ETHICS IN COMMUNICATIONS: 
MAY WE SAY WHATEVER WE WANT?

This is apparently my week for Jesuit universities. On Monday, March 19, I was at my alma mater, St. Joseph’s University, to offer Mass and give a lecture for their 150^th anniversary. It was a sobering thought to realize that I had been a student in Philadelphia’s Jesuit high school, St. Joseph’s Prep, when the Prep and St. Joseph’s College celebrated their 100^th anniversary.

Since this is my first visit ever to John Carroll University, I feel rejuvenated, because it is a new experience for me and I do not have to carry the burden of history.

Speaking of the burden of history, however, I was present in St. Peter’s Basilica in December of 1963 when the first two documents of the Second Vatican Council were approved: "Sacrosanctum Concilium", on the liturgy, and "Inter Mirifica", on communications. The document on communications asked for the establishment of a Vatican department to maintain contact with all of the communications media, and it is that department of which I have been president for almost seventeen years.

Since that day in 1963 and also since my arrival in Rome in 1984, we have all witnessed a continuing revolution in communications.

Just think of some of the changes.

In technology, those changes include satellites, computers, and cellular telephones, Internet, fiber optics, desktop publishing – and an almost endless list of specialized applications.

In public policy, we have witnessed the collapse of Communism and the passing state or party controlled communications, but we have also witnessed a tendency to deregulation of electronic media in free societies, including and especially the United States, where we have seen the passing of many public service requirements, including special consideration for religion, and the diminishing of restrictions on concentration of ownership.

In programming, while the technical quality of many telecasts and indeed radio broadcasts has improved, there has been a decline in the quality of the content, partly because of the deregulation already mentioned, partly because of more widespread competition and partly because of a tendency to aim for the least common denominator. Broadcast standards departments in the networks have been greatly weakened, as have the powers and/or the inclinations of federal regulators.

I do remain optimistic about the communications media, however, not only because the very opening words of "Inter Mirifica" describe them as among the marvelous things which God has enabled human beings to discover, but because communication itself is rooted in the divine.

The inner life of God is one of constant communication: among Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The ongoing work of creation is communication : the continuing transmission by God of existence itself to all creatures.

The revelation to us of God’s inner life and of aspects of our own destiny is communication.

The Incarnation of the Son of God, whom we appropriately call ‘the Word’, is commuication

God’s nurture of our divine life with the Body and Blood of His Son is a communication which we aptly call Holy Communion.

The vocation which we have to share God’s word and God’s love -- a task we call evangelization – is communication.

Communication, therefore, can and should be sublime.

As a former philosophy professor, I can recall reminding students that logical truth is the conformity of our thought with objective reality; moral truth is the conformity of what we communicate with what we truly know. Metaphysical truth is the conformity of objective reality with the exemplary idea in the mind of God.

When we know what a thing truly is and when we express it accurately, then we have truth – and that is why we ask communicators to be objective and not to impose their prejudices or preconceptions upon that which they communicate. As well as we can, we want to know the truth, and we want to draw as close as possible to the source of truth in God Himself, who is the ultimate truth. In fact, Jesus called Himself "the way, the truth and the life."

Jesus also said, "The truth will make you free." True freedom comes for truth, because, when we know truth, we have the necessary information with which to guide our lives, to use our freedom in the most fruitful manner, in a freedom, which liberates us from slavery of sin and selfishness.

The contemporary concept of freedom is: "Do whatever you want" – and we have seen the results in all manner of addicts: substance abuse, sexual promiscuity, and in the breakdown of the norms which kept families and societies together.

The true concept of freedom is: "Do what you should" – because that leads to a respect for personal dignity and to a concern for the welfare of society; it is based upon an accurate perception of human nature, of our human interdependence and of our ultimate dependence upon and responsibility to God.

How does this touch upon the theme of "Ethics in Communication?"

On February 22, 1997, the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, our Pontifical council for Social Communications issued a document entitled "Ethics in Advertising." The development of that document followed a rather extensive survey not only of moral experts but of advertising executives – and the reaction was most rewarding. Many advertising executives said they needed moral norms, but they did not look forward to a Church condemnation.

Thus, the structure our study followed was: the advantages of advertising, the disadvantages of advertising, the principles involved, some recommendations.

The advertising community was stunned to hear that the Catholic Church recognized advantages in advertising – and I have receives invitations from all over the world to speak on the theme of "Ethics in Advertising."

One point I usually try to make is that the Catholic Church has been involved in advertising for two thousand years; we call it evangelization; we really believe in our product, and we offer more than a lifetime guarantee.

The same advertising executives and others who read the document or heard my talks said that they would appreciate if we might address the larger questions of ethics in communication.

Thus, on World Communications Day, June 4, 2000, on the eve of the Jubilee for Journalists in Rome, we issued our document on just that theme.

First, we listed economic, political, cultural, educational, and religious advantages of communications.

• On the economic level, communication supports business and commerce; helps spur growth, employment and prosperity; encourages improvement in the quality of goods and services and the development of new ones; fosters responsible competition and enables people to make informed choices.
• On the political level, communication facilitates informed citizens participation through more information about issues and candidates and about the performance of office holders.
• On the cultural level, communication offers widespread access to literature, drama, music and art and makes available useful information to wide audiences.
• On the educational level, the media offer assistance to children and adults in widening and deepening their knowledge, bringing useful knowledge to places and persons who could otherwise not have access to such knowledge.
• On the religious level, the media can carry news about religious event and person, inspiring drama and programs of spiritual enrichment. They can also be used for evangelization and catechesis. They can unite millions around the world in prayer, as they did for the funeral of Princess Diana or for the opening of the Holy Door in Rome at Christmas of 1999.

Regarding communication that violates the good of the person, media can foster perversion, hostility, and conflict.

On the economic level, It can be used to build a society based merely upon acquisition and greed, a market economy gone wild. It can be responsible for deepening the gap between rich and poor – and, thus, for sowing the seeds of future conflict.

More fundamentally, it can create an atmosphere that "having’ is more important than "being," and that those who do not have much are not worth much.

On the political level, the media can be used for demagoguery and deception and can popularize a certain ethical relativism and utilitarianism: government by polls and polls influence propaganda.

On the cultural level, the media can diffuse a sense of superficiality and can become tawdry and demeaning. In 1989, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, in its document, "Pornography and Violence in the Communications Media: A Pastoral Response," noted that "pornography and sadistic violence debase sexuality, corrode human relationships, exploit individuals – especially women and young people, undermine marriage and family life, foster antisocial behavior and weaken the moral fiber of society itself."

On the educational level, media can distract people and cause them to waste time. Media can also be used as means of indoctrination instead of true education.

On the religious level, the media can ignore or marginalize religious ideas and experience, treating religion with the incomprehension or contempt or favoring only those religious views, which conform to what might be called politically correct stance of the moment.

Religious leaders, of course, run the risk of having only a negative view of media, failing to appreciate the needs of the media and refusing to cooperate with the media when their cooperation could serve the truth and the possibility of at least pre-evangeliaztion.

The basic principles involved in ethics in communication are:

• truth;
• the dignity of the human person;
• the welfare of society – or the common good.

When communication serves these ends, it is good; when it does not serve them, it is not communication, which serves the person and society.

The principles are fairly basic; the application of these principles in itself should render human communication more fruitful and more productive of peaceful and happy lives here and of the attainment of our true human destiny hereafter.

As the old song goes: "Who could ask for anything more?"

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