Toronto Catholic District
School Board
Acceptable Use Policy:
PONTIFICAL
COUNCIL FOR SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS
THE
CHURCH AND INTERNET
I
INTRODUCTION
1.
The Church's interest in the Internet is a particular expression of her
longstanding interest in the media of social communication. Seeing the media as
an outcome of the historical scientific process by which humankind “advances
further and further in the discovery of the resources and values contained in
the whole of creation”,1 the Church often has declared her
conviction that they are, in the words of the Second Vatican Council,
“marvellous technical inventions” 2 that already do much to meet
human needs and may yet do even more.
Thus
the Church has taken a fundamentally positive approach to the media.3
Even when condemning serious abuses, documents of this Pontifical Council for
Social Communications have been at pains to make it clear that “a merely
censorious attitude on the part of the Church...is neither sufficient nor
appropriate”.4
Quoting
Pope Pius XII's 1957 encyclical letter Miranda
Prorsus, the Pastoral Instruction on the Means of Social Communication Communio
et Progressio, published in 1971, underlined that point: “The Church
sees these media as ‘gifts of God' which, in accordance with his providential
design, unite men in brotherhood and so help them to cooperate with his plan for
their salvation”.5 This remains our view, and it is the view we
take of the Internet.
2.
As the Church understands it, the history of human communication is something
like a long journey, bringing humanity “from the pride-driven project of Babel
and the collapse into confusion and mutual incomprehension to which it gave rise
(cf. Gen 11:1-9), to Pentecost and the
gift of tongues: a restoration of communication, centered on Jesus, through the
action of the Holy Spirit”.6 In the life, death, and resurrection
of Christ, “communication among men found its highest ideal and supreme
example in God who had become man and brother”.7
The
modern media of social communication are cultural factors that play a role in
this story. As the Second Vatican Council remarks, “although we must be
careful to distinguish earthly progress clearly from the increase of the kingdom
of Christ”, nevertheless “such progress is of vital concern to the kingdom
of God, insofar as it can contribute to the better ordering of human society”.8
Considering the media of social communication in this light, we see that they
“contribute greatly to the enlargement and enrichment of men's minds and to
the propagation and consolidation of the kingdom of God”.9
Today
this applies in a special way to the Internet, which is helping bring about
revolutionary changes in commerce, education, politics, journalism, the
relationship of nation to nation and culture to culture—changes not just in
how people communicate but in how they understand their lives. In a companion
document, Ethics
in Internet, we discuss these matters in their ethical dimension.10
Here we consider the Internet's implications for religion and especially for the
Catholic Church.
3.
The Church has a two-fold aim in regard to the media. One aspect is to encourage
their right development and right use for the sake of human development,
justice, and peace—for the upbuilding of society at the local, national, and
community levels in light of the common good and in a spirit of solidarity.
Considering the great importance of social communications, the Church seeks
“honest and respectful dialogue with those responsible for the communications
media”—a dialogue that relates primarily to the shaping of media policy.11
“On the Church's side this dialogue involves efforts to understand the
media—their purposes, procedures, forms and genres, internal structures and
modalities—and to offer support and encouragement to those involved in media
work. On the basis of this sympathetic understanding and support, it becomes
possible to offer meaningful proposals for removing obstacles to human progress
and the proclamation of the Gospel”.12
But
the Church's concern also relates to communication in and by the Church herself.
Such communication is more than just an exercise in technique, for it “finds
its starting point in the communion of love among the divine Persons and their
communication with us”, and in the realization that Trinitarian communication
“reaches out to humankind: The Son is the Word, eternally ‘spoken' by the
Father; and in and through Jesus Christ, Son and Word made flesh, God
communicates himself and his salvation to women and men”.13
God
continues to communicate with humanity through the Church, the bearer and
custodian of his revelation, to whose living teaching office alone he has
entrusted the task of authentically interpreting his word.14
Moreover, the Church herself is a communio,
a communion of persons and eucharistic communities arising from and mirroring
the communion of the Trinity;15 communication therefore is of the
essence of the Church. This, more than any other reason, is why “the Church's
practice of communication should be exemplary, reflecting the highest standards
of truthfulness, accountability, sensitivity to human rights, and other relevant
principles and norms”.16
4.
Three decades ago Communio
et Progressio pointed out that “modern media offer new ways of
confronting people with the message of the Gospel”.17 Pope Paul VI
said the Church “would feel guilty before the Lord” if it failed to use the
media for evangelization.18 Pope John Paul II has called the media
“the first Areopagus of the modern age”, and declared that “it is not
enough to use the media simply to spread the Christian message and the Church's
authentic teaching. It is also necessary to integrate that message into the
‘new culture' created by modern communications”.19 Doing that is
all the more important today, since not only do the media now strongly influence
what people think about life but also to a great extent “human experience
itself is an experience of media”.20
All
this applies to the Internet. And even though the world of social communications
“may at times seem at odds with the Christian message, it also offers unique
opportunities for proclaiming the saving truth of Christ to the whole human
family. Consider...the positive capacities of the Internet to carry religious
information and teaching beyond all barriers and frontiers. Such a wide audience
would have been beyond the wildest imaginings of those who preached the Gospel
before us...Catholics should not be afraid to throw open the doors of social
communications to Christ, so that his Good News may be heard from the housetops
of the world”.21
II
OPPORTUNITIES
AND CHALLENGES
5.
“Communication in and by the Church is essentially communication of the Good
News of Jesus Christ. It is the proclamation of the Gospel as a prophetic,
liberating word to the men and women of our times; it is testimony, in the face
of radical secularization, to divine truth and to the transcendent destiny of
the human person; it is witness given in solidarity with all believers against
conflict and division, to justice and communion among peoples, nations, and
cultures”.22
Since
announcing the Good News to people formed by a media culture requires taking
carefully into account the special characteristics of the media themselves, the
Church now needs to understand the Internet. This is necessary in order to
communicate effectively with people—especially young people—who are steeped
in the experience of this new technology, and also in order to use it well.
