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given by

HIS HOLINESS, POPE JOHN XXIII

NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE

1312 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. Washington 5, D. C.



Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2016

https://archive.org/details/onapostolateofgojohn



THE HOLY FATHER SPEAKS TO NEWSMEN

Address given by His Holiness, Pope John XXIII, on

December 4, 1960 to the Second National Convention of

the Catholic Union of the Italian Press at Rome.

We welcome you with particular affection, beloved sons,

Catholic journalists. Yours is a beautiful name, lofty and

meaningful.

Today's meeting recalls to Us other meetings, of repre-

sentatives of the press, and it allows Us to reaffirm the esteem

We have for those who dedicate themselves honestly to the

difficult and serious profession of journalism. We have a natural

and understandable preference for you who exercise this pro-

fession in the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of the

living and perennial teaching of the Church.

We welcomed with paternal encouragement your second

national assembly. And We are pleased to avail Ourselves of the

occasion to return to a subject We have so much at heart.

Unfortunately, the shortcomings and dangers already de-

plored in the field of the press continue in their gravity. And

Our anxiety is such that We consider Ourselves dispensed today

from every other preamble, and from the repetition of impres-

sive statistical pictures, known to you however, so as to proceed

to outline for you that which We consider more necessary and

urgent; not only for you, who do honor to your Catholicism, but

for those people who work together with you in the name of

honesty and truth and who defend those ideals that are common

to men of good will.

It would be futile to allow ourselves to give way to regrets

and recriminations. We must build, beloved sons, we must

move forward, laying the foundations of a new era, a healthier,

more equitable and more generous era, in the ardent desire for

success that cannot be long delayed. We must sow, even though
a profound sorrow may sometimes oppress our heart, certain

of the promise of a happy harvest: “They that sow in tears

shall reap in joy.’’^

We turn, therefore, to positive considerations, which We
entrust to your experience and competence and good will.

1. Psalm 125, 5.

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These are: preparation, brotherly cooperation and coordination,

and the Christian sensitivity of Catholic journalists.

1) Your professional preparation, beloved sons, makes you

think of the vastness and importance of the mission you have

chosen. You know well that one does not improvise for any task,

and if long and hard years of specific preparation, theoretical

and practical, are needed for every profession entailing social

responsibility, this must apply also to militant journalists. A

journalist is not improvised. To achieve that combination of

gifts that makes his service easy and fruitful, an apprentice-

ship is necessary. Just think 1 He needs the delicacy of the doc-

tor, the versatility of the literary scholar, the intuition of the

jurist and the sense of responsibility of the educator.

Such breadth of interests and of horizons calls therefore

for serious preparation. It will not be sufficient therefore only

to know how to inform and to be informed. One must know the

means and the techniques of information and, at the same time,

not waste time in listening to and reading useless things, so

that one’s sensitivity may become more acute, and so that one

may acquire the art of knowing how to select, sort and clothe

the news.

Such preparation requires considerable material means,

and economic compensation is therefore a duty. It is necessary

for the employees of individual newspapers to receive a fair

salary, despite the poverty of financial means usual in the

Catholic press, deprived as it is of the benefits of exceptional

financing to which the press of political parties and the so-

called independent press have access.

The invocation and directive of Our immortal predecessor

Leo XIll is still valid: “All those people who really and sin-

cerely wish that sacred and civil things be defended effectively

by able writers and that they flourish, must seek with their

own generosity to favor in them the fruits of letters and talent.

And the greater one’s wealth, all the more must one support

them with one’s faculties and riches.’’^

One must give, therefore, and support the good cause. But

even when the ideal and most satisfactory condition is achieved

in this respect, one must always guard against pure pro-

fessionalism, The man who, in fact, sees things solely from an

economic and technical point of view and from that of perfection

2. Encyclical Etsi Nos, February 15, 1882, Acta Leone, 3, 12.

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of work, even though he is honest, will never achieve his aim

unless he is supported and governed by the spirit of prayer,

of charity and by an impulse of the apostolate. This embellishes

your individual actions and makes them meritorious before

God, particularly those that form the daily pattern of your

activity.

You can see, therefore, that the first thing that We have at

heart is your preparation, considered in its full light, in which

are fused harmoniously natural gifts, technical requirements

and the spiritual vocation to do good, to please God, according

to the teaching of the Apostle: “May you walk worthily of God

and please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work

and growing in the knowledge of God.’’^

2) Brotherly cooperation and coordination. The second point

accents the great duty of charity, which cannot be disregarded.

At the close of the memorable day of October 28, 1958,

among the comments of the press on the election of the new

Pope, you were the first to put the accent upon the **diligite

alterutrum** (love one another) that rushed to Our lips when We

accepted the burden imposed upon Us by God’s will. We repeat,

you placed the accent upon that “love one another” that lies

close to Our heart like a sacred trust, first and above all other

praiseworthy undertakings or measures that We have in mind.

Charity! **Praeceptum Domini esV* (It is an injunction of

the Lord), continued the Apostle of love, John the Evangelist.

This charity invites you tenderly to remain united among your-

selves, in faith as in action, in convictions and ideals, in your

labors and in your militant endeavors.

