Council for Social Communications have been at pains to make it clear that “a
merely censorious attitude on the part of the Church... is neither sufficient nor
appropriate”.
4
Quoting Pope Pius XII’s 1957 encyclical letter
Miranda Prorsus,
the Pastoral Instruction on the Means of Social Communication
Communio
et Progressio, published in 1971, underlined that point: “The Church sees
these media as ‘gifts of God’ which, in accordance with his providential
design, unite men in brotherhood and so help them to cooperate with his plan for
their salvation”.
5
This remains our view, and it is the view we take of the
Internet.
2. As the Church understands it, the history of human communication is
something like a long journey, bringing humanity “from the pride-driven project
of Babel and the collapse into confusion and mutual incomprehension to which
it gave rise (cf.
Gen 11:1-9), to Pentecost and the gift of tongues: a restoration of
communication,
centered on Jesus, through the action of the Holy Spirit”.
6
In the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, “communication among men
found its highest ideal and supreme example in God who had become man and
brother”.
7
The modern media of social communication are cultural factors that play a
role in this story. As the Second Vatican Council remarks, “although we must be
careful to distinguish earthly progress clearly from the increase of the kingdom
of Christ”, nevertheless “such progress is of vital concern to the kingdom of
God, insofar as it can contribute to the better ordering of human society”.
8
Considering the media of social communication in this light, we see that
they “contribute greatly to the enlargement and enrichment of men’s minds and
to the propagation and consolidation of the kingdom of God”.
9
Today this applies in a special way to the Internet, which is helping bring
about revolutionary changes in commerce, education, politics, journalism, the
relationship of nation to nation and culture to culture – changes not just in how
people communicate but in how they understand their lives. In a companion
90
nicazioni Sociali,
Pornografia e Violenza nei Mezzi di Comunicazione sociale:
una Risposta Pa-
storale; Istruzione Pastorale
Aetatis novae; Etica nella Pubblicità; Etica nelle Comunicazioni so-
ciali.
4
Pornografia e Violenza nei Mezzi di Comunicazione sociale, n. 30.
5
Communio et progressio, n. 2.
6
Giovanni Paolo II, Messaggio in occasione della XXXIV Giornata Mondiale delle Comu-
nicazioni, 2 gennaio 2000.
7
Communio et progressio, n. 10.
8
Concilio Vaticano II, Costituzione Pastorale sulla Chiesa nel mondo contemporaneo
Gau-
dium et spes, n. 39.
9
Inter mirifica, n. 2.
document,
Ethics in Internet, we discuss these matters in their ethical
dimension.
10
Here we consider the Internet’s implications for religion and especially for
the Catholic Church.
3. The Church has a two-fold aim in regard to the media. One aspect is to
encourage their right development and right use for the sake of human
development, justice, and peace – for the upbuilding of society at the local,
national, and community levels in light of the common good and in a spirit of
solidarity. Considering the great importance of social communications, the
Church seeks “honest and respectful dialogue with those responsible for the
communications media” – a dialogue that relates primarily to the shaping of
media policy.
11
“On the Church’s side this dialogue involves efforts to understand the
media – their purposes, procedures, forms and genres, internal structures and
modalities – and to offer support and encouragement to those involved in media
work. On the basis of this sympathetic understanding and support, it becomes
possible to offer meaningful proposals for removing obstacles to human progress
and the proclamation of the Gospel”.
12
But the Church’s concern also relates to communication in and by the
Church herself. Such communication is more than just an exercise in technique,
for it “finds its starting point in the communion of love among the divine
Persons and their communication with us”, and in the realization that Trinitarian
communication “reaches out to humankind: The Son is the Word, eternally
‘spoken’ by the Father; and in and through Jesus Christ, Son and Word made
flesh, God communicates himself and his salvation to women and men”.
13
God continues to communicate with humanity through the Church, the
bearer and custodian of his revelation, to whose living teaching office alone he
has entrusted the task of authentically interpreting his word.
14
Moreover, the
Church herself is a
communio, a communion of persons and Eucharistic
communities arising from and mirroring the communion of the Trinity;
communication therefore is of the essence of the Church.
15
This, more than any other reason, is why “the Church’s practice of
communication should be exemplary, reflecting the highest standards of
91
10
Pontificio Consiglio
delle Comunicazioni Sociali,
Etica in Internet.
11
Aetatis novae, n. 8.
12
Ibidem.
13
Etica nelle Comunicazioni Sociali, n. 3.
14
Cfr Concilio Vaticano II, Costituzione Dogmatica sulla Divina Rivelazione
Dei Verbum,
n. 10.
15
Aetatis novae, n. 10.