The
media offer important benefits and advantages from a religious perspective:
“They carry news and information about religious events, ideas, and
personalities; they serve as vehicles for evangelization and catechesis. Day in
and day out, they provide inspiration, encouragement, and opportunities for
worship to persons confined to their homes or to institutions”.23
But over and above these, there also are benefits more or less peculiar to the
Internet. It offers people direct and immediate access to important religious
and spiritual resources—great libraries and museums and places of worship, the
teaching documents of the Magisterium, the writings of the Fathers and Doctors
of the Church and the religious wisdom of the ages. It has a remarkable capacity
to overcome distance and isolation, bringing people into contact with
like-minded persons of good will who join in virtual communities of faith to
encourage and support one another. The Church can perform an important service
to Catholics and non-Catholics alike by the selection and transmission of useful
data in this medium.
The
Internet is relevant to many activities and programs of the Church—
evangelization, including both re-evangelization and new evangelization and the
traditional missionary work ad gentes,
catechesis and other kinds of education, news and information, apologetics,
governance and administration, and some forms of pastoral counseling and
spiritual direction. Although the virtual reality of cyberspace cannot
substitute for real interpersonal community, the incarnational reality of the
sacraments and the liturgy, or the immediate and direct proclamation of the
gospel, it can complement them, attract people to a fuller experience of the
life of faith, and enrich the religious lives of users. It also provides the
Church with a means for communicating with particular groups—young people and
young adults, the elderly and home-bound, persons living in remote areas, the
members of other religious bodies—who otherwise may be difficult to reach.
A
growing number of parishes, dioceses, religious congregations, and
church-related institutions, programs, and organizations of all kinds now make
effective use of the Internet for these and other purposes. Creative projects
under Church sponsorship exist in some places on the national and regional
levels. The Holy See has been active in this area for several years and is
continuing to expand and develop its Internet presence. Church-related groups
that have not yet taken steps to enter cyberspace are encouraged to look into
the possibility of doing so at an early date. We strongly recommend the exchange
of ideas and information about the Internet among those with experience in the
field and those who are newcomers.
6.
The Church also needs to understand and use the Internet as a tool of internal
communications. This requires keeping clearly in view its special character as a
direct, immediate, interactive, and participatory medium.
Already,
the two-way interactivity of the Internet is blurring the old distinction
between those who communicate and those who receive what is communicated,24
and creating a situation in which, potentially at least, everyone can do both.
This is not the one-way, top-down communication of the past. As more and more
people become familiar with this characteristic of the Internet in other areas
of their lives, they can be expected also to look for it in regard to religion
and the Church.
The
technology is new, but the idea is not. Vatican Council II said members of the
Church should disclose to their pastors “their needs and desires with that
liberty and confidence which befits children of God and brothers of Christ”;
in fact, according to knowledge, competence, or position, the faithful are not
only able but sometimes obliged “to manifest their opinion on those things
which pertain to the good of the Church”.25 Communio
et Progressio remarked that as a “living body” the Church “needs
public opinion in order to sustain a giving and taking among her members”.26
Although truths of faith “do not leave room for arbitrary interpretations”,
the pastoral instruction noted “an enormous area where members of the Church
can express their views”.27
Similar
ideas are expressed in the Code of Canon Law 28 as well as in more
recent documents of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.29
Aetatis
Novae calls two-way communication and public opinion “one of the ways
of realizing in a concrete manner the Church's character as communio”.30
Ethics
in Communications says: “A two-way flow of information and views
between pastors and faithful, freedom of expression sensitive to the well being
of the community and to the role of the Magisterium in fostering it, and
responsible public opinion all are important expressions of ‘the fundamental
right of dialogue and information within the Church'”.31 The
Internet provides an effective technological means of realizing this vision.
Here,
then, is an instrument that can be put creatively to use for various aspects of
administration and governance. Along with opening up channels for the expression
of public opinion, we have in mind such things as consulting experts, preparing
meetings, and practicing collaboration in and among particular churches and
religious institutes on local, national, and international levels.
7.
Education and training are another area of opportunity and need. “Today
everybody needs some form of continuing media education, whether by personal
study or participation in an organized program or both. More than just teaching
about techniques, media education helps people form standards of good taste and
truthful moral judgment, an aspect of conscience formation. Through her schools
and formation programs the Church should provide media education of this
kind”.32
Education
and training regarding the Internet ought to be part of comprehensive programs
of media education available to members of the Church. As much as possible,
pastoral planning for social communications should make provision for this
training in the formation of seminarians, priests, religious, and lay pastoral
personnel as well as teachers, parents, and students.33
Young
people in particular need to be taught “not only to be good Christians when
they are recipients but also to be active in using all the aids to communication
that lie within the media...So, young people will be true citizens of that age
of social communications which has already begun” 34—an age in
which media are seen to be “part of a still unfolding culture whose full
implications are as yet imperfectly understood”.35 Teaching about
the Internet and the new technology thus involves much more than teaching
techniques; young people need to learn how to function well in the world of
cyberspace, make discerning judgments according to sound moral criteria about
what they find there, and use the new technology for their integral development
and the benefit of others.
8.
The Internet also presents some special problems for the Church, over and above
those of a general nature discussed in Ethics
in Internet, the document accompanying this one.36 While
emphasizing what is positive about the Internet, it is important to be clear
about what is not.
At
a very deep level, “the world of the media can sometimes seem indifferent and
even hostile to Christian faith and morality. This is partly because media
culture is so deeply imbued with a typically postmodern sense that the only
absolute truth is that there are no absolute truths or that, if there were, they
would be inaccessible to human reason and therefore irrelevant”.37
Among
the specific problems presented by the Internet is the presence of hate sites
devoted to defaming and attacking religious and ethnic groups. Some of these
target the Catholic Church. Like pornography and violence in the media, Internet
hate sites are “reflections of the dark side of a human nature marred by
sin”.38 And while respect for free expression may require
tolerating even voices of hatred up to a point, industry self-regulation—and,
where required, intervention by public authority—should establish and enforce
reasonable limits to what can be said.