Be united! And help faithful and convinced Catholics to re-

main united among themselves, to have faith in the social

doctrine of the Church and in her legislation, filtered through

the experience of many centuries, to know it and to examine it

thoroughly. Help them to be ever more permeated by the

Christian manner of thinking, of estimating or deciding, that

they be above the temptations of isolation, resentment or self-

interest, and that they do not allow themselves to be deceived

by the appearances of an ill-understood liberty, which becomes

intolerant of every reminder and of every discipline.

Understand Us well! The respect we owe to those who have

not achieved complete Christian and Catholic maturity, those

3. Col. 1, 10.

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who are on the threshold of the temple, does not authorize

dangerous concessions, compromises or renunciations, which

harm the sacred patrimony of truth and justice that is the Gospel.

The greatest danger to which some of Our children are

exposed is this: impatience with a common discipline, which

becomes, however, tolerance and indifference towards the errors

and dangerous positions taken by the various sectors of public

life, in politics as well as in recreation, in literature as well

as in religious observances.

Know also how to put yourselves on guard against that

worldly spirit of which the particular current of modern thought

and custom is the instrument. It tries by every means to remove

society from the influence of the Gospel of Christ and the

teachings of the Church, from the eternal values of divine truth,

of love, of purity and of the apostolate from which Christian

civilization blossomed.

These movements claim to be the defenders of an unde-

fined liberty, but they are ready to deny it to the Church when

the latter must protect its treasure of revealed truth or the

patrimony of moral health that has been committed to it. They

proclaim the separation and independence of the Church from

civil power, but they work constantly toward restricting every

action of the Church, covering it with the shadow of suspicion

and malevolence. Their work could be compared to. that de-

scribed aptly by Manzoni, speaking of the “iniquitous who are

strong, who can insult and claim to be offended, who sneer and

call others to account who terrify and complain, who are brazen

and irreproachable."^

In the presence of such attitudes, union is more than ever

necessary to defend and help defend truth, justice, honesty,

even before religion and the Gospel.

Oh, beloved sons, your mission is great also because of

this aspect, and it is worthy of every encouragement and

comfort. Be united, therefore. It is the Pope who asks it of you

in the name of Him who prayed for the union of all His faithful:

that all may be one, also and above all because of the goal,

which We have described to you: “That all may be one, even

as thou. Father, in me and I in thee; that they also may be one
in us."^

4. “I Promessi Sposi,** Chap. Vll.

5. John 17, 21.

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3) Finally, a profound Christian sensitivity is necessary,

permeating each of your actions, and diffusing with grace and

distinction that '‘good fragrance of Christ,”^ that gives a just

tone to everything. Have a Christian sensitivity in everything

and with everyone, so that the testimony of sincerity united

with respect, of clarity of ideas combined with maturity of

thought and expression may reach everyone.

We welcome the occasion of this intimate meeting to tell

you that in examining periodicals and newspapers. We often find

phrases that are tricky, bombastic, disproportionate, bitter,

aggressive or uselessly polemical. This is an indication of a

custom that has penetrated everywhere, sometimes even in

publicity announcements, in reports of sports events and country

folklore manifestations.

The Catholic journalist ought to guard against this way of

thinking and writing, which corrupts the true meaning of that

courtesy, education and Christian method that seeks to convince

with persuasive gentility and attract by arguments and not

suggestions.

The sensitivity of which We are speaking is revealed by the

use or nonuse of a given news item, and by the form given to a

salacious and troubling incident. By so doing, the writer adheres

to the dictates of an upright conscience and not to more or less

questionable objectives.

This sensitivity is also shown by avoidance of praise,

particularly toward living persons; by not attributing all merit

to one side, to one organization, but rather by selecting that

which edifies, no matter where, by encouragement and estab-

lishment of profitable contacts. This sensitivity also teaches us

to give consideration to the history of those who have gone

before, not to forget the teachings of the past, to make use of

every good testimony of the human spirit in the course of

people’s lives.

Christian sensibility, as you have understood, seeks out

and emphasizes the universal expressions of the true, the good

and the beautiful, which find voice and color in Nature, in music

and in the monuments of literature and art. We repeat, beloved
sons, the words we said with fatherly encouragement to your

colleagues of ''L'Avvenire d*Italia** (Bologna Catholic daily) on

October 18 of last year:

6. Cf. 2 Cor., 2, 15.

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“Educate your readers in the appreciation of what is true,

good, beautiful; know then how to draw the material of your

services from the inexhaustible fountains of truth, beauty and

goodness that spring from the illustration of the various epochs

of history, of the world of art and poetry, from the conquests

of science, from the marvelous life of the universe, and from

the travels of explorers and missionaries. “7

What a font of inexhaustible inspiration for the journalist

and of joy to his readers springs from this heritage common to

all humanity, too often neglected to give way to the tinsel of

the ephemeral and to the gossip of the transitory 1 Without

making a show of erudition, however—as is suitable for a news-

paper which is destined for all as a source of information and

of serene comfort— it is possible to draw constant and sub-

stantial inspiration from such a vast panorama of living, in-

teresting and pleasing reality.

