The Press, Radio, Movies and Television

Publishing houses and bookshops provide an excel lent field for the apostolate. We are glad to hear that the majority of Catholic publishers and book sellers regard their profession as a service to the Church.

A parish library can be correctly run by lay people, who normally should be experienced readers. Good Catholics also have an opportunity of doing good in lending libraries.

The Catholic newspaperman who exercises his profession in a spirit of faith is quite naturally a lay apostle. At the Manila Congress a request was made for Catholic journalists and a Catholic press for Asia. It is, furthermore, only normal that Catholics should cooperate with the press, even if only in matters of local interest.

In respect to the radio, movies, and television, We refer to what We said in the encyclical Miranda prorsus (Remarkable Inventions) issued on September 8 of this year. There is a dual task to be accomplished here: avoid all elements of corruption and promote Christian values. There is by actual count an annual attendance of 12 billion in places of entertainment. Yet too many of the shows offered do not reach the cultural and moral level which one has the right to expect.

The most regrettable fact is that films very often portray a world in which men live and die as if God did not exist. The problem, then, is to prevent mortal dangers to the faith and the Christian way of life. One could never have to go before God with the responsibility of having tolerated such a situation, and one must make every effort to change it. We are grateful, then, to all those who, in the fields of radio, movies, and television, carry on a courageous, intelligent, and systematic work, which has already been rewarded with results which give grounds for serious hope. We commend in particular the associations and movements whose objective it is to make Christian principles prevail in the use of moving pictures.

In the parishes, or at least in the deaneries, working groups will train their members and coworkers as well as the public in their duty with regard to radio, movies, and television, and will help them discharge these duties. In so far as television is concerned, it is indispensable for the Church to be represented on the committees entrusted with organizing programs and for Catholic experts to be among the producers. Both priests and the laity are encouraged to take part in this task. In this field the priest may be as competent as the layman. But whatever the case may be, the participation of the laity is required.