We want to establish support groups for pornography addicts in at least two parishes.

3. We want to make resources on pornography addiction available in bookshops of local parishes.

4. We aim to work on marketing our talks more, so that more may come to hear about the dangers of pornography and how to address the problems concerned.

5. We want to send electronic newsletters containing informational material for those who wish to find out more.

6. We want to establish a mailing list for those who are interested in receiving formation and news via e-mail.

7. We want to have an article about Porn Free published in Catholic News, informing the Catholics in Singapore about our service to respond to sexually-related questions in-confidence, to to provide advice from our panel of priests.

8. We will work to improve the prayer lives of the members of our core team, and our support group(s).

9. We will prepare a constitution for Porn Free, for the day that we can be recognized as a society.

10. We aim to conduct our TRANSFORMATION package in at least two local parishes.

11. We want to establish our own accountability to the archdiocese of Singapore, and to establish our place in the archdiocese.

12. We want to conduct a day of recollection for core team members.

13. We want to attract more people to help in the mission of Porn Free.

At our first meeting of 2008 held on Jan 19, Porn Free members came together to recall our achievements since we began our ministry six months ago. We are quite surprised at the number of achievements that we have made, and we would like to share them with you.

Achievements in 2007

1. We have started a weekly chastity support group to provide ongoing support, rather than one-off help, for porn addicts.
2. We have conducted a four-talk series on Theology of the Body, which reached about 25 people.
3. We printed our name cards and started giving them out to priests.
4. We started our own website.
5. We have formally introduced our ministry to the diocesan priests at their day of recollection at the seminary on Oct 17, 2007.
6. We have increased the awareness of the problem of pornography at the priests’ day of recollection, and learnt that about 20 percent of the priests regularly encounter Catholics struggling with pornography.
7. We have helped the diocese to come from zero talk about pornography, to a greater awareness of its dangers.
8. We have started praying the rosary at the start of every core team meeting, and chastity support group meeting.
9. In such a short time, we have formed a working ministry to address this problem of pornography.
10. We have chosen a name for our ministry.
11. We have identified the administration needs of our group.
12. We have established a form of funding for our ministry and we have sufficient funds in our treasury for the time being.
13. All the core team members have received a basic formation in Theology of the Body.
14. Porn Free has a spiritual director, Father David Garcia, OP.
15. We have chosen our patron saint, St. Joseph.
16. We have started our own resource pool.
17. Our members have experienced personal growth through their involvement in this ministry.

So, even if Porn Free were to close down tomorrow (we sure hope not!), we will not have done all these in vain. If we can add one more to our list of achievements, it will be that we have pioneered the way to dealing with the problem of pornography in our archdiocese, and in future, other groups will find their task a little easier.

Gong Xi Fa Cai to all of you! Here’s a little gift from Porn Free:

Luke Gilkerson, the Internet Community Manager for Covenant Eyes emailed me recently with information about the Covenant Eyes accountability software, which provides a complete record of all the Internet activity on a user’s computer.

Accountability is a great deterrent to those who are struggling with pornography, because people like us like to keep our activity secret. Having an accountability software program installed in our computer reminds us that our activity is no longer secret, and gives us a reason to stop and think about what we are doing, and to stop what we are doing, remembering that covenant that we have made.

Covenant Eyes can be found at www.covenanteyes.com, and is useful for individuals (and families) and organizations (including churches, ministries, businesses, etc). The software also includes Internet filtering services and accountability reports, for that person that you are accountable for. It’s great to see other people who are in the battle to fight Internet porn addiction!

Dear Friends,

The Family Life Society is inviting anyone who would like to deepen their appreciation of the Gospel message and its connection with human sexuality to attend the CL2 (Christ, Love and Life) Sexuality Education Facilitators Training.

Based on John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, the Facilitators’ Training is scheduled to last 12 weeks (3 Mar 2008 to 26 May 2008) with 12 weekly sessions.

It will be held at:

Venue: Catholic Archdiocesan Education Centre, 2 Highland Road, St. Matthew’s Room
Time: 7.30pm to 9.30pm.

More details can found at www.prolife.sg

Interested persons are requested to email fls@veritas.org.sg or call 64880278 for registration. The course is free, but a love offering will be collected.

Please see attached poster for more details. Do inform your friends who are interested.

After six sessions of our chastity support group, we have decided to change our meeting format and to go weekly, so as to provide more support and better accountability.

The chastity support group will now be held on Tuesdays, 7.30-9.00pm at

CANA – The Catholic Centre
(Bethany Prayer Room)
55 Waterloo Street
#02-00

For more information, please email us at pornfree77@gmail.com.

Porn Free has invited Family Life Society’s Nick Chui to give two talks on Pope Benedict XVI’s first encyclical “God is Love”. The talk will explore among other issues:

The talks will be held over two Saturdays on

Dates: Jan 19 and Jan 26
Venue: Catholic Archdiocesan Education Centre (2 Highland Road), St. Luke’s Room
Time: 3.00-5.00pm

The talks are FOC and no registration is required.

Please note that CODA meetings will be temporarily suspended due to low attendance. Persons in need may find family support groups by the WE CARE Foundation on every 1st and 3rd Saturday. For more details, please refer to our Family Support Group page.

After the previous CODA meeting, members decided to have the meeting at 6.30pm instead of 8.00pm. Please note the change in timing.