Pro or Against Solidarity?

The mass media can and must promote justice and solidarity according to an organic and correct vision of human development, by reporting events accurately and truthfully, analyzing situations and problems and providing a forum for different opinions.

 

            It has been since time immemorial: a war that has caused real great destructions on both lives and properties; a hostility among the giants that even those who are little are being harmed; a battle that is for acquisition of wealth; an Armageddon to build up fame and honor: The combat between the two biggest network companies in the Philippines: ABS-CBN and GMA.

 

            The perpetual fight between them can be said as the fight for wealth and popularity. So much so that it involved groups of peoples on how they can overtake the other group in terms of number of viewers, positive results of surveys and praises of other peoples and groups. Thus, innovations on both sides are always at store. They are both ready to buy that which is latest and the best in terms of broadcasting and television. Maybe, even also cheaper airtime rates for advertisers so that many companies will be advertising in them, and even extending the area of coverage of is their stations not only from Aparri to Sulu but to even from across the oceans going to other continents like America and Europe.

 

The people always have the “wow” impression on the efforts that they are doing in order to improve their shows for our enjoyment and satisfaction. Well, what could the viewers ask for except to wait for their favourite programs and be satisfied with it aesthetically?

 

Maybe this is the positive side of the competition between them. However, it has also a negative face and we can hardly notice it. As what the late John Paul II wrote in the document “The Rapid Development,” the mass media can and must promote justice and solidarity. If this is so, then what the two giants are doing is totally the opposite because instead of promoting justice and solidarity, they are promoting divisions and conflict among the people, especially in the masses. A group may be for ABS. Another one may be for GMA. See, these two giants are causing lots of troubles not only to their constituents but also among their viewers.

 

What parting words should I say? Maybe that we, viewers, should be prudent enough to trace and notice the divisions caused by this fight. If they are doing their best to give us, their viewers, aesthetic satisfaction (which are morally acceptable), that will be good not only for us but also for them. If they will be destroying the name of the other using the broadcast communications, maybe it’s better if we should ask, “look who’s talking…”  

              

To Click or Not to Click?

Whoever among us that is familiar with Shakespeare will attribute the title of this blog on one of his best-loved tragedies, namely Hamlet. In the novel, Hamlet is presented as having a hair-splitting dilemma whether to kill his step-father (who was also his uncle) or not. Maybe all of us know the answer so I won’t answer it here. But to be honest, Hamlet really had this dilemma of his life. Everyone of us are faced with the same dilemma that Hamlet had concerning the internet. Of course it seems very little and worthless for us whatever sites we would like to open. Since we are already used and in a way “immune” on what we can see inside the cyberspace, we tend to brush off our shoulders and simply say “the heck I care.” We have the freedom to choose, to type and to click the sites that we would like to open. And, lo and behold! What we’ve wanted to see and visit are already staring coldly on us. However, more often than not, we tend not to think, analyze and ask whether the sites that we are opening or going to open will benefit us or harm us. Rather, we just click and click and click and alas! We have satisfied our desires but fatally ruined our souls. We have quenched our thirst for knowledge but deprived ourselves of the waters that come from the spring of the Eternal Truth. We don’t want to be used by either but unconsciously, we are using other people as instruments and objects of pleasure. We just want to click and click and at the end of the day, we end up not being our true selves.

Since the beginning, the Church has been at pains of teaching and instructing us as regards the use of the means of the social communications, especially the internet. Precursored by Inter Mirifica, we can call the document The Church and the Internet a part of these series of instructions. It is again, on the use of the internet with regard to faith and morality. There are these people, according to the aforementioned document, that call themselves Catholics but made a site where they can freely express their opinions and violent reactions against the Church. I think (please correct me if I’m wrong) that they are contradicting themselves. What I can only say to those people is to study again (better yet, ponder) on the Scriptures and the Church’s magisterium. Kindly think and re-think of your claims please. Another issue that again, is being addressed by this document is the issue concerning sexual exploitation in the internet. I think the Church had made her very best effort to inform and “conscienticize” the people but still, they do what they know as morally wrong. I just want to repeat what Jesus said: if you are the cause of sinning of your brothers and sisters, better for you to be tied with a great millstone in the neck and be thrown in the sea (cf. Mk. 9:42).

