17 November, Antonio, Cardinal Bacci: Meditations For Each Day

The Influence of the Cinema, Radio, and Television

1. It is an unfortunate but undeniable fact that man often employs new inventions and discoveries for evil rather than for good purposes. The gifts of God ought to bring us closer to Him, but too often they become through our own fault the means of separating ourselves farther from Him. Everything is good, and not only whatever God has created, but also whatever we ourselves produce by a proper use of the faculties with which our Creator has endowed us.

“Every creature of God is good,” says St. Paul, “and nothing is to be rejected...” (1 Tim. 4:4) These words are still true of the countless inventions of our own era. The cinema, radio, and television are essentially good because they are gifts which God has brought into being through the agency of human intelligence and perseverance. But what use have we been making of them? Take, for instance, the cinema. It must be admitted that there are very few films today which are edifying or spiritually helpful. Many are positively bad and dangerous, especially to certain branches of the community. Moreover, as Pius XI warned us in his Encyclical on this subject in 1936, many pictures which would otherwise be quite harmless are rendered dangerous because they are interspersed with various kinds of immorality.

Since the greatest evil for a Christian is the loss of God, and this inevitably follows the loss of grace and of the faith, we must observe the following safeguards in our approach to the cinema. (1) We must stay away from any film which might represent a proximate occasion of mortal sin. (2) We must avoid films which are opposed to morals or to the faith, and must see that our families and dependents do likewise. (3) We may attend films which are good or merely entertaining. It is better, however, not to go to the cinema too regularly, for to do so would be a waste of time and could expose us to unforeseen risks. In any case, there are many other amusements, preferably open-air, which are much more beneficial to soul and body.

2. What has been said of the cinema is true also of radio and television. There is one difference, however. We must go out to the cinema, but the radio and the television set are normally in our own homes and are therefore much greater potential instruments of good or of evil. The radio is carried about by many people both in the city and in the country. Television, moreover, has power to take possession of a man through his hearing, vision, imagination and intelligence. It is a vital world on a tiny screen which can attract and fascinate the mind. It is possible to televise sacred ceremonies, the Holy Mass, explanations of the Gospel, and religious or cultural instructions. It is equally possible to present obscene plays and every kind of indecency.

Perhaps there is no other invention with greater power for good or evil than television. This fact imposes grave obligations on the public authorities, on artists and writers, on the heads of families, and on the community in general. Every good Christian is obliged to be on his guard against the possibility of television becoming a ready instrument of moral damage either to himself or to his neighbour.

3. Let us examine ourselves conscientiously, for we may have much with which to reproach ourselves. If we have been guilty of negligence in the past, let us resolve to do better in future. The wonderful discoveries of civilisation should not be allowed to become the instruments of a new, refined type of barbarianism capable of making us the slaves of sin. Every earnest Catholic should read and meditate on the relevant teaching of His Holiness Pope Pius XII, in the Encyclical “Miranda Prorsus," published in the year 1957.