Beloved sonsl Do not be discouraged by the daily difficulties

under which your work is performed, but know how to animate

it with the generosity and the enthusiasm born of your highest

convictions. We are close to you—with paternal attention, with

lively interest in your problems, with the help available to Us

and especially with prayer. May the Lord grant you always to

keep faith with your intentions. May He increase your activity

to an evermore fruitful efficacy and sustain your union in its

undertakings, rallying around it all those good and valuable

energies which, when united, can do so much good through the

knowledge and appreciation of the talents proper to each journal-

ist placed at the service of all.

These are Our most ardent wishes. Our cordial aspirations.

And in token of the paternal affection that We cherish for each
one of you. We are happy to give you Our special, comforting

apostolic benediction. We extend it to the whole Union and to

those who are closest and dearest to you within the bonds of

family, profession and friendship.

7. Discorsi, Messaggi, Colloqui, I, 486.

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THE APOSTOLATE OF A GOOD PRESS

Translation of an address by His Holiness, Pope John

XXHI onMay 4, 1959 to the Italian Catholic ' Press Con-

gress. Need for truth and charity in the field of

Catholic Press.

We cordially welcome you, journalists and associates of the

Italian Catholic press and general publishing media, meeting in

Rome for the third national convention.

It could be said that the convention has been carried out

along two different lines: one organizational and technical and the

other spiritual and of the apostolate.

Regarding the first with which We are familiar. We do not

intend to dwell on it with you. We realize the importance of it

well enough. It suffices to reflect that probably because of the

little care given in the past to this area, the Catholic press, in

general, did not have that dominion over public opinion which

was exercised by other newspapers technically well produced

and, which, therefore, had an easier time in conveying opinion

and viewpoints not always in line with Catholic doctrine.

Glancing over the program of your work of the last few

days. We noticed the variety and importance of the themes dealt
with regarding this question. We are glad of it and in this matter

We encourage you to be healthily modern.
Having said this. We wish to record how the whole pattern of

your congress is permeated with a strong desire for expansion

and uplifting and We praise you for it. But if your apostolate

is to be effective for the cause of God, of the Church and of

souls, the ends for which you use the instruments of your pro-

fession must always be borne in mind.

They are above all “arma veritatis” (weapons of truth).

The defection from the age-old philosophy bymodern thought

has caused many people to neglect divine truth, (to act) as if it

were the reasonable object of human intelligence. Modern

philosophic relativism repeats the sceptical question of Pilate

“What is truth?

But you know well that God is essentially truth. Christ is

truth.2 The Holy Ghost is the spirit of truth.^

1. Jo/iwl8, 38.

2. John 14,6.

3. John 16,13.

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The reflection of this divine light, Dante would say"^,

“penetrates through the universe and shines more in one part

and less elsewhere,” but it penetrates above all in the most

intimate part of the human mind that is made for the knowledge

of truth and for the love derived therefrom: “Quid anima

desiderat” exclaims St. Augustine, “nisi veritatem?” (What does

the mind desire unless truth?)

Therefore, it is the duty of every man, and all the more of

every Christian, to bear witness to truth. In a completely

specialized world you journalists must, because of professional

conscience, be the cultivators of truth, so that truth, so often

trampled upon and betrayed by communications means, may

triumph.

The Catholic journalists, writers and workers in the field,

moreover, are called to a still higher responsibility. Their

media are not, in fact, only for truth, but also charity: “Arma

caritatisl” (Weapons of love) directed, therefore, toward ele-

vating the minds, edifying what is good and radiating virtue in

souls.

We do not wish to pause to draw a picture, that would be
sad, of the evil which so much printed matter produces with its

immorality and malice. And it is with a truly afflicted and

anguished mind that We consider the enormous harm created

in so many consciences, above all in the consciences of youth,

by certain printed matter by means of the written word and even

more by illustrations.

May the Lord grant that there be few parents who do not

feel the serious duty of not becoming accomplices to the ruining

of their children. We know, in fact, that a dangerous trap is

created by those illustrated dailies and periddicals which offer

an attractive mixture of what is serious and profane—and some-

times even indecent—under the pretext of complete information

or of publicity.

It is precisely to replace this apparently harmless and,

therefore, all the more pernicious printed matter within Chris-

tian families that there must be organizational and technical

progress in the Catholic publishing field, so that it thus becomes

a matter of substance.^

There is, finally, a certain press that sins seriously against

truth and against charity, that lies to inspire hatred; a press

4. Cfr. Paradise 1-2-3.

- 8 -



that seems to have as its sole program to lead simple souls

to perdition; to distort the truth every day, to interpret incor-

rectly every expression of the Church’s teaching authority and

to deal blows to the Church so as to take love away from Christ;

to fight Jesus Christ in order to fight God Himself. And this

often under the deceitful aspect of hastening the solution of

problems which harass the workers, the weak and the undefended.

With what spirit, therefore, should you use the instruments

of the press? “In all things," We say to you with St. Paul,

“taking up the shield of faith with which you may be able to

quench all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto

you the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, that is,

the word of God."^

In the same letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul offers the

motto which can guide the steps of each one on this arduous

road: “Practice the truth in love."^

In lovel Love in writing and also in polemics does not

weaken the truth; indeed, it strengthens it because it makes it

more acceptable. “Interficite errores," (destroy error), said St.

Augustine “diligite errantes" (love the erring).

Without renouncing any of the rights of truth, how much

sweeter it would be if one used in polemics “less vinegar and

more honey," according to the well known phrase of St. Francis

de Sales.