The
proliferation of web sites calling themselves Catholic creates a problem of a
different sort. As we have said, church-related groups should be creatively
present on the Internet; and well-motivated, well-informed individuals and
unofficial groups acting on their own initiative are entitled to be there as
well. But it is confusing, to say the least, not to distinguish eccentric
doctrinal interpretations, idiosyncratic devotional practices, and ideological
advocacy bearing a ‘Catholic' label from the authentic positions of the
Church. We suggest an approach to this issue below.
9.
Certain other matters still require much reflection. Regarding these, we urge
continued research and study, including “the development of an anthropology
and a theology of communication” 39—now, with specific reference
to the Internet. Along with study and research, of course, positive pastoral
planning for the use of the Internet can and should go forward.40
One
area for research concerns the suggestion that the wide range of choices
regarding consumer products and services available on the Internet may have a
spillover effect in regard to religion and encourage a ‘consumer' approach to
matters of faith. Data suggest that some visitors to religious web sites may be
on a sort of shopping spree, picking and choosing elements of customized
religious packages to suit their personal tastes. The “tendency on the part of
some Catholics to be selective in their adherence” to the Church's teaching is
a recognized problem in other contexts;41 more information is needed
about whether and to what extent the problem is exacerbated by the Internet.
Similarly,
as noted above, the virtual reality of cyberspace has some worrisome
implications for religion as well as for other areas of life. Virtual reality is
no substitute for the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the sacramental
reality of the other sacraments, and shared worship in a flesh-and-blood human
community. There are no sacraments on the Internet; and even the religious
experiences possible there by the grace of God are insufficient apart from
real-world interaction with other persons of faith. Here is another aspect of
the Internet that calls for study and reflection. At the same time, pastoral
planning should consider how to lead people from cyberspace to true community
and how, through teaching and catechesis, the Internet might subsequently be
used to sustain and enrich them in their Christian commitment.
III
RECOMMENDATIONS
AND CONCLUSION
10.
Religious people, as concerned members of the larger Internet audience who also
have legitimate particular interests of their own, wish to be part of the
process that guides the future development of this new medium. It goes without
saying that this will sometimes require them to adjust their own thinking and
practice.
It
is important, too, that people at all levels of the Church use the Internet
creatively to meet their responsibilities and help fulfill the Church's mission.
Hanging back timidly from fear of technology or for some other reason is not
acceptable, in view of the very many positive possibilities of the Internet.
“Methods of facilitating communication and dialogue among her own members can
strengthen the bonds of unity between them. Immediate access to information
makes it possible for [the Church] to deepen her dialogue with the contemporary
world...The Church can more readily inform the world of her beliefs and explain
the reasons for her stance on any given issue or event. She can hear more
clearly the voice of public opinion, and enter into a continuous discussion with
the world around her, thus involving herself more immediately in the common
search for solutions to humanity's many pressing problems”.42
11.
In concluding these reflections, therefore, we offer words of encouragement to
several groups in particular—Church leaders, pastoral personnel, educators,
parents, and especially young people.
To
Church leaders:
People in leadership positions in all sectors of the Church need to understand
the media, apply this understanding in formulating pastoral plans for social
communications 43 together with concrete policies and programs in
this area, and make appropriate use of media. Where necessary, they should
receive media education themselves; in fact, “the Church would be well served
if more of those who hold offices and perform functions in her name received
communication training”.44
This
applies to the Internet as well as to the older media. Church leaders are
obliged to use “the full potential of the ‘computer age' to serve the human
and transcendent vocation of every person, and thus to give glory to the Father
from whom all good things come”.45 They ought to employ this
remarkable technology in many different aspects of the Church's mission, while
also exploring opportunities for ecumenical and interreligious cooperation in
its use.
A
special aspect of the Internet, as we have seen, concerns the sometimes
confusing proliferation of unofficial web sites labeled ‘Catholic'. A system
of voluntary certification at the local and national levels under the
supervision of representatives of the Magisterium might be helpful in regard to
material of a specifically doctrinal or catechetical nature. The idea is not to
impose censorship but to offer Internet users a reliable guide to what expresses
the authentic position of the Church.
To
pastoral personnel.
Priests, deacons, religious, and lay pastoral workers should have media
education to increase their understanding of the impact of social communications
on individuals and society and help them acquire a manner of communicating that
speaks to the sensibilities and interests of people in a media culture. Today
this clearly includes training regarding the Internet, including how to use it
in their work. They can also profit from websites offering theological updating
and pastoral suggestions.
As
for Church personnel directly involved in media, it hardly needs saying that
they must have professional training. But they also need doctrinal and spiritual
formation, since “in order to witness to Christ it is necessary to encounter
him oneself and foster a personal relationship with him through prayer, the
Eucharist and sacramental reconciliation, reading and reflection on God's word,
the study of Christian doctrine, and service to others”.46
To
educators and catechists.
The Pastoral Instruction Communio
et Progressio spoke of the “urgent duty” of Catholic schools to
train communicators and recipients of social communications in relevant
Christian principles.47 The same message has been repeated many
times. In the age of the Internet, with its enormous outreach and impact, the
need is more urgent than ever.
Catholic
universities, colleges, schools, and educational programs at all levels should
provide courses for various groups—“seminarians, priests, religious brothers
and sisters, and lay leaders...teachers, parents, and students” 48—as
well as more advanced training in communications technology, management, ethics,
and policy issues for individuals preparing for professional media work or
decision‑making roles, including those who work in social communications
for the Church. Furthermore, we commend the issues and questions mentioned above
to the attention of scholars and researchers in relevant disciplines in Catholic
institutions of higher learning.
To
parents.For
the sake of their children, as well as for their own sakes, parents must
“learn and practice the skills of discerning viewers and listeners and
readers, acting as models of prudent use of media in the home”.49
As far as the Internet is concerned, children and young people often are more
familiar with it than their parents are, but parents still are seriously obliged
to guide and supervise their children in its use.50 If this means
learning more about the Internet than they have up to now, that will be all to
good.