Sad to say, the reality of immorality is already “prowling like a roaring lion” in the cyberspace. But at the end, the freedom and the choice are still in our side whether to allow ourselves be “devoured” by that roaring lion or to be steadfast in the observance of that what is true and faithful. The question is given to us, the answers depend on us whether to click or not to click.

“Is This True?”: On “Ethics in Advertising”

Even today, some advertising is simply and deliberately untrue. Generally speaking, though, the problem of truth in advertising is somewhat more subtle: it is not that advertising says what is overtly false, but that it can distort the truth by implying things that are not so or withholding relevant facts (no.15).

     When I first heard the advertisement of one shampoo that says, “sa bagong R—–e shampoo, para ka nang nagpa-rebond,”I asked my mom to buy me that shampoo because I don’t have a very soft hair. After a week of trying this new product, there was hardly no changes in my hair (except that my mom’s budget for us being shortened just for that shampoo). So I thought that a couple of weeks of using will ensure the effectivity of that product. But at the end of the second week, my hair was still the same. So I said “hindi naman pala totoo yung sinasabi sa patalastas eh…”(what is being said in the commercial is not true). And later on, I came to realize that if all shampoo advertisings are true, mostly all of the people will have a very fine and soft hair, which is contrary to my experience. At the end, it made me suspicious to all other advertisements.

     This experience of mine is not uncommon to many. In a way or another, all of us experienced and still experiencing the deceptions (sorry for the term. I just cannot find a more diplomatic word for it)  of mostly all of the advertisements, whether in newspapers, radio and of course, television. Oftentimes, the perverse effects on us of being tricked by the advertisements are not that bad, but can be extremely dangerous sometimes. There was a time when a certain skin astringent popularized the “peeling” of the epidermis so that a new skin will appear. But what happened is that the new skin that appeared are very sensitive, making the face of the users swell and devil red. Such a frightful view indeed!

     With these recalling of my experiences, I will give my agreement to the Church when she said that “advertisements can distort the truth.” Yes indeed, the Church has made a litany of guidelines with regard to advertising in order to follow what is really good. Maybe there is really nothing new in this blog except for the call to the advertisers to be truthful as possible. The reason for this call is that human life can be compromised by the distortion of what is true in advertising, which must not happen. It may sound idealistic (or at most, utopic) but human life and the human person in his totality should be given higher priority than gaining profits. I can still remember the first question of the “Four-Way Test” of the Rotary Club which asks: “is it the truth?” The question of truth here really provokes some sort of opposition towards the contemporary situation of advertising. I am not saying that all advertisements are but falsity. Far from it. What I am trying to say is that advertisements should reveal the totality of the truth about a particular product, without distorting or even hiding the product as what really is.

     If only all advertisements (including shampoo advertising) will adhere and say what is objectively true, I think all of us will really have that kind of hair that “sumusunod sa galaw.”

On “One Hundred Years of Cinema”

     Motion pictures have powerful influence to people of all age and times. How can we ever forget  the phenomenal programs from cartoons, soap operas, variety shows and films that made a long lasting impact in our minds? To give a proof of this claim, I would like to cite Joseph Estrada’s legacy in Philippine cinema. He was just too influential and veteran in the movie industry that no wonder, when he ran for the presidency, he nearly collected the approval of the Filipinos. But far  from making fuss on Erap’s story, I cited him just to show how media can affect even the electoral process of a country. It is also to show how media, especially the cinema influences the minds of its audience. The Church is very much aware of this. in fact, she devoted a very a very exhaustive document concerning the centenary of the invention of the motion pictures and its possible use for teaching and evangelizing. This has been the topic of other Church documents like Inter Mirifica and Communio et Progressio. But one unique thing in the document One Hundred Years of Cinema is the emphasis given on film as instrument of teaching catechisms to the children.