We would like to point out as model for the Christian pole-
micist a great Italian layman who, in his polemics, was an

example of humility and charity, Alessandro Manzoni. In his

Observations on Catholic Morals he presents himself to the

reader as the “weak but sincere apologist of a moral whose

goal is love," and though feeling “the duty to speak for truth"

he always keeps his polemics under the shield of charity.

May it be likewise with you, the fearless defenders of truth,

nevertheless loyal and generous with adversaries because “the

love of Christ impels us"^ always and everywhere.

We cannot now take leave of you without saying to all (and
to each one according to his specific activity and competence)

an explicit word of warm encouragement to spend your indi-

vidual energies for the prosperity and circulation of a good

press in the most vast and profound meaning of the phrase.

5. Ephes. 6, 16-17.

6. Ephes. 4, 14.

7. Corinthians 4, 15.

-9-



The apostolate of the press in all its forms 1 Above all, the

dailies, so that they may be visible everywhere. But then also

the weeklies (magazines), which in every family today are al-

most the indispensable complement of the daily newspapers-

here more than ever technical perfection is necessary. We will

add a word on the importance of periodicals, especially the

missionary ones and those for cultured, literary or scientific

people. Finally, give all the support you can to the Catholic

agencies, regarding which it is superfluous to stress how

necessary they are and how delicate is their activity. And last,

but not least, the love of good books.

The apostolate of the good press. We said, of the good

books 1 But the goodness must not only be found in the purpose

and in the intentions. It must also be in the substance—good that

coincides with what is true which leads Us to stress the need

that the contents be of a high value. Prepare newspapers, books

and publications of value and you will thereby be apostles your-

selves because the word is the conqueror and is together truth,

love and beauty, reflecting Supreme Wisdom, the First Love,

Eternal Beauty.

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ON CATHOLIC JOURNALISM

Translation of an address by His Holiness, Pope John

XXIII on October 18, 1959 during an audience ^iven to

the staff of **L*Avvenire d*Italia,*' Catholic daily in

Bologna. On the nature, problems and duties of Catholic

journalism.

Beloved sons of the editorial and reportorial family of

L *A vvenire d *Italia

:

This audience assumes a wholly special tone because you

represent the daily newspaper which, in its spirit of information

and in its most representative men, We have known and ap-

preciated ever since Our young priesthood; because for six

years it cooperated with Our pastoral ministry in Venice; and,

finally, because today the Pope is encountering officially a

Catholic journal that is, in a manner of speaking, an expression

of that high and difficult apostolate.

All Our children are equally dear to Us. But it is quite

natural that We feel those most near to Us who make an open

profession of fidelity to the teachings of the Church and who

support its cause. Among these, you occupy a place of the first

order.

We have always considered L'Avvenire dJtalia an effective

bulwark of the Catholic apostolate, and We have been pleased to
call attention to it many times, underlining the comforting prog-

ress accomplished by it both in its editorial and reportorial

departments. But, above all. We see it as shaper of consciences,

and this is the most beautiful praise that a newspaper can re-

ceive.

Wishing therefore, to recall before such an elite assembly

something that is within the theme of this sector of the aposto-

late, We take the occasion of today’s audience for a more

elevated treatment of the subject, so that the thought of the Pope

and the Church on the most important problem of the Catholic

press may be better known, and so that the faithful may give

their attention to these matters.

1) That which characterizes and justifies the life of a

Catholic newspaper is, above all else, its positive program. As

all activities of man, this one is not evaluated by what it is not,

or by what it ought not to do—which would be a limitation—but

- 11 -



according to how it fulfills its proper functions with praise-

worthy effort and clear vision. Today the Catholic press exists,

above all, to exert an active presence and testimony. Its

presence must be active, intelligent and alert in respect to the

innumerable problems posited by present-day life, so that it

may give them an interpretation according to the valid criterion

of the eternal truths which reflect upon time; a presence which

lets nothing escape, so that it may inform the reader and assist

him in forming an enlightened conscience in the face of the in-

terrogations and bewilderments that today’s world sets before

him. It must be an active presence, therefore, which orientates,

clarifies and restores all things to the light of revealed truth.

But there must also be an active testimony; that is, a

testimony which takes a position, serene but secure, without

compromises and without human respect, with loyalty and

patience. The Catholic journalist does not follow the changing

caprices of public opinion and even less orients them according

to his own pleasure, but he feels the duty to serve the truth,

remembering the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ, “Let your

light shine before men, in order that they may see your good

works and give glory to your Father in heaven.’’^

In this manner, beloved sons, you may carry out your mis-

sion always worthily and pursue it boldly.

2) The dignity of this mission is manifest also in its ex-

ternal form, which ought more to attract and conquer, and with

an amiable and gentle grace. We wish to refer to the style that
is proper to a Catholic newspaper and that gives to it an un-

mistakable mark: a style that is always transparent, even when

it assumes a bellicose tone, a style characterized by truth, by

charity and by respect for the erring, by a gentlemanly and

dignified vocabulary.

