Printed Material

15. A third problem which should engage your continuous care concerns the printed material that is published either daily or at stated intervals. You know the times, venerable brethren: on the one hand men are consumed with an insatiable passion for reading; on the other an enormous amount of bad literature is freely disseminated. Given these facts it is impossible to estimate how much harm is done to good morals, what destruction daily threatens the integrity of religion. Therefore by exhortation, by admonition, by every possible means continue to call men back from such fountains of corruption and lead them to salutary waters. It will be a great help if by your initiative and leadership daily papers are published, under the patronage of truth, virtue, and religion, to offset these poisonous evils. Now an admonition for authors who by an honest and holy determination combine the love of writing with a love and zeal for the Catholic cause. If they really want their works to be fruitful and worthy of praise, let them remember what is required of those who engage in controversy for a good cause. In writing they must exercise the greatest care to be moderate and prudent, but above all loving. Love is the mother and companion of all the other virtues. You can see that fickle suspicion and rash accusations are detrimental indeed to fraternal love. From this you can understand the injustice of those who, in favoring one political party, do not hesitate in matters of religion to accuse others of unorthodoxy. They do this only because they belong to another party, as though orthodox Catholic faith is necessarily the prerogative of this or that political party.