Parental
supervision should include making sure that filtering technology is used in
computers available to children when that is financially and technically
feasible, in order to protect them as much as possible from pornography, sexual
predators, and other threats. Unsupervised exposure to the Internet should not
be allowed. Parents and children should dialogue together about what is seen and
experienced in cyberspace; sharing with other families who have the same values
and concerns will also be helpful. The fundamental parental duty here is to help
children become discriminating, responsible Internet users and not addicts of
the Internet, neglecting contact with their peers and with nature itself.
To
children and young people.
The Internet is a door opening on a glamorous and exciting world with a powerful
formative influence; but not everything on the other side of the door is safe
and wholesome and true. “Children and young people should be open to formation
regarding media, resisting the easy path of uncritical passivity, peer pressure,
and commercial exploitation”.51 The young owe it to
themselves—and to their parents and families and friends, their pastors and
teachers, and ultimately to God—to use the Internet well.
The
Internet places in the grasp of young people at an unusually early age an
immense capacity for doing good and doing harm, to themselves and others. It can
enrich their lives beyond the dreams of earlier generations and empower them to
enrich others' lives in turn. It also can plunge them into consumerism,
pornographic and violent fantasy, and pathological isolation.
Young
people, as has often been said, are the future of society and the Church. Good
use of the Internet can help prepare them for their responsibilities in both.
But this will not happen automatically. The Internet is not merely a medium of
entertainment and consumer gratification. It is a tool for accomplishing useful
work, and the young must learn to see it and use it as such. In cyberspace, at
least as much as anywhere else, they may be called on to go against the tide,
practice counter-culturalism, even suffer persecution for the sake of what is
true and good.
12.
To all persons of good will. Finally,
then, we would suggest some virtues that need to be cultivated by everyone who
wants to make good use of the Internet; their exercise should be based upon and
guided by a realistic appraisal of its contents.
Prudence
is necessary in order clearly to see the implications—the potential for good
and evil—in this new medium and to respond creatively to its challenges and
opportunities.
Justice
is needed, especially justice in working to close the digital divide—the gap
between the information-rich and the information-poor in today's world.52
This requires a commitment to the international common good, no less than the
“globalization of solidarity”.53
Fortitude,
courage, is necessary. This means standing up for truth in the face of religious
and moral relativism, for altruism and generosity in the face of individualistic
consumerism, for decency in the face of sensuality and sin.
And
temperance is needed—a self-disciplined approach to this remarkable
technological instrument, the Internet, so as to use it wisely and only for
good.
Reflecting
on the Internet, as upon all the other media of social communications, we recall
that Christ is “the perfect communicator” 54—the norm and model
of the Church's approach to communication, as well as the content that the
Church is obliged to communicate. “May Catholics involved in the world of
social communications preach the truth of Jesus ever more boldly from the
housetops, so that all men and women may hear about 0the love which is the heart
of God's self-communication in Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and
for ever”.55
Vatican
City, February 22, 2002, Feast of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle.
John P. Foley
President
Pierfranco
Pastore
Secretary
(1)
John Paul II, encyclical letter Laborem
Exercens, n. 25; cf. Vatican Council II, Pastoral Constitution on the Church
in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes,
n. 34.
(2)
Vatican Council II, Decree on the Means of Social Communication Inter
Mirifica, n. 1.
(3)
For example, Inter Mirifica; the
Messages of Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II on the occasion of the World
Communication Days; Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Pastoral
Instruction Communio et Progressio, Pornography
and Violence in the Communications Media: A Pastoral Response, Pastoral
Instruction Aetatis Novae, Ethics in Advertising, Ethics
in Communications.
(4)
Pornography and Violence in the
Communications Media, n. 30.
(5)
Communio et Progressio, n. 2.
(6)
John Paul II, Message for the 34th World Communications Day, June 4, 2000.
(7)
Communio et Progressio, n. 10.
(8)
Vatican Council II, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium
et Spes, 39.
(9)
Inter Mirifica, 2.
(10)
Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Ethics in Internet.
(11)
Aetatis Novae, 8.
(12)
Ibid.
(13)
Ethics in Communications, n. 3.
(14)
Cf. Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei
Verbum, n. 10.
(15)
Aetatis Novae, n. 10.
(16)
Ethics in Communications, n. 26.
(17)
Communio et Progressio, 128.
(18)
Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi,
n. 45.
(19)
Encyclical Redemptoris Missio, n. 37.
(20)
Aetatis Novae, n. 2.
(21)
John Paul II, Message for the 35th World Communications Day, n. 3, May 27, 2001.
(22)
Aetatis Novae, n. 9.
(23)
Ethics in Communications, n. 11.
(24)
Cf. Communio et Progressio, n. 15.
(25)
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, n. 37.
(26)
Communio et Progressio, n. 116.
(27)
Ibid., n. 117.
(28)
Cf. Canon 212.2, 212.3.
(29)
Cf. Aetatis Novae, n. 10; Ethics
in Communications, n. 26.
(30)
Aetatis Novae, n. 10.
(31)
Ethics in Communications, n. 26.
(32)
Ethics in Communications, n. 25.
(33)
Aetatis Novae, n. 28.
(34)
Communio et Progressio, n. 107.
(35)
John Paul II, Message for the 24th World Communications Day, 1990.
(36)
Cf. Ethics in Internet.
(37)
John Paul II, Message for the 35th World Communications Day, n. 3.
(38)
Pornography and Violence in the
Communications Media, n. 7.
(39)
Aetatis Novae, 8.
(40)
Cf. John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Novo
Millennio Ineunte, n. 39.
(41)
Cf. John Paul II, Address to the Bishops of the United States, n. 5, Los
Angeles, September 16, 1987.
(42)
John Paul II, Message for the 24th World Communications Day, 1990.
(43)
Cf. Aetatis Novae, nn. 23-33.
(44)
Ethics in Communications, n. 26.
(45)
Message for the 24th World Communications Day.
(46)
Message for the 34th World Communications Day, 2000.
(47)
Communio et Progressio, n. 107.
