Pope Francis has warned priests and nuns against watching pornography, and has asked them to delete such materials from their phones.

According to the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, entertaining pornographic scenes “weakens the priestly heart” and keeps the Holy Spirit away from the believer.

The 86-year-old sent out the warning in the Vatican while responding to a question about how digital and social media should be properly utilize.

According to the news outlet, the Pope told priests and seminarians that “the devil enters from” watching porn, hence the need to stay away from it.

“…a vice that so many people have… even priests and nun,” the Pope lamented. “The pure heart, the one that Jesus receives every day, cannot receive this pornographic information.”

“…delete this from your phone, so you will not have temptation in hand,” the BBC said.

Pope Francis proceeded to  advise priests and seminarians to use   for useful purposes, and should not exhaust their time on it.

Not all men of God have the tedency to overcome temptation, so the Pope’s warning is a step in the right direction.

In 2018, a reverend father was put under house arrest while criminal proceedings were initiated against him after he allegedly raped an 11-year-old girl in a car, claiming he “thought she was at least 15 years old”.

Reports at the time indicated that the suspect, Father Paolo Glaentzer, a septuagenarian, was arrested in July of that year in connection with the crime.

The Italian man of God did not deny having sexual intercourse with the victim, but said it was “an exchange of affection” between him and the girl, who, according to him, looked “much more mature than she was”.

“I found out she was 11 years old... I thought she was at least 15,” he cried.

He blamed his conduct on the devil after finding himself on the wrong side of the Italian laws, which recognised age 16 as the legal age for consent to sex.