Opera Omnia

INSTRUCTION VIII
TECHNICAL MEANS OF APOSTOLATE
Various notes

There are devils for all ages and for all types of people.
Do not forget the midday devil - halfway through life. He comes in various guises and subtle ways, but at bottom it is a lack of self-satisfaction; sensuality that we thought we had mastered but now violently reawakened; above all, a breakdown in our prayer life.
The period of the shaping of one's definitive personality is a highly delicate and dangerous one.

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So that every Brother can further enrich his spiritual life, in accordance with what was set out in the Chapter, he has a right to ask that a Mass be celebrated each month for his intentions. It is for him to ask for this.

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Brothers from various countries have asked to come to Italy for six to twelve months to prepare themselves for

perpetual profession. The General House considers this a useful thing and desires that it be granted.

Instruments and finality

The technical means that our apostolate makes especial use of for the Gospel at present are the press, cinema, radio and television.
What they all have in common are the editorial, technical and distribution stages.
The goal is glory to God, peace among men.
They can have a merely negative role by keeping evil, sin and perversion at bay.
Thus there are films, books, and various programs to help pass the time, but which have no positive educational content, nothing to improve one's life, and so on.
Instead they can act in a positive way by imparting education and knowledge; stirring up interest in the arts, religion, business, and so on.
They can also combine usefulness and pleasure: relaxation and edification; news and information concerning business, the home, inventions, geography, languages, and so on.
But when are they a truly positive apostolate? When everything concerns faith, morals, and worship. Illustrate the catechisms with explanations and drawings; prepare films and slides on Bible History, on the Sacraments, on the life of Christ; show films on the lives of saints, on Church History, on religious events, and so on.

The efficacy of the means of social communication

Efficacy depends on several things:
a) interest in the subject;
b) whether the way it is presented attracts;
c) the number of people who take part;
d) the faculties and human senses involved.

The latest inventions - cinema, radio and television - have in no way diminished the powerful influence of the press. Indeed they have broadened its field of action and, in the publishing apostolate, form a united front.
Press, cinema, radio and television today walk hand in hand; four powers that complement one another; four masters of opinion, of the world.
They are achievements: the progress of the arts, of the sciences, and of human technique and industry, since they are all true gifts of God, may be ordained to his glory and the salvation of souls. [Vigilanti cura.]

Norms for the cinema

Art. 252. All that has been said about the apostolate of communications to be exercised by means of the press, should be applied, with all due references, to the other means which the Society, according to its special aim as laid down in article 2, has to make use of to spread Catholic doctrine.

Art. 253. Superiors should particularly concentrate their solicitude on the cinematographic art, which exerts such a great influence on the multitudes and can spur them both to good or evil, so that it may be prudently employed as a most efficacious means for the salvation of souls as well as for the welfare of human society, for it is a most effective apostolate.
Art. 254. Films produced by the Society, or those distributed by the Society after diligent examination and censorship, must tend not merely to prevent evil, but aim, through their exemplification, to imbue the minds of the spectators with the precepts of the natural and evangelical laws so as to incite them to virtue.
Art. 255. Therefore, we must endeavor to produce films which, though intended for an honest pastime of both body and mind, should none the less always be in conformity to uprightness and arouse the spectators to lead wholesome lives and acquire culture truly worthy of the name. Furthermore, the Society must earnestly strive to produce such films as will specifically convey Catholic doctrine. On this account, with all due references, the regulations laid down in articles 229-232 concerning the editing work are to be observed.

Pius XI wrote: The extension and the effectiveness of this discovery of human genius is well known. An extension, one could say, that embraces all areas of life: individual, familial, social, intellectual, moral and religious, literary and artistic, economic and political, national

and international. An effectiveness that extends beyond any other form of popularizing ideas and of educating people, young and old.
The motion picture has in fact a psychological, one could say, suggestive power over the human spirit because it takes hold of the whole person and strikes at all his faculties, physical and spiritual. It does not even require the viewer to make the effort to interpret, reconstruct or imagine scenes - something which even the simplest of novels does.
Effectiveness that, combined with its range, can severely undermine or strengthen - depending on whether the motion picture is good or bad - the four hinges of human society: youth and the family, social order and religious order.
These considerations take on greater seriousness from the fact that the cinema speaks not to individuals but to multitudes and that it does so in circumstances of time and place and surroundings which are most apt to arouse unusual enthusiasm for the good as well as for the bad and to conduce to that collective exaltation which, as experience teaches us, may assume the most morbid forms.