     I can still remember very well some cartoons that me and my brothers were watching when we were still very young. They were “Super Book” and “Flying House.” Both of them are animated movies whose stories were derived from the Bible  and the major characters were children. The first one shows how the children were “swallowed up” by the Bible, finding themselves inside the stories of the Scriptures while the latter shows how a (literal) flying house move them from this present world  to the Biblical times. The images are just too powerful that every time our volunteer catechist asked us about the Bible, I can answer it immediately because I have known the answers through those cartoons. Again, this will remind us of the powerful influence that motion pictures and cinema have.

     This is what precisely the document “One Hundred Years of Cinema” would like to impart to us: to use all the means that the Church has in her disposal, including the mass media, “to acquaint them with the values that will develop their spirituality and religiosity and will culminate their faith, hope and love as revealed by Jesus Christ.” We can influence or be influenced by mass media. If we are going to face those situations (and I believe that even once in our life, we had that chance), let it be on the purpose of educating the young and teaching them the Gospel values instead other things motivated by our own desires and passions. With the media being used for catechisms, we help and contribute in forming the future society and the future Christian Catholics to be responsible with their faith. After all, it is our responsibility (together with the Mother Church) to form the little children to grow in our Catholic faith.

     Jesus once said, ” let the children come to me…” What a wonderful invitation indeed! However, this invitation of His is hardly heard because of different things that concerns (I hope they are really necessary concerns) the world. Why not let this invitation clearly resound again through the use of mass media? If we can do this, I believe that many children will find themselves in the arms of “Kuya” Jesus… again.

“Hey! I Have Something to Say, Too!”: On “Aetatis Novae”

The Church, therefore, must maintain an active, listening presence in relation to the world- a kind of presence which both nurtures community and supports people in seeking acceptable solutions to personal and social problems.

     Our world today is full of ear-breaking cacophonies of various noises. Starting from reverberating household radios and televisions up to the honks of the cars in the streets and the dissonant sound of a jetplane launch. Ours is a culture of sounds and we can’t deny this with the evolution from plaka to cassette tapes up to CD’s, MP3′s, MP4′s, iPods, and the litany goes on as long as the earth exists. Even the people, in their own, simple and day to day conversations, tend to louder their voices and to say and he or she badly needs someone who will listen to him, only finding it that there is no one who is ready to listen simply because it’s none of their business.

     Aside from its constant reminder on the pastoral duties of the Church on the tools of Social Communications, Aetatis Novae has mentioned the task of the Church to listen to the world- a very tough job, indeed. To hear and to listen are two different words. Listening is to hear the one speaking with you with full attention and compassion- which hearing does not have. To listen, as what I’ve said, is hard. One must go beyond him/herself to be able to understand the one who speaks. To listen is to do what Jesus did: he “emptied” himself in order to become like us. Listening involves this “emptying” of one’s self and to have the compassion of the Good Shepherd. This applies to all of us, but especially, to us seminarians and religious. To listen with compassion to the world and to help the people carry their concerns- just like Jesus did.

     When you attached our ears together, it forms a shape of a heart. Listening is a way of sharing your love to others. And if listening is an act of love, everyone who are baptizd Catholics are invited to learn how to listen. I believe that through listening and peaceful dialogues, the problems of the world will be given solutions, even the greatest of it. God is present when someone is listening attentively and compassionately to others because if listening is an act of love, and “God is love,” then God must be present in the listening activity. Let us make God present in our restless world. Learn how to listen.

A Constant Reminder of their Human Dignity: A Response Against Pornography and Violence in the Communications Media

Many changes… have been for the worse. Along with old abuses, new violations of human dignity and rights and of Christian values and ideals have occured. Here, too, the media bear part of responsibility.” 

     Let us admit it. We cannot deny it. The advancements in Social Communications and in Technology in general has not only brought people to communications and hopefully, to communion but bore also a rotten fruit. This is the violation of the privacy and dignity of the human person that brought to the abuse of his/her own body, either sensually or violently. It is very sad to think and say that the primordial dignity of the human person of paramount importance was sacrificed in favor of technological furtherance.