(48)
Aetatis Novae, n. 28.
(49)
Ethics in Communications, n. 25.
(50)
Cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, n. 76.
(51)
Ethics in Communications, n. 25.
(52)
Cf. Ethics in Internet, nn. 10, 17.
(53)
John Paul II, Address to the UN Secretary General and to the Administrative
Committee on Coordination of the United Nations, n. 2, April 7, 2000.
(54)
Communio et Progressio, n. 11.
(55)
Message for the 35th World Communications Day, n. 4.
PONTIFICAL
COUNCIL FOR SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS
ETHICS
IN INTERNET
I
INTRODUCTION
1.
“Today's revolution in social communications involves a fundamental reshaping
of the elements by which people comprehend the world about them, and verify and
express what they comprehend. The constant availability of images and ideas, and
their rapid transmission even from continent to continent, have profound
consequences, both positive and negative, for the psychological, moral and
social development of persons, the structure and functioning of societies,
intercultural communications, and the perception and transmission of values,
world views, ideologies, and religious beliefs”.1
The
truth of these words has become clearer than ever during the past decade. Today
it takes no great stretch of the imagination to envisage the earth as an
interconnected globe humming with electronic transmissions—a chattering planet
nestled in the provident silence of space. The ethical question is whether this
is contributing to authentic human development and helping individuals and
peoples to be true to their transcendent destiny.
And,
of course, in many ways the answer is yes. The new media are powerful tools for
education and cultural enrichment, for commercial activity and political
participation, for intercultural dialogue and understanding; and, as we point
out in the document that accompanies this one,2 they also can serve
the cause of religion. Yet this coin has another side. Media of communication
that can be used for the good of persons and communities can be used to exploit,
manipulate, dominate, and corrupt.
2.
The Internet is the latest and in many respects most powerful in a line of
media—telegraph, telephone, radio, television—that for many people have
progressively eliminated time and space as obstacles to communication during the
last century and a half. It has enormous consequences for individuals, nations,
and the world.
In
this document we wish to set out a Catholic view of the Internet, as a starting
point for the Church's participation in dialogue with other sectors of society,
especially other religious groups, concerning the development and use of this
marvelous technological instrument. The Internet is being put to many good uses
now, with the promise of many more, but much harm also can be done by its
improper use. Which it will be, good or harm, is largely a matter of choice—a
choice to whose making the Church brings two elements of great importance: her
commitment to the dignity of the human person and her long tradition of moral
wisdom.3
3.
As with other media, the person and the community of persons are central to
ethical evaluation of the Internet. In regard to the message communicated, the
process of communicating, and structural and systemic issues in communication,
“the fundamental ethical principle is this: The human person and the human
community are the end and measure of the use of the media of social
communication; communication should be by persons to persons for the integral
development of persons”.4
The
common good—“the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either
as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more
easily”5—provides a second basic principle for ethical evaluation
of social communications. It should be understood inclusively, as the whole of
those worthy purposes to which a community's members commit themselves together
and which the community exists to realize and sustain. The good of individuals
depends upon the common good of their communities.
The
virtue disposing people to protect and promote the common good is solidarity. It
is not a feeling of “vague compassion or shallow distress” at other people's
troubles, but “a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the
common good; that is to say to the good of all and of each individual, because
we are all really responsible for all”.6 Especially today
solidarity has a clear, strong international dimension; it is correct to speak
of, and obligatory to work for, the international common good.
4.
The international common good, the virtue of solidarity, the revolution in
communications media and information technology, and the Internet are all
relevant to the process of globalization.
To
a great extent, the new technology drives and supports globalization, creating a
situation in which “commerce and communications are no longer bound by
borders”.7 This has immensely important consequences. Globalization
can increase wealth and foster development; it offers advantages like
“efficiency and increased production... greater unity among peoples... a
better service to the human family”.8 But the benefits have not
been evenly shared up to now. Some individuals, commercial enterprises, and
countries have grown enormously wealthy while others have fallen behind. Whole
nations have been excluded almost entirely from the process, denied a place in
the new world taking shape. “Globalization, which has profoundly transformed
economic systems by creating unexpected possibilities of growth, has also
resulted in many people being relegated to the side of the road: unemployment in
the more developed countries and extreme poverty in too many countries of the
Southern Hemisphere continue to hold millions of women and men back from
progress and prosperity”.9
It
is by no means clear that even societies that have entered into the
globalization process have done so entirely as a matter of free, informed
choice. Instead, “many people, especially the disadvantaged, experience this
as something that has been forced upon them rather than as a process in which
they can actively participate”.10
In
many parts of the world, globalization is spurring rapid, sweeping social
change. This is not just an economic process but a cultural one, with both
positive and negative aspects. “Those who are subjected to it often see
globalization as a destructive flood threatening the social norms which had
protected them and the cultural points of reference which had given them
direction in life....Changes in technology and work relationships are moving too
quickly for cultures to respond”.11
5.
One major consequence of the deregulation of recent years has been a shift of
power from national states to transnational corporations. It is important that
these corporations be encouraged and helped to use their power for the good of
humanity; and this points to a need for more communication and dialogue between
them and concerned bodies like the Church.
Use
of the new information technology and the Internet needs to be informed and
guided by a resolute commitment to the practice of solidarity in the service of
the common good, within and among nations. This technology can be a means for
solving human problems, promoting the integral development of persons, creating
a world governed by justice and peace and love. Now, even more than when the
Pastoral Instruction on the Means of Social Communications Communio
et Progressio made the point more than thirty years ago, media have the
ability to make every person everywhere “a partner in the business of the
human race”.12
This
is an astonishing vision. The Internet can help make it real—for individuals,
groups, nations, and the human race—only if it is used in light of clear,
sound ethical principles, especially the virtue of solidarity. To do so will be
to everyone's advantage, for “we know one thing today more than in the past:
we will never be happy and at peace without one another, much less if some are
against others”.13 This will be an expression of that spirituality
of communion which implies “the ability to see what is positive in others, to
welcome it and prize it as a gift from God,” along with the ability “to
‘make room' for our brothers and sisters, bearing ‘each other's burdens' (Gal.