Unfortunately, it is true that a manner of acting and writing,

which is being reflected even in the press dedicated to children—

We say it weeping— is making increased headway, trampling often

upon the elementary requirements of gentleness, reserve and

modesty, and using a terminology and photographic documentation

that is repugnant to every honest conscience. In the presence of

such a phenomenon, which often conditions the success of a reso-

lute press, the Catholic journalist can be ensnared for a moment

by the lure of following the current, justifying a vision less severe

1. Matt. 5:16.

- 12 -



than reality, and conceding to less edifying facts of the news

more than they warrant.

Well, beloved sons, the style of your newspaper cannot per-

mit such a veering of conscience. Confronted with the ability of

the “children of this world”^, may you will and continue to

react with your good sense, with your faith and your courage.

Educate your readers to an appreciation of what is good, true

and beautiful. Know then how to draw the material of your

services from the inexhaustible fountains of goodness, truth and

beauty that spring from the illustration of the various epochs of

history, of the world of art and poetry, from the conquests of

science, from the marvelous life of the universe, and from the

travels of explorers and missionaries. What splendid horizons

can be offered to well-educated families, without however making

dull with erudite display those pages destined for the serene

parentheses of time in one’s daily labor.

Do not let it be said that the labor of the Catholic journalist

is more difficult because it is “bound” more to the require-

ments of moral norms, but let it be demonstrated with facts

that it can be developed with open breath of view and information,

because, as the apostle affirms, “All things are yours . . . and

you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

3) Finally, the newspaper that expresses and
defends

Christian doctrine must live on the fervor of Catholics. This is

an elementary truth but one which, in practice, is understood

by few. Taking, therefore, the occasion of this audience. We

want to open to Our beloved sons the hope of Our heart. We

trust that many of the clergy and the laity, but especially he

who has the exact measureof the Christian sense, wish to under-

stand that one of the sacred Christian duties is that of religious

and social instruction. It is true that this, according to the

norms of the Council of Trent, of the synods and of the more

recent instructions of the Roman Pontiffs, must be given through

the pastoral teaching of the bishops and through the catechetical

instructions imparted by pastors.

But in practice this vital word reaches few, also because

of the conditions of labor and because of various activities, and

because of discomforts and changes in places of residence in

which many find themselves. Well then, one of the most powerful

2. Luke 16:8.

3. I Cor. 3:22-23).

- 13 -



means by which one'is able to serve the word of God by entering

homes and making it understood and loved is precisely the

Catholic press.

If from this there is derived a grave responsibility for all

Catholics to support it and disseminate it, the burden is no less

grave that weighs upon your mission, which also because of this

becomes high and solemn: To render good service to the word

of God, making it resound in all its beauty and newness, without

improverishing it or altering it, but rendering it vital and at-

tractive. What honor, what merit before God and before menl

There remains, Our beloved sons, for Us to end Our words

of trust and encouragement with a request suggested to Us by

the day’s liturgical feast, from which there springs spontaneously

an auspicious symbol for your labor as Catholic journalists

and for all the elect and steady army of L*Avvenire d'ltalia.

Today is October 18, the feast of St. Luke, third evangelist.

Is there for the good people who work at Bologna * ‘propter

veritatem et justitiam et pacem** for the sake of truth and

justice and peace, a more familiar and more melodic voice than

that of St. Luke and the Madonna of St. Luke, who from the sunny

hilL (overlooking Bologna), serenely stands above and protects

the towered city, laden with ancient religious and civic glories,

stretched out on the plain in dedication to the intense fervor of

the human fatigue which comes from resounding labor?

Reciting Our breviary in the first hours of the morning and

already thinking of the meeting of this happy morning with you

of the family of L*Avvenire, We read through the colored pages

of Exechiel, which the liturgy dedicates to the celebration of the

beloved Evangelist, portrayed in that vision of four cherubim,

where symbolism certainly overpowers naturalness; but the

prophetic significance is astonishing and exalted. It is exalted

for St. Luke, one of the four; and it is exalted for you, for your

entering into this daily written affirmation of evangelic truth,

brotherhood and Christian peace.

Of these four cherubim it is said that each one moved

forward, and all moved together where the spirit directed them,

and they moved forward without turning back.

Beloved sonsl In your work and in the worries which this

work causes to each and everyone, such is the precious teaching

of St. Luke and of the other three associated with him in the

- 14 -



ministry of evangelization: Always forward, without ever turning

back.

You carry this encouraging admonition in the name of your

newspaper, L*Avvenire

,

which is not a historic or retrospective

work but a continual advance toward spiritual conquests of

human and Christian progress for the honor and love of Christ

and of His Holy Church, from which flow perennial benefits

of prosperity and peace and for the honor of the most beloved

country of Italy.

With the sentiments that the solicitude of Our heart has

dictated to Us and that We have simply wished to communicate

to you. We assure you that Our prayers always accompany you

so that, having received the glorious inheritance of a past that

so honors you, you may continue it in your daily work, and so

that you may keep yourselves well-deserving in the good cause

of truth, justice and peace.

In pledge of continuous divine assistance, which We implore

on the beloved Catholic daily. We are happy to impart to you all,

directors, journalists, editors and workers of L*Avvenire

d*Italia, and at the same time to all your dear families and to the

greater and more dear family of promoters and readers. Our

paternal and special apostolic blessing.

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ON OBLIGATIONS OF JOURNALISTS

Translation of an address given on November 29, 1959

by His Holiness, Pope John XXIII to members of the

Italian press. Obligations of journalists toward respon-

sibility, honesty and truth.

