Media: the pope’s mandate

by Editor · March 2, 2005

Pope John Paul, in his new apostolic letter on the communications media, Rapid Development, makes a profound point when he observes that the mass media occupy a central socialising role as “the principal means of guidance and inspiration for many people in their personal, familial and social behaviour.”

This can be for the good images of the recent tsunami catastrophe contributed to at least momentary global solidarity. More frequently, however, it is for the worse, not least when banal celebrities receive a wide platform to socialise younger generations with what often are corrupted values.

The teachings of the Catholic Church are rarely reflected in the mostly hostile secular media, and the Church struggles continually to make its teachings heard above the media din. The Church finds itself at a disadvantage, simply because it cannot be as pervasive as the combined effects of electronic and printed media. Only on the Internet has the Church managed to establish a reasonable presence.

The pope writes that “the use of techniques and the technology of contemporary communications is an integral part of [the Church’s] mission in the third millennium.”

In other words, the Church’s engagement with, in and of the media must be a conscious policy arguably one on which depends the whole future of evangelisation.

Pope John Paul also calls on Catholics to fight for access to the mass media a crucial summons especially in South Africa, where the Church is marginalised from the news media (and not solely through the fault of the newspapers).

The pope says that “the appreciation of the media is not reserved only to those already adept in the field, but to the entire Church community.” This echoes a call often made by Catholic media professionals that the faithful must be media literate, knowing how to interpret and use what they consume, and knowing what to reject.

Here it is particularly important that parents and catechists understand what young Catholics experience through television, radio, movies, magazines, the Internet, computer games and music. It is impossible to censor, never mind ban, the corruptive elements of media. Adults must, however, monitor what their children are exposed to, and engage them in discussion about the values inherent in much of popular culture, and the premises of Catholic ethics.

It is also important, as Pope John Paul notes, that the Catholic media be supported and utilised.

Today, the Catholic press and radio are counter-cultural in that the message they communicate is not always congruous with that of the mass media. While the Catholic media serve God and his Church’s mission, the mass media serve the cults of celebrity, power and money.

In South Africa especially, the Church’s voice is muted except for the Catholic media. Should the Catholic media disintegrate, the local Church would lose its voice altogether.

For this reason alone, the Catholic media must be sustained and supported, especially in Southern Africa. This must become a conscious, and indeed official, programme of the local Church, involving the bishops, clergy and laity.

The starting point of a Catholic response to the degenerative effects of the mass media must involve the engagement by Church leaders of the printed and electronic media, a strategic presence on the Internet, and the absolute support for the Church media which provide an alternative and Catholic perspective to what has become a secular mainstream.

Anything less will let down the vision articulated with such precision by Pope John Paul in Rapid Development.