6, 2) and resisting the selfish temptations which constantly beset us”.14
6.
The spread of the Internet also raises a number of other ethical questions about
matters like privacy, the security and confidentiality of data, copyright and
intellectual property law, pornography, hate sites, the dissemination of rumor
and character assassination under the guise of news, and much else. We shall
speak briefly about some of these things below, while recognizing that they call
for continued analysis and discussion by all concerned parties. Fundamentally,
though, we do not view the Internet only as a source of problems; we see it as a
source of benefits to the human race. But the benefits can be fully realized
only if the problems are solved.
II
ABOUT THE
INTERNET
7.
The Internet has a number of striking features. It is instantaneous, immediate,
worldwide, decentralized, interactive, endlessly expandable in contents and
outreach, flexible and adaptable to a remarkable degree. It is egalitarian, in
the sense that anyone with the necessary equipment and modest technical skill
can be an active presence in cyberspace, declare his or her message to the
world, and demand a hearing. It allows individuals to indulge in anonymity,
role-playing, and fantasizing and also to enter into community with others and
engage in sharing. According to users' tastes, it lends itself equally well to
active participation and to passive absorption into “a narcissistic,
self-referential world of stimuli with near-narcotic effects”.15 It
can be used to break down the isolation of individuals and groups or to deepen
it.
8.
The technological configuration underlying the Internet has a considerable
bearing on its ethical aspects: People have tended to use it according to the
way it was designed, and to design it to suit that kind of use. This ‘new'
system in fact dates back to the cold war years of the 1960s, when it was
intended to foil nuclear attack by creating a decentralized network of computers
holding vital data. Decentralization was the key to the scheme, since in this
way, so it was reasoned, the loss of one or even many computers would not mean
the loss of the data.
An
idealistic vision of the free exchange of information and ideas has played a
praiseworthy part in the development of the Internet. Yet its decentralized
configuration and the similarly decentralized design of the World Wide Web of
the late 1980s also proved to be congenial to a mindset opposed to anything
smacking of legitimate regulation for public responsibility. An exaggerated
individualism regarding the Internet thus emerged. Here, it was said, was a new
realm, the marvelous land of cyberspace, where every sort of expression was
allowed and the only law was total individual liberty to do as one pleased. Of
course this meant that the only community whose rights and interests would be
truly recognized in cyberspace was the community of radical libertarians. This
way of thinking remains influential in some circles, supported by familiar
libertarian arguments also used to defend pornography and violence in the media
generally.16
Although
radical individualists and entrepreneurs obviously are two very different
groups, there is a convergence of interests between those who want the Internet
to be a place for very nearly every kind of expression, no matter how vile and
destructive, and those who want it to be a vehicle of untrammeled commercial
activity on a neo-liberal model that “considers profit and the law of the
market as its only parameters, to the detriment of the dignity of and the
respect due to individuals and peoples”.17
9.
The explosion of information technology has increased the communication
capabilities of some favored individuals and groups many times over. The
Internet can serve people in their responsible use of freedom and democracy,
expand the range of choices available in diverse spheres of life, broaden
educational and cultural horizons, break down divisions, promote human
development in a multitude of ways. “The free flow of images and speech on a
global scale is transforming not only political and economic relations between
peoples, but even our understanding of the world. It opens up a range of
hitherto unthinkable possibilities”.18 When based upon shared
values rooted in the nature of the person, the intercultural dialogue made
possible by the Internet and other media of social communication can be “a
privileged means for building the civilization of love”.19
But
that is not the whole story. “Paradoxically, the very forces which can lead to
better communication can also lead to increasing self-centeredness and
alienation”.20 The Internet can unite people, but it also can
divide them, both as individuals and as mutually suspicious groups separated by
ideology, politics, possessions, race and ethnicity, intergenerational
differences, and even religion. Already it has been used in aggressive ways,
almost as a weapon of war, and people speak of the danger of
‘cyber-terrorism.' It would be painfully ironic if this instrument of
communication with so much potential for bringing people together reverted to
its origins in the cold war and became an arena of international conflict.
III
SOME AREAS OF
CONCERN
10.
A number of concerns about the Internet are implicit in what has been said so
far.
One
of the most important of these involves what today is called the digital
divide—a form of discrimination dividing the rich from the poor, both within
and among nations, on the basis of access, or lack of access, to the new
information technology. In this sense it is an updated version of an older gap
between the ‘information rich' and ‘information poor'.
The
expression ‘digital divide' underlines the fact that individuals, groups, and
nations must have access to the new technology in order to share in the promised
benefits of globalization and development and not fall further behind. It is
imperative “that the gap between the beneficiaries of the new means of
information and expression and those who do not have access to them...not become
another intractable source of inequity and discrimination”.21 Ways
need to be found to make the Internet accessible to less advantaged groups,
either directly or at least by linking it with lower-cost traditional media.
Cyberspace ought to be a resource of comprehensive information and services
available without charge to all, and in a wide range of languages. Public
institutions have a particular responsibility to establish and maintain sites of
this kind.
As
the new global economy takes shape, the Church is concerned “that the winner
in this process will be humanity as a whole” and not just “a wealthy elite
that controls science, technology and the planet's resources”; this is to say
that the Church desires “a globalization which will be at the service of the
whole person and of all people”.22
In
this connection it should be borne in mind that the causes and consequences of
the divide are not only economic but also technical, social, and cultural. So,
for example, another Internet ‘divide' operates to the disadvantage of women,
and it, too, needs to be closed.
11.
We are particularly concerned about the cultural dimensions of what is now
taking place. Precisely as powerful tools of the globalization process, the new
information technology and the Internet transmit and help instill a set of
cultural values—ways of thinking about social relationships, family, religion,
the human condition—whose novelty and glamour can challenge and overwhelm
traditional cultures.