We are happy this morning to receive members of the third

National Congress of the Union of Periodical Press in Italy.

You wished to conclude your work with an act of tribute to

the Vicar of Christ. This testimonial of faith is a credit to you,

beloved sons and daughters, and We express to you Our greatest

pleasure.

From the documentary material that you sent to Us in

reference to your organization and present work, We noted with

satisfaction that the Catholic press, with some of its qualified

publications, is outstandingly represented alongside other publi-

cations of wide circulation or those of more limited range.

We are pleased to imagine that spiritually joined to your

group is the wider circle of the many who produce your maga-

zines, and that behind you—and with you— is the vast public of

readers to whom you regularly bring cultural information and

current events, pleasure and pastime—the kaleidoscopic portray-

al of the world in which we live.

These observations inspire us to regard briefly and from

a high plane the nobleness of a task that involves all those

who act in the many and varied forms of production and circula-

tion of books, newspapers and pictures.

It is natural for good souls such as yours to find agreeable

the call to that sense of responsibility, honesty and truth, that

is like a triple trust—entrusted to your intelligence and con-

science—always to be guarded with firmness and fortitude.

The sense of responsibility above all I

Magazines, organized in your Union, are very different in

appearance and characteristics, because alongside those of

strictly scientific and technical nature—thus reserved for

experts—others carry out a task of wide diffusion.

But both, though intended for a different public, have in

common the sacred duty of not damaging, not betraying, not

humiliating that public, which is not an anonymous mass of

people without expression, but is formed of God’s children, of

our brothers in Christ. In this public there is a generous but

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still inexperienced youth; there are mothers and failiers anxious

to receive an upright orientation: ihereareour people liasically

good and sound.

We cannot conceive of an editor, director or writer of

periodical publications who does not feel the responsibility that

weighs on his conscience. He carries out his work as a noble

profession, as a high mission, ever putting aside through

sincere conviction whatever is less beautiful or less good. Be-

cause if in your magazines even one article or one picture

should offend the precious sanctuary of the soul, let Us then

say that any other merit, any title of praise or success would

be very tainted because it would be built on dangerous com-

promises.

This sense of responsibility is based upon your natural and

Christian virtues, and We would like to render it in a single

phrase: honesty without mitigation, in life as well as in the pro-

fessions.

This honesty is expressed, first of all, in a respect for the

laws of God and for positive and civil legislation, conforming

with the acclaimed voice of the divine laws and of their echo in

single consciences enlightened by reason and faith.

Briefly, this honesty signifies coherence, sincerity, a sense

of one’s limits, humility, consideration, prudence.

It makes one avoid evil and seek good, without allowing one

to be misled by any opportunism, as pagan thinkers themselves

have well affirmed: “Because if we do not let ourselves be

impelled toward goodness’’—as Cicero says— “out of consider-

ation for what is honest, but instead by interest or gain, then we

can call ourselves shrewd but not good’’.^

In this regard permit Us to repeat Our admonishment to

representatives of Venetion newspapers on January 30, 1955, to

whom We explained the following small verse from the Epistle

of St. Paul to the Ephesians: Be not like children who are bent

by every wind of doctrine produced “/« nequitia hominum et in

astutia erroris** (by the evil of men and the slyness of errors).

Instead, be cultivators of xxwxh—^'facientes veritatem in

cavitate** (makers of truth in charity)— in the exercise of charity,

which for everyone covers a multitude of individual and social

sins...To have the truth means to have it on the mind and on the

1. De Leg. 1, 14, 41.

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lips— that is, in words and writings— in sure doctrine, and in an

honorable and edifying life.^

With these recollections, inspired by Our pastoral solicitude

for the good of all souls. We extend Our most cordial good

wishes to you, so that your work may result in enrichment, joy

and consolation for you and for many.

While invoking upon you and your loved ones the abundant

gifts of heaven. We gladly impart to you the apostolic blessing.

2. A. G. Card. Roncalli, Writings and Discourses, II, p. 17.



ON PRESS FREEDOM

Translation of an address ^ivcn by IIis Holiness, Pope

John XXIII on December S, 1959 to a group of Italian

Catholic jurists. On dangers of an umlisciplined press.

We are particularly pleased to welcome your distinguished

gathering today, beloved sons who claim the honorable and re-

sponsible title of Catholic jurists. You have come to Rome to

celebrate together the 10th convention, one of a series of yearly

meetings organized by your union. This denotes the seriousness

of your duty and the constant fruitful diligence of your work,

which is considerably productive.

We tell you, therefore, of Our great satisfaction with the

program that you pursue with such competence and nobility of

feeling. You are conscious of your lofty mission, and you wish

to live it fully in the light of God and of a fearless conscience.

The word jurist indicates a highly qualified person, of noble

steadfastness and sensitivity. It bespeaks a profound interior

intellectual and moral formation which has penetrated to the

roots of pensive youth in his fruitful and generous years; a

formation that constantly renews itself in an effort of uninter-

rupted updating.