Norms for the radio

Art. 260. Pursuant to its special aim, the Pious Society of Saint Paul must also endeavor to effect a utilization of the radio and television as a forceful means

of spreading the word of God. Whenever possible the Society should possess its own stations.
Art. 261. Superiors should exert special vigilance to insure that nothing which is out of accord with the special aim of the Society is broadcast or televised. The transmissions produced by the Society must always be of service for the salvation of souls. Therefore, they should deal either directly or indirectly with religious matters, namely, faith, morals, and worship. On this account, with all due references, the regulations laid down in articles 229-232, concerning the editing work, are to be observed.

Let us reflect on the words which Pius XII addressed to the participants of the International High-Frequency Radio Broadcasting Conference in 1950: Often people complain about the faults of the radio and its part in the perversion of people's minds and morals. But why should the malice of some who abuse God's gifts and the discoveries of man deprive the rest of us from the benefits which were God's providential goal? All forms of abuse must be condemned and eradicated; it would be better still to take the most effective measures to repress them. As regards the benefits with which every generation is enriched, instead, there is a need to make the most of them, and to see that the good which they yield, thanks to the work of scientific and conscientious people, surpasses and neutralizes the evil committed by unworthy speculators.
The good in this field is incalculable. Even in the directly practical field, who can sufficiently commend the tremendous service provided by radio

in cases of emergency and extreme danger? Who can gainsay the social usefulness of information, the exchange of news among all the members of the great human family? Who can assess the gain for culture in general when it is possible to listen to the most varied conferences and talks, and to enjoy quite rightly the delight of wonderful recitals and beautiful music?

Norms for television

Art. 262. In order more perfectly to attain the aim of the Society, Superiors ought to remember that according to the precept of our Father, Saint Paul, the word of God is not bound, and that human progress always provides more perfect and efficacious means which should not be inconsiderately rejected or lightly accepted. On the other hand, it belongs to the Superior General and his Council, to examine and judge about the usefulness and fitness of these means, always with due regard to the judgement of the Holy See.

Listening to Pius XII we can have a clearer idea of this new powerful means for the apostolate; and the dangers we can encounter if it is abused.
The Pope's words were: Nevertheless, it is on the part which television will not fail to play in spreading the Gospel message, that We wish to dwell especially. In this respect, the consoling results which have accompanied the industry of Catholics, in countries where television has existed for some

time, are known to Us. But who can foresee the nature and the magnitude of the new fields opened to the Catholic apostolate, when television stations, established all over the world, will make possible a still closer view of the throbbing life of the Church? It is Our earnest hope that the spiritual links which bind the great Christian family will then be drawn still tighter, and that a greater knowledge, a deeper understanding, and a wider extension of God's reign on earth may follow the use of this marvellous instrument in spreading the light of the Gospel message in men's minds.
Such a consideration, however, should not make one forget another aspect of this delicate and important question. If indeed television, when well regulated, can be an effective means of a sound, Christian education, it is also true that it is not free from dangers, because of the abuses and evils to which it can be perverted by human weakness and malice. These dangers are all the more grave as the power of suggestion possessed by this invention is greater, and its audience wider and more indiscriminate. [Address to Italian Episcopate, 1 January 1954.]

Consequences

1. The Constitutions open up an immense field for Pauline apostolic activity: for all ages and all skills.

2. Considering the vastness of our undertakings we would feel overwhelmed were there to be a lack of faith in the mission entrusted to us by God. The first means, therefore, is prayer which is the outcome of great faith.
3. There are two rules for everyone as regards the press, cinema, radio and television: abstine, sustine.¹ So too for the Religious: Abstine from forbidden books, films, and so on; sustine, in a positive, daily and generous work for the apostolate.