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1. Among the wonderful technological discoveries which men of
talent, especially in the present era, have made with God's help,
the Church welcomes and promotes with special interest those which have
a most direct relation to men's minds and which have uncovered new
avenues of communicating most readily news, views and teachings of
every sort. The most important of these inventions are those media
which, such as the press, movies, radio, television and the like,
can, of their very nature, reach and influence, not only
individuals, but the very masses and the whole of human society, and
thus can rightly be called the media of social communication.
2. The Church recognizes that these media, if properly utilized,
can be of great service to mankind, since they greatly contribute to
men's entertainment and instruction as well as to the spread and
support of the Kingdom of God. The Church recognizes, too, that
men can employ these media contrary to the plan of the Creator and to
their own loss. Indeed, the Church experiences maternal grief at the
harm all too often done to society by their evil use. Hence, this
sacred Synod, attentive to the watchful concern manifested by the
Supreme Pontiffs and Bishops in a matter of such great importance,
judges it to be its duty to treat of the principal questions linked with
the media of social communication. It trusts, moreover, that the
teaching and regulations it thus sets forth will serve to promote, not
only the eternal welfare of Christians, but also the progress of all
mankind.
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