The word jurist also refers to the strict interpreter of the

law, the guardian and defender of juridicial principles, the

tireless practitioner and fashioner of that development of the law

which is anchored in the two tables of Divine Law, which finds

its expression and confirmation in the natural law, fashioned

by the creative hand of God in every human soul. The jurist

gives further application of the commandments of this law to

the specific cases of the limitless variety of life, and at the

same time he deduces sanctions from the law, according to the

image of that God who is a just, strong and wise judge.

^

Your position as convinced and practicing Gatholics throws

a special light on your mission, which We do not hesitate to

describe as a real and lofty vocation. It finds its consecration

and its crowning in the faithful adherence to the laws of God and

His Ghurch.

But a special proof of your seriousness of intention and of

your work has been offered to Us by your congress’ theme, which

1. Gf. Ps. 7:11.

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has attracted lively attention: “The Freedom of the Press in

the Juridical Order.” You have devoted your studies to this

question for some time past, dedicating many and scholarly

treatments in the specialized reviews published by your union.

This is one of the truly crucial points of today’s social life,

and We are grateful to you for having recalled it once again to

the attention of the juridical world.

A long time ago, when We occupied the episcopal throne of

St. Mark’s, We had the responsibility of serving as president

of the Tri-Veneto Episcopal Conference, and the idea occurred

to Us then to devote a thoughtful and substantial document to

the multiple problems of the press in the name of all the bishops

of the Three Venices. And now the Lord has willed Us here and

We continue to think of it often, for there pass before Us every

day pages of printed material: dailies and periodicals, books

and reviews, as well as reports on books and their evaluation

from a religious and moral standpoint. In this respect We would

like to tell you, with simplicity and paternal confidence, as one

would to a gathering of attentive and beloved sons, of a recollec-

tion of Ours. We keep in Our heart the memory of the simple

and healthy environment in which the Lord wished Us to open Our

eyes to the light of this world. From Our adolescence We found
Ourselves immersed in a domestic and diocesan tradition that

was always open to the knowledge of what is true and beautiful.

It was a tradition friendly to the abundance of ancient and modern

chronicles of regional life which illustrated the habits and cus-

toms of the people.

Returning in Our thoughts to the things seen and heard and

the people encountered. We have the joy to say that in Our youth

Our spirit was never offended by disconcerting sights, words or

accounts, and We can therefore testify to the forthrightness,

honesty and delicacy of conscience of Our family and Our people.

Here We speak not only of the clergy and teachers with whom

We came into contact, but also of the laity of various classes;

yes, also the laity, whose fate it was to live in tempestuous

and polemical times which were, in certain respects, of less

favorable conditions than those in which the Catholic laity live

today!

In the memory of the sound uprightness of those days, how

can the Pope—who feels the burden of the spiritual responsi-

bility entrusted to Him, though his usual calm may hide from the

eyes of the faithful the worries he has- -how can he remain

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indifferent to the propagation of a chronicle, a publicity and a

romanticized exhumation of history which have nothing to do with

instruction and honest information? Will not his heart suffer at

the thought of the poison that is administered with unrestrained

detail to so many innocent people and to youth in their inex-

perience and in the confusion of their adolescent years, with

accounts, exposes and illustrations which have nothing to do with

the knowledge of truth, the attraction of what is good and the

vision of what is beautiful, but which are clearly excluded from

them?

Whoever has the duty of evaluating the things of this world

according to the high criterion of the laws of God and of safe-

guarding the moral beauty of the soul cannot fail to recall

solemnly those terrible words of Jesus: “Whoever causes one

of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it were better for

him to have a great millstone hung around his neck, and to be

drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of

scandals 1. . . but woe to the man through whom scandal does

come!’

Because of these things We are emboldened, and with en-

treating voice and strong heart We submit to the attention of

parents and educators, of statesmen, legislators and jurists, of

publishers and industrialists these following points, trusting

in their good will and rectitude:

1) One must above all have a clear conscience, constantly

inspired to a right equilibrium, and not inclined to insensibility

and laxism.

The right to truth and orientation toward an objective moral

norm, founded on the lasting value of the divine law, is anterior

and superior to every other right and demand. The freedom of

the press must conform and discipline itself in this respect to

the divine laws, which are reflected in the human laws, just as

the freedom of individuals is conformed and disciplined by posi-

tive precepts. And as it is not lawful for the free citizen—by the

mere fact that he proclaims himself free— to do violence and

bring damage to the freedom, property and life of his neighbor,

so neither is it lawful for the press—under the pretext that it

must be free— to assail daily and systematically the religious

and moral well-being of mankind.

2. Matt. 18:6-7.

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Every other requirement, whether of gain or dissemination

of news, must be subject to these basic laws.

This clear conscience must be joined to the precise under-

standing of every man’s proper mission. This mission is, in

fact, not only informative but formative, and it therefore aims

at giving an education. No one can deny that the organs of the

press are not only means through which public opinion is ex-

pressed, but are also instruments of orientation and formation,

and therefore sometimes instruments of the deformation of public

opinion.

Now, education is none 'other than respect of human values,

which is gradually formed, but which also can be upset if it is

not sufficiently protected against sinful inclinations. This edu-

cation, according to an ancient and still valid Socratic concept,

is a drawing out of the intimacy of the human spirit so as to

bring it to light, life and perfection: therefore it cannot be an

injection of poison, a conscious enticement to evil inclinations,

a contribution toward confusion, or indeed an oppressing and

debasing of human dignity.