Intercultural
dialogue and enrichment are of course highly desirable. Indeed, “dialogue
between cultures is especially needed today because of the impact of new
communications technology on the lives of individuals and peoples”.23
But this has to be a two-way street. Cultures have much to learn from one
another, and merely imposing the world view, values, and even language of one
culture upon another is not dialogue but cultural imperialism.
Cultural
domination is an especially serious problem when a dominant culture carries
false values inimical to the true good of individuals and groups. As matters
stand, the Internet, along with the other media of social communication, is
transmitting the value-laden message of Western secular culture to people and
societies in many cases ill-prepared to evaluate and cope with it. Many serious
problems result—for example, in regard to marriage and family life, which are
experiencing “a radical and widespread crisis”24 in many parts of
the world.
Cultural
sensitivity and respect for other people's values and beliefs are imperative in
these circumstances. Intercultural dialogue that “protects the distinctiveness
of cultures as historical and creative expressions of the underlying unity of
the human family, and...sustains understanding and communion between them” 25
is needed to build and maintain the sense of international solidarity.
12.
The question of freedom of expression on the Internet is similarly complex and
gives rise to another set of concerns.
We
strongly support freedom of expression and the free exchange of ideas. Freedom
to seek and know the truth is a fundamental human right,26 and
freedom of expression is a cornerstone of democracy. “Man, provided he
respects the moral order and the common interest, is entitled to seek after
truth, express and make known his opinions...he ought to be truthfully informed
about matters of public interest”.27 And public opinion, “an
essential expression of human nature organized in society,” absolutely
requires “freedom to express ideas and attitudes”.28
In
light of these requirements of the common good, we deplore attempts by public
authorities to block access to information—on the Internet or in other media
of social communication—because they find it threatening or embarrassing to
them, to manipulate the public by propaganda and disinformation, or to impede
legitimate freedom of expression and opinion. Authoritarian regimes are by far
the worst offenders in this regard; but the problem also exists in liberal
democracies, where access to media for political expression often depends on
wealth, and politicians and their advisors violate truthfulness and fairness by
misrepresenting opponents and shrinking issues to sound-bite dimensions.
13.
In this new environment, journalism is undergoing profound changes. The
combination of new technologies and globalization has “increased the powers of
the media, but has also made them more liable to ideological and commercial
pressures”,29 and this is true of journalism as well.
The
Internet is a highly effective instrument for bringing news and information
rapidly to people. But the economic competitiveness and round-the-clock nature
of Internet journalism also contribute to sensationalism and rumor-mongering, to
a merging of news, advertising, and entertainment, and to an apparent decline in
serious reporting and commentary. Honest journalism is essential to the common
good of nations and the international community. Problems now visible in the
practice of journalism on the Internet call for speedy correcting by journalists
themselves.
The
sheer overwhelming quantity of information on the Internet, much of it
unevaluated as to accuracy and relevance, is a problem for many. But we also are
concerned lest people make use of the medium's technological capacity for
customizing information simply to raise electronic barriers against unfamiliar
ideas. That would be an unhealthy development in a pluralistic world where
people need to grow in mutual understanding. While Internet users have a duty to
be selective and self-disciplined, that should not be carried to the extreme of
walling themselves off from others. The medium's implications for psychological
development and health likewise need continued study, including the possibility
that prolonged immersion in the virtual world of cyberspace may be damaging to
some. Although there are many advantages in the capacity technology gives people
to “assemble packages of information and services uniquely designed for
them”, this also “raises an inescapable question: Will the audience of the
future be a multitude of audiences of one?...What would become of
solidarity—what would become of love—in a world like that?” 30
14.
Standing alongside issues that have to do with freedom of expression, the
integrity and accuracy of news, and the sharing of ideas and information, is
another set of concerns generated by libertarianism. The ideology of radical
libertarianism is both mistaken and harmful—not least, to legitimate free
expression in the service of truth. The error lies in exalting freedom “to
such an extent that it becomes an absolute, which would then be the source of
values....In this way the inescapable claims of truth disappear, yielding their
place to a criterion of sincerity, authenticity and ‘being at peace with
oneself”'.31 There is no room for authentic community, the common
good, and solidarity in this way of thinking.
IV
RECOMMENDATIONS
AND CONCLUSION
15.
As we have seen, the virtue of solidarity is the measure of the Internet's
service of the common good. It is the common good that supplies the context for
considering the ethical question: “Are the media being used for good or
evil?” 32
Many
individuals and groups share responsibility in this matter—for example, the
transnational corporations of which we spoke above. All users of the Internet
are obliged to use it in an informed, disciplined way, for morally good
purposes; parents should guide and supervise children's use.33
Schools and other educational institutions and programs for children and adults
should provide training in discerning use of the Internet as part of a
comprehensive media education including not just training in technical
skills—‘computer literacy' and the like—but a capacity for informed,
discerning evaluation of content. Those whose decisions and actions contribute
to shaping the structure and contents of the Internet have an especially serious
duty to practice solidarity in the service of the common good.
16.
Prior censorship by government should be avoided; “censorship...should only be
used in the very last extremity”.34 But the Internet is no more
exempt than other media from reasonable laws against hate speech, libel, fraud,
child pornography and pornography in general, and other offenses. Criminal
behavior in other contexts is criminal behavior in cyberspace, and the civil
authorities have a duty and a right to enforce such laws. New regulations also
may be needed to deal with special ‘Internet' crimes like the dissemination of
computer viruses, the theft of personal data stored on hard disks, and the like.
Regulation
of the Internet is desirable, and in principle industry self-regulation is best.
“The solution to problems arising from unregulated commercialization and
privatization does not lie in state control of media but in more regulation
according to criteria of public service and in greater public accountability”.35
Industry codes of ethics can play a useful role, provided they are seriously
intended, involve representatives of the public in their formulation and
enforcement, and, along with giving encouragement to responsible communicators,
carry appropriate penalties for violations, including public censure.36
Circumstances sometimes may require state intervention: for example, by setting
up media advisory boards representing the range of opinion in the community.37
17.
