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May 23, 2004
Dear Brothers and
Sisters,
1. The extraordinary
growth of the communications media and their increased availability has
brought exceptional opportunities for enriching the lives not only of
individuals, but also of families. At the same time, families today face
new challenges arising from the varied and often contradictory messages
presented by the mass media. The theme chosen for the 2004 World
Communications Day – “The Media and the Family: A Risk and a Richness” -
is a timely one, for it invites sober reflection on the use which families
make of the media and, in turn, on the way that families and family
concerns are treated by the media.
This year’s theme is also
a reminder to everyone, both communicators and those whom they address,
that all communication has a moral dimension. As the Lord himself has
said, it is from the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks (cf. Mt
12:34-35). People grow or diminish in moral stature by the words which
they speak and the messages which they choose to hear. Consequently,
wisdom and discernment in the use of the media are particularly called for
on the part of communications professionals, parents and educators, for
their decisions greatly affect children and young people for whom they are
responsible, and who are ultimately the future of society.
2. Thanks to the
unprecedented expansion of the communications market in recent decades,
many families throughout the world, even those of quite modest means, now
have access in their own homes to immense and varied media resources. As a
result, they enjoy virtually unlimited opportunities for information,
education, cultural expansion, and even spiritual growth - opportunities
that far exceed those available to most families in earlier times.
Yet these same media also have the
capacity to do grave harm to families by presenting an inadequate or even
deformed outlook on life, on the family, on religion and on morality. This
power either to reinforce or override traditional values like religion,
culture, and family was clearly seen by the Second Vatican Council, which
taught that “if the media are to be correctly employed, it is essential
that all who use them know the principles of the moral order and apply
them faithfully” (Inter
Mirifica,
4). Communication in any form must always be inspired by the ethical
criterion of respect for the truth and for the dignity of the human
person.
3. These considerations
apply in particular to the treatment of the family in the media. On the
one hand, marriage and family life are frequently depicted in a sensitive
manner, realistic but also sympathetic, that celebrates virtues like love,
fidelity, forgiveness, and generous self-giving for others. This is true
also of media presentations which recognize the failures and
disappointments inevitably experienced by married couples and families -
tensions, conflicts, setbacks, evil choices and hurtful deeds - yet at the
same time make an effort to separate right from wrong, to distinguish true
love from its counterfeits, and to show the irreplaceable importance of
the family as the fundamental unit of society.
On the other hand, the
family and family life are all too often inadequately portrayed in the
media. Infidelity, sexual activity outside of marriage, and the absence of
a moral and spiritual vision of the marriage covenant are depicted
uncritically, while positive support is at times given to divorce,
contraception, abortion and homosexuality. Such portrayals, by promoting
causes inimical to marriage and the family, are detrimental to the common
good of society.
4. Conscientious
reflection on the ethical dimension of communications should issue in
practical initiatives aimed at eliminating the risks to the well-being of
the family posed by the media and ensuring that these powerful instruments
of communication will remain genuine sources of enrichment. A special
responsibility in this regard lies with communicators themselves, with
public authorities, and with parents.
Pope Paul VI pointed out that
professional communicators should “know and respect the needs of the
family, and this sometimes presupposes in them true courage, and always a
high sense of responsibility” (Message
for the 1969 World Communications Day).
It is not so easy to resist commercial pressures or the demands of
conformity to secular ideologies, but that is what responsible
communicators must do. The stakes are high, since every attack on the
fundamental value of the family is an attack on the true good of humanity.
Public authorities
themselves have a serious duty to uphold marriage and the family for the
sake of society itself. Instead, many now accept and act upon the unsound
libertarian arguments of groups which advocate practices which contribute
to the grave phenomenon of family crisis and the weakening of the very
concept of the family. Without resorting to censorship, it is imperative
that public authorities set in place regulatory policies and procedures to
ensure that the media do not act against the good of the family. Family
representatives should be part of this policy-making.
Policy-makers in the
media and in the public sector also must work for an equitable
distribution of media resources on the national and international levels,
while respecting the integrity of traditional cultures. The media should
not appear to have an agenda hostile to the sound family values of
traditional cultures or the goal of replacing those values, as part of a
process of globalization, with the secularized values of consumer society.
5. Parents, as the primary and most
important educators of their children, are also the first to teach them
about the media. They are called to train their offspring in the
“moderate, critical, watchful and prudent use of the media” in the home (Familiaris
Consortio,
76). When parents do that consistently and well, family life is greatly
enriched. Even very young children can be taught important lessons about
the media: that they are produced by people anxious to communicate
messages; that these are often messages to do something - to buy a
product, to engage in dubious behaviour - that is not in the child’s best
interests or in accord with moral truth; that children should not
uncritically accept or imitate what they find in the media.
Parents also need to
regulate the use of media in the home. This would include planning and
scheduling media use, strictly limiting the time children devote to media,
making entertainment a family experience, putting some media entirely off
limits and periodically excluding all of them for the sake of other family
activities. Above all, parents should give good example to children by
their own thoughtful and selective use of media. Often they will find it
helpful to join with other families to study and discuss the problems and
opportunities presented by the use of the media. Families should be
outspoken in telling producers, advertisers, and public authorities what
they like and dislike.
6. The media of social
communications have an enormous positive potential for promoting sound
human and family values and thus contributing to the renewal of society.
In view of their great power to shape ideas and influence behaviour,
professional communicators should recognize that they have a moral
responsibility not only to give families all possible encouragement,
assistance, and support to that end, but also to exercise wisdom, good
judgement and fairness in their presentation of issues involving
sexuality, marriage and family life.
The media are welcomed
daily as a familiar guest in many homes and families. On this World
Communications Day I encourage professional communicators and families
alike to acknowledge this unique privilege and the accountability which it
entails. May all engaged in the field of communications recognize that
they are truly “stewards and administrators of an immense spiritual power
that belongs to the patrimony of mankind and is meant to enrich the whole
of the human community” (Address to Communications Specialists, Los
Angeles, 15 September 1987, 8). And may families always be able to find in
the media a source of support, encouragement and inspiration as they
strive to live as a community of life and love, to train young people in
sound moral values, and to advance a culture of solidarity, freedom and
peace.
From the Vatican, 24
January 2004, the Feast of Saint Francis de Sales
JOHN PAUL II
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