2) This clear conscience of itself invokes and assumes by its

own action those due limitations which must restrain the rights

of the press in respect, order and legality. These limitations

are imposed upon the desire to speak of or treat a matter in a

morbid fashion, upon the eagerness for the sensational and

illicit. They are imposed upon the flattery of gain, upon incon-

siderateness and levity which violently destroy the innocence

of the child and the adolescent while they justify themselves

with the claim that this is inevitable and fateful.

It is better to be explicit in this matter, without regard for

what one would say out of human respect, so that there will be

no connivance with complicity: It is not the love of knowledge, of

culture and of truth that guides certain pens, but the unhealthy

fire of certain passions and the immoderate desire for notoriety

and gain which passes over the insistent appeals of the con-

science.

Can it be lawful that one may blatantly offer details and

descriptions to the cupidity of curiosity which should be reserved

to police laboratories and the magistrature? Is it ever lawful

to allow criminal deeds to become the occasion and incentive to

vice, when it would be better to throw a veil of pity over these

crimes?

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Publicity itself, especially in certain fields, obeying ne-

farious rules, has assumed disconcerting and frightening aspects

that cannot be justified except by the deliberate intention of

violently affecting the senses and penetrating the force of minds

without concern for the wounds left on the soul.

The attentive examination of this painful situation must

therefore lead the responsible authorities and offices to a logical

and dutiful conclusion: that there must be necessary limitations

in the exercise of the freedom of the press. And these limitations

must be strictly determined on the basis of the law and through

it, so that such a delicate, important and decisive field for the

future of every nation may not be left to the mercy of improvisa-

tion, feeble self-control, of which much has been said; or worse,

to the mercy of bad faith and deceit.

It is up to you also, beloved sons who have made this the ob-

ject of study and constructive action during this convention, to

apply the contribution of your doctrine and also your authority

as Catholic journalists to the solution of this very serious prob-

lem.

3) Finally, there must be clearcut positions and a positive

program.

By natural disposition of mind We do not like to apply—and
only rarely do We apply— strong expressions to the multiple
situations of social life. We do so only when We feel confident
that they can be improved. But in this case We feel the need to
say everything, and to confide Our anxieties and Our hopes to

those who are Our friends and brothers—brothers because of

the practice of the Catholic Faith and also because of the mutual

sincere and human feeling we share on this matter of the

degenerating press and the valuation made of writers worthy

of the name.

The firm positions required of Catholics are therefore as

follows: not to have fear of being silenced as “scrupulous" and

exaggerators in their attitude of disapproval of a certain press;

hence, not to buy, nor credit, nor favor or even speak of the

perverse press; not to fear to avail oneself of every means of

channeling this sector toward a human and civilized discipline,

even before channeling it toward a Christian discipline. It is

the Catholics who are called principally to this work of defense

and firmness and also all those who have an honest conscience

and a sincere desire to be useful to society, because in this

- 23 -



field above all one should feel the seriousness of the sin of

omission.

As for the positive program to be followed: After noting how

legislation has made gigantic progress in the defense of the

rights of the human person, it must be agreed that the same

cannot be said regarding the press. Yet also here it is a question

of a fundamental right that concerns personal freedom: and “the

protection of this freedom,” as was stressed by Our predecessor

Pius XII in 1947, “is the aim of every juridical order worthy

of that name. . .One would legalize licentiousness if one allowed

the press. . .to undermine the religious and moral foundations

of the life of the people. One need not even be Christian to

understand and accept this principle. The use of reason and of a

sound moral and juridical sense, undisturbed by passions, is

enough”.^

Now the scope of the many congresses and indivdual meet-

ings treating of studies and publications should be to enlighten,

convince and clear the air of these questions.

The responsibility with which each person feels himself

invested will be for men of science—as well as for all people of

good will and lucid mind—a great incentive to act quickly and

well, to move promptly and with a spirit of apostolate.

The love of truth, the constancy of one’s own convictions

and sincere zeal for souls will be an impetus for all those who

have at heart the honor of the Church and the salvation of society.

May this program be enlivened for you by the words of the

Apostle: “And in doing good let us not grow tired; for in due

time we shall reap if we do not relax. Therefore, while we have

time, let us do good to all men, but especially to those who are

of the household of faith”.

Beloved sonsl We have acquainted you with Our profound

anxieties and worries, and having done so has afforded Us some

relief, like a person who has rid himself of a weight burdening

his soul: ‘^dixi et liberavi animam meam** (I have spoken and

unburdened my soul). And We are now comforted by the thought

that We find in you a full understanding of the seriousness of

the problems, together with a willing intention of remedying

them.

3. Discourses and Radio Messages, vol. VIII, Jan. 8, 1947, p.369

4. Gal. 6:9 -IQ

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Continue with your studies and with the light of good example

that you give. We invoke upon you the fullness of divine gifts

through the maternal intercession of the Immaculate Virgin,

Mother of Good Counsel, so that you may be sustained in your

labors, encouraged in good will and be given serenity of con-

science.

As a token of the heavenly favors. We are happy to impart

to you, as well as to the worthy president, all the members of

the Union of Italian Catholic Jurists and to the people dear to

you, the propitiatory apostolic benediction.

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