“Sin begets sin and all the sins of history are related…Sin alters or destroys our relationship with God…taking the place of God…Once that fundamental relationship is altered, our other relationships are also compromised or destroyed.
“…lust not only takes possession of the whole body and outward members, but also makes itself felt within, and moves the whole man with a passion in which mental emotion is mingled with bodily appetite,
Nicholas Iacona (aka Joey Stefano) 1/1/68 - 11/26/94 May you rest in peace.
“The depraved imagination is the house furnished by the devil, which he makes a place for imprinting things so that everything these people do comes out of the mold of the devil’s work.” ~ Francisco
“And he cried out, saying: Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And they that went before, rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried out much more: Son of David,
“Chastity does indeed reside in the soul as its subject, though its matter is in the body. For it belongs to chastity that a man make moderate use of bodily members in accordance with the
I regularly rewatch the 1953 film “The Robe” at least twice a year. Seeing the movie as a kid, it was one of the first VHS tapes my dad bought, is a happy memory from
(Above: One of the many porn-plastered store fronts in the Castro.) Everything nowadays seems to be saturated in a new form of porn-chic: from Abercrombie and Fitch advertisements to Kim Kardashian and a daily slew
The then relatively unknown model Emily Ratajkowski, got worldwide attention when she appeared topless in the tasteless video for the equally crass song “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke. Before that pivotal moment, Ratajkowski had been
“…dark contemplations is painful to the soul in these beginnings. Since this divine infused contemplation has many extremely good properties, and the still unpurged soul that receives it has many extreme miseries, and because two
From Thomas of Celano’s authoritative “Saint Francis of Assisi:” “A certain spiritual brother, long in religion, was afflicted with a great temptation of the flesh and he seemed almost sunk into the depths of despair…One
(Pictured above: Station of the Cross at St. Ignatius in San Francisco.) “The more I am exalted, Jesus, the more I want you to humble me in my heart, showing me what I have been,
Marilyn Monroe once said: “I’m a failure as a woman. My men expect so much of me, because of the image they’ve made of me—and that I’ve made of myself—as a sex symbol. They expect
Ever since I was a little boy, one of my favorite films has been “The Time Machine” (1960.) The movie was really the last great adventure picture before the advent of the over-sexed spy films,
“We must behave as people do in a besieged city: they watch where the attackers are strongest and the defenses weakest. If they fail to do this, the city is lost. In the same manner
Since her rise to superstardom, in the early-1980s, the center of Madonna’s creative output has been her continuing and seemingly endless struggle to escape her Catholic upbringing. From “Burning Up,” reaching an apogee with “Like
I first became interested in the fate of Disney child stars when I unintentionally discovered that Bobby Driscoll, the first bonafide live Disney star, who was featured in “Song of the South” and “Treasure Island,”
Looking back upon my childhood, some of the most cherished memories often revolved around jumping into my parent’s station-wagon and heading to the drive-in to see the rereleased Disney animated “classic” films. Yet, also, one
Recently, international sensation Rihanna posted home-made pornographic images of herself on Instagram. Never shy about going topless, or bottomless for that matter, Rihanna has successfully redefined what is main-stream pop-culture and what is porn. The
Scott Sewperman (heart failure) Raphael (?) Bobby Williams (auto accident) Alex Stone (AIDS) David Thompson (liver failure) Koh Masaki (surgery complications) Boris Mateho (accidental shooting) Arpad Miklos (suicide) Wilfried Knight (suicide) Karim (heart failure) All
Ever since I walked into my first San Francisco “gay” piano bar and heard an impromptu chorus of men singing Wayne Newton’s “Daddy Don’t You Walk So Fast,” I have been fascinated by songs which
With the recent death of actress Joan Fontaine, I am reminded of a favorite film: Rebecca (1940.) The movie is remarkable, aside from the extraordinary performances from the three main leads: Laurence Olivier, Fontaine, and
FIGURE 1. Estimated percentage of persons diagnosed with HIV with infection attributed to male-to-male contact or male-to-male contact and injection drug use, by area of residence — National HIV Surveillance System, United States, 2011. In
"The Swing" (above) by Jean-Honore Fragonard (1767) There is a world of difference between the peek-a-boo pin-up of the World War II era Betty Grable and the hard-core blood-spattered porn musings of Lady Gaga, yet,
Today is the feast day of Saint Theresa of Avila. I was rereading a few of her works when I came across something very interesting that she wrote: “I often experience that there is nothing
Jennifer Jones does the first modern "selfie" in "Madame Bovary." One of my favorite books, and films, of all time is ‘Madame Bovary” by Gustave Flaubert and the 1949 film version starring Jennifer Jones. At
There are certain Saints in the Catholic Church who have been so thoroughly misconstrued, maligned, and mockingly absorbed into pop-culture, that the real person beyond the myth and misinformation is often difficult to excavate. One
The following quotation is from Saint John Bosco (1815-1888,) a Catholic priest who worked with wayward boys and juvenile delinquents in the industrial Northern Italian city of Turin. Although, his life ended near the beginning
On this question, I am admittedly biased. I have never had a drug or alcohol addiction, although I did occasionally try different illegal substances when I was in my 20s; but it was always to
I loved 1950s Hollywood musicals as a kid: “Calamity Jane,” “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” “Singin’ in the Rain.” When I grew-up, I learned that this proclivity was not unusual among boys who later entered
Hardcore porn (left) from 1892. Alessandro Serenelli was the murderer of St. Maria Goretti. The then 19-year old Serenelli violently killed Maria on July 6, 1902, during a failed rape attempt. Serenelli was a pornography
Damon Audigier 1991-2012 Suicide Adam Faust 1974-2012 Heart attack Tanner Hayes 1972-2012 Lymphoma Nathan Price 1978-2012 Cause of death: ? Roman Ragazzi 1974-2012 Suicide Sergio Real 1970-2012 Liver cancer Erik Rhodes 1982-2012 Heart attack Sean
On my way back to Napa, from a Marian Conference, October 20, 2012, I stopped at Mission San Juan Bautista. I have always loved this Mission for its somewhat remote location, and the original rustic
Thomas Hart Benton Lewis Hine Grant Wood Mike Rowe, the guy from the television show Dirty Jobs, wrote a letter to Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney, in which he rather eloquently shared his views on the
One of my favorite films directed by one of my favorite directors is “I Confess” from the great Alfred Hitchcock. The story revolves around a Catholic priest (played by Montgomery Clift) who is accused of
A bizarre story I recently read about finally inspired me to write this article that has been bouncing around in my brain for years. The story: in Berkeley, the town of my Alma-mater, a lesbian
First published in 1856, “Madame Bovary” by Gustave Flaubert initially appeared as a serial in a Paris newspaper then as a novel the following year. Flaubert wrote “Madame Bovary” in a country that still struggled