The Internet's transnational, boundary-bridging character and its role in
globalization require international cooperation in setting standards and
establishing mechanisms to promote and protect the international common good.38
In regard to media technology, as in regard to much else, “there is a pressing
need for equity at the international level”.39 Determined action in
the private and public sectors is needed to close and eventually eliminate the
digital divide.
Many
difficult Internet-related questions call for international consensus: for
example, how to guarantee the privacy of law-abiding individuals and groups
without keeping law enforcement and security officials from exercising
surveillance over criminals and terrorists; how to protect copyright and
intellectual property rights without limiting access to material in the public
domain—and how to define the ‘public domain' itself; how to establish and
maintain broad-based Internet repositories of information freely available to
all Internet users in a variety of languages; how to protect women's rights in
regard to Internet access and other aspects of the new information technology.
In particular, the question of how to close the digital divide between the
information rich and the information poor requires urgent attention in its
technical, educational, and cultural aspects.
There
is today a “growing sense of international solidarity” that offers the
United Nations system in particular “a unique opportunity to contribute to the
globalization of solidarity by serving as a meeting place for states and civil
society and as a convergence of the varied interests and needs...Cooperation
between international agencies and nongovernmental organizations will help to
ensure that the interests of states—legitimate though they may be—and of the
different groups within them, will not be invoked or defended at the expense of
the interests or rights of other peoples, especially the less fortunate”.40
In this connection we hope that the World Summit of the Information Society
scheduled to take place in 2003 will make a positive contribution to the
discussion of these matters.
18.
As we pointed out above, a companion document to this one called The
Church and Internet speaks specifically about the Church's use of the
Internet and the Internet's role in the life of the Church. Here we wish only to
emphasize that the Catholic Church, along with other religious bodies, should
have a visible, active presence on the Internet and be a partner in the public
dialogue about its development. “The Church does not presume to dictate these
decisions and choices, but it does seek to be of help by indicating ethical and
moral criteria which are relevant to the process—criteria which are to be
found in both human and Christian values”.41
The
Internet can make an enormously valuable contribution to human life. It can
foster prosperity and peace, intellectual and aesthetic growth, mutual
understanding among peoples and nations on a global scale.
It
also can help men and women in their age-old search for self-understanding. In
every age, including our own, people ask the same fundamental questions: “Who
am I? Where have I come from and where am I going? Why is there evil? What is
there after this life?” 42 The Church cannot impose answers, but
she can—and must—proclaim to the world the answers she has received; and
today, as always, she offers the one ultimately satisfying answer to the deepest
questions of life—Jesus Christ, who “fully reveals man to himself and brings
to light his most high calling”.43 Like today's world itself, the
world of media, including the Internet, has been brought by Christ, inchoately
yet truly, within the boundaries of the kingdom of God and placed in service to
the word of salvation. Yet “far from diminishing our concern to develop this
earth, the expectancy of a new earth should spur us on, for it is here that the
body of a new human family grows, foreshadowing in some way the age which is to
come”.44
Vatican
City, February 22, 2002, Feast of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle.
John P. Foley
President
Pierfranco
Pastore
Secretary
(1)
Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Pastoral Instruction Aetatis
Novae on Social Communications on the twentieth anniversary of Communio
et progressio, n. 4.
(2)
Pontifical Council for Social Communications, The Church and Internet.
(3)
Cf. Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Ethics in Communications, n. 5.
(4)
Ibid., n. 21.
(5)
Vatican Council II, Gaudium et spes,
n. 26; cf. Catechism of the Catholic
Church, n. 1906.
(6)
John Paul II,Sollicitudo rei socialis,
n. 38.
(7)
John Paul II, Address to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, n. 2, April
27, 2001.
(8)
John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in America, n. 20.
(9)
John Paul II, Address to the Diplomatic Corps Accredited to the Holy See, n. 3,
January 10, 2000.
(10)
Address to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, n. 2.
(11)
Ibid., n. 3.
(12)
Pontifical Commission for Social Communications, Pastoral Instruction on the
Means of Social Communication, Communio et
progressio, n. 19.
(13)
Address to the Diplomatic Corps, n. 4.
(14)
John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Novo
millennio ineunte, n. 43.
(15)
Ethics in Communications, n. 2.
(16)
Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Pornography and Violence in the Communications Media: A Pastoral
Response, n. 20.
(17)
Ecclesia in America, n. 56.
(18)
Message for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace 2001, n. 11.
(19)
Ibid., n. 16.
(20)
John Paul II, Message for the 33rd World Communications Day, n. 4, January 24,
1999.
(21)
John Paul II, Message for the 31st World Day of Communications, 1997.
(22)
Address to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, n. 5.
(23)
Ibid., n. 11.
(24)
Novo millennio ineunte, n. 47.
(25)
Message for the World Day of Peace 2001, n. 10.
(26)
John Paul II, Centesimus annus, n. 47.
(27)
Gaudium et spes, n. 59.
(28)
Communio et progressio, nn. 25, 26.
(29)
John Paul II, Address to the Jubilee of Journalists, n. 2, June 4, 2000.
(30)
Ethics in Communications, n. 29.
(31)
John Paul II,Veritatis splendor, n.
32.
(32)
Ethics in Communications, n. 1.
(33)
Cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris consortio, n. 76.
(34)
Communio et progressio, n. 86.
(35)
Aetatis Novae, n. 5.
(36)
Cf. Communio et progressio, n. 79.
(37)
Ibid., n. 88.
(38)
Cf. Address to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, n. 2.
(39)
Ethics in Communications, n. 22.
(40)
John Paul II, Address to the UN Secretary General and to the Administrative
Committee on Coordination of the United Nations, nn. 2, 3, April 7, 2000.
(41)
Aetatis Novae, n. 12.
(42)
John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Fides et
ratio, n. 1.
(43)
Gaudium et spes, n. 22.
(44)
Ibid., n. 39.
For more information, contact:
Peter Aguiar
Program Coordinator, Academic Information and Communication Technology
Toronto Catholic District School Board
80 Sheppard Avenue East
North York, Ontario M2N 6E8
416-222-8282, ext. 2488
peter.aguiar@tcdsb.org
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