     I cannot help but be reminded of the late John Paul II’s (of happy memory) view on the human person. For him (and for all those who believe in the same truth), man is composed of a corporeal body and a rational soul. He was very insistent and convinced in saying that the human person’s rational soul is what elevates the human person above any other entites in the outside world. This rational soul is the “inner life” of man that entails him the right not to be an object or only a means to attain a certain end. Thus, it is in this rational soul where human dignity rests.

     And we have forgotten this dignity of ours as man. For the sake of earning lucratively, some people abused the weaknesses of other persons in order to be rich. Others do it for the sole sake of attaining sensual pleasure. A very sad scenario indeed where man, who is according to the Scriptures, was made a little less than a god because of his dignity and participation to God, has equated and made himself, if I may say it, a BRUTE.

     I believe that we, as Christian Catholics and as seminarians and religious, should help the Church in the task of reminding (or catechizing) mankind and reminding them of their dignity that makes them “children of God.” First, we must also cultivate and deepen our own understanding of our dignity in order to share our knowledge to others. Some people’s tendency is just to ignore us or worst, contradict what we will be teaching. The challenge here is for us to be firm in our beliefs and testify to it even at the face of death. Truly, the time that St. Paul mentioned to Timothy has arrived. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity… will stop listening to the truth. (2Tim. 4:3-4). This era is the moment not only of tanks and ammunition between countries but also a moral battle. In this battle, we need to stand firm and “fight a food fight.” Thus, at the end of the day, we can say that even in the least that we can do, we have tried and sacrificed ourselves for the primordial truth that we hold on to, that is, the truth about our own human dignity.

A Deeper Understanding and a Greater Sympathy Between Man: On “Communio et Progressio”

Traditional philosophy will define man as a “rational animal.” Boethius further elaborated this in a very beautiful Latin statement: individua substantia rationalis naturae: an individual substance of rational nature. With this idea in mind, we will arrive in a conclusion that man is composed of a number of spheres and aspects, rising in all of these is his rationality that makes him capable of speaking and transmitting ideas and at the end, of communication. And to cut it short, man’s intellectual escalation raced in even a greater speed, destroying the boundaries of time and space through the tools of communications which we call media. And in this picture that the writer would like to comment on the Pastoral Instruction Communio et Progressio.

A very lengthy and exhaustive yet informative reading, Communio et Progressio was the fruit of the Council Fathers’ admonitions concerning the tools and the proper use of social communications. Yet, the writer will center only on the ideas expressed in the title of the blog.

The past Church documents that we have read (Inter Mirifica, Guide on the Training of Future Priests) were constantly repeating that man’s communion to one another is in participation and is rooted in the Trinitarian communion: of the communion between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Here we can say that if man’s communion is in line with the Trinitarian communion, so do the deeper understanding of man rests in the mystery of the Trinity. As we have mentioned earlier, the tools of social communications are offshoots of man’s genius. Yet, the sad fact is that this has also reduced man into a lesser being than who really he is. Communio et Progressio invites us to find again the path towards the deeper understanding of man through media. Media is the channel by which man’s ideas, knowledge and opinions are channeled to other men on the other line of the media, not on the utilization or worst, degradation of the other. Thus, we will arrive at the real purpose or end of media in reference to the Trinity. In addition, if media has and must be in line with the Trinitarian communion, the agents of communication (i.e., all of us) must not only be contented of being informed by the persons of the other end of the line. Man must not remain apathetic to the other but rather, sympathetic. The Trinitarian communion is a communion of love and if it is a communion of love, so must we. Information channeled by the media must not rest only in our minds but rather, go down to our hearts and find its expression through praxis. So, if media has channeled that the people in the other end of the line needs our help, we must not be reluctant to extend our hands. If we will allow ourselves to be sympathetic to the people in the other end of the line, social communications will pave a way to guide us “to the way of peace.”

Communications Media must always remember that its goal or the purpose of its existence is to unite man to other man and man to God, as what Jesus have prayed to His Father the night before He died (cf. Jn. 17:9-21). It must not be the cause of discord and hatred, which we can say, that it is doing (rather, the people using it is doing at the moment). Communications Media should always have its goals in its functionings and the way to attain this goal is to make a deeper understanding and a greater sympathy between man.

On “Guide to the Training of Future Priests Concerning the Instruments of Social Communications”

            From messages inside a bottle that is allowed to be floated over the sea to horse drawn carriages that carry letters and other messages; to the onset of postal offices and telegrams and telefax; to the employment of beepers and cellphones and finally, to the birth of cyberspace. It is indeed veritable that man’s thirst, inclination and use of intellect has broken down the barriers that divides different countries to different communities and thus, has made the world a smaller place to live in.

 

            This is one of the things that enlightened me upon reading the “Guide to the Training of Future Priests Concerning the Instruments of Social Communications,” that communication should lead to communion (no. 3). As an Alter Christus, a priest must be able to communicate and transmit the “story of Jesus” to all, knowing that when the people have known the truth about God, they will find their way to be in communion with Him. And again, the priests must become the instruments of communion of God and man through the Eucharist, which is the most perfect and intimate form of communion between God and man.

 

            However, we must not let ourselves be drawn up to cloud nine by these words. We must also remember that we are in the world but not of the world. The different means for social communications are the objects of the world. They already exist. We cannot make them “non-existing” (unless schizophrenic people decide to destroy them). The only thing that is left to us is that to use them as tools and instruments of communication towards our communion with God and with our brothers and sisters. Thus, we will use the “objects of the world” in a non-worldly purpose, namely, for evangelization.

 

            Having these ideas in mind, we are being lead to the paramount necessity of studying Social Communications and making it a part and parcel of the formation of future priests. Personally speaking, I just cannot see myself studying this subject (again!). Why on earth study this? I already know some things about computers, public speaking and the like. Is this really essential for my formation? These are but some of the questions that popped in my head when I saw the present subject in my subjects’ list. But the reading of the abovementioned document made me realize that in order to proclaim the Good News in farther horizons and more diverse manner, I need and I must train and let myself be trained to use the instruments of social communications, which are products of man’s genius. To study media literacy will indeed benefit not only me but in God’s grace, all those souls that will be entrusted to my care by the Good Shepherd. At the end, all these things are in a way or another, a form of following the command of Jesus to spread the Good News to the ends of the earth.

 

            Now, after writing all these things, I will try to do my part: of studying and using social communication tools. I’ve just found the answers to the questions that I asked by reading this document. It is our sacred duty in the front of God as baptized Catholics and future Church shepherds to proclaim the Word of the Lord to all. It will be, after all, Ad Majorem Dei Goriam et Salus Animarum.

 

 

On Inter Mirifica

     Since the advent of advanced technology, the issue concerning the freedom of the press is already a talk-of-the-town. It may have been taken away from us, yet time returned it to us. But many writers, broadcasters, journalists and artsits may have misunderstood or did not understand at all the real meaning of the freedom of the press, thus, remaining totally on the opposit side: vulgar words, obscene pictures, dirty language. It shows the total lack of responsibility on their part. The Church, upon careful analysis of man’s intellectual escalation, may have seen long before the present situation. Thus the decree Inter Mirifica.

     Upon reading the document, the only thing that is in my mind is the responsibility of the people involved in media as journalists, artists, directors, etc. and at the same time, the responsibility of the Church to use the media in evangelization and to secure its contents from anyh dangers that may attack the faith and the morality of the people. We are free on how to use technology and the means for communications for they are the fruits of man’s labor and struggle against ignorance. Yet, the danger is also at hand because we might use and misuse these things solely for worldly allurements or on deceiving our neighbors. But this must not be, for man “is composed of a corporeal body and immaterial soul,” thus every act that he does will have effect on his spiritual aspect. Moreover, having the mission to spread the Good News, the Holy Mother Church can and must utilize the media for the mentioned purpose. Lastly, being the depositum fidei, it is the paramount task of the Church to guard the media contents against the lies and illusions that media practitioners may impose on the people.

     “Every good gift comes from God.” The media and technology are veritably good and they are gifts from God. Thus, it necessarily follows that we must use them for solely good purpose. “For our good and the good of all His Church.”