Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Cross, Page 4
Thursday, May 3, 2001
T o “Renew the Mind of the
Media” is a tall order but one
which we must attempt. In a socie
ty that demands ever faster Internet
access, cable systems that offer
hundreds of channels, and more
powerful computers and video
games, we must begin to demand
accountability of the media who
bombard us every minute of every
day with so much content that is
objectionable.
We must also look at our own
choices for entertainment and news.
Ultimately, it is our choices as con
sumers that result in the program
ming that is offered to us.
“Renewing the Mind of the Me
dia” is the theme of a five-year
campaign launched by the nation’s
bishops last year and which we will
take up again in the Diocese of Sa
vannah the weekend of May 19-20.
The bishops encourage you to
commit yourself to this worthwhile
effort, and to sign and return the
pledge that weekend with your reg
ular Sunday offering.
It is also the title of a statement
of the bishops, intended to provide
a moral and theological explanation
for the desire to overcome the
exploitation of sex and violence in
communications—as well as to
offer practical steps all of us can
take to make that goal a reality.
The presence of the media in our
lives is pervasive. Consider these
staggering statistics:
• 98 percent of U.S. homes have at
least one television set, and 2.3 set
per household is average.
• About two-thirds of U.S. house
holds subscribe to cable and anoth
er 10 percent subscribe to direct
satellite services.
• 89 percent of homes with children
Renewing the Mind of the Media
have video game equipment, a per
sonal computer, or both.
• 30 percent of American homes
have Internet access.
The media have great potential to
bring positive, wholesome, uplift
ing messages into our lives and to
connect us in bonds of solidarity
with brothers and sisters across the
globe. Television can unite us with
Pope John Paul II as he celebrates
Mass at Saint Peter’s or link distant
classrooms in a common learning
experience. CD-ROMs and the
Internet have opened up libraries of
learning and sacred music
and art that otherwise
would be closed to mil
lions.
The bishops’ own
Catholic Communication
Campaign produces quality televi
sion and video productions that are
inspirational and educational. This
spring, the feature-length production
The Face: Jesus in Art, for which
the CCC provided major funding,
was released and seen on our local
PBS stations.
Unfortunately, though, the media
have great potential to be misused
to spread messages of hate, vio
lence, and exploitation, occasional
ly with tragic consequences.
Consider that by age 18, the aver
age child growing up in our nation
will have seen 16,000 simulated
murders and 200,000 acts of vio
lence. To say there is no connection
between the simulated violence of
television, film, video games, or
some music lyrics, and the level of
violence among young people is to
deny the obvious. More than 3,000
academic studies in the last 40
years agree that simulated violence
leads to real-world violence and ag
RENEWING THE
MIND OF THE
MEDIA
gressive behavior.
An obsession with sex, too, is an
all too common element of “enter
tainment.” At least one recent
report indicates that the incidence
of sexual content on television is
on the increase. Two-thirds of all
shows in the 1999-2000 season
included sexual content, up from 56
percent in the 1997-1998 season,
according to a study by the Kaiser
Family Foundation released in
January.
As daunting as the task may
seem, “renewing the mind of the
media” is possible; the
media are not beyond our
influence.
For example, significant
public pressure was brought
to bear, and parents now
have two important tools to help
them in their efforts to limit their
children’s exposure to sexual con
tent, violence and foul language.
First, all television sets sold in the
United States must now be
equipped with a V-chip to allow
parents to screen out programs they
deem inappropriate for their chil
dren. Second, to make the use of
the V-chip effective, all the major
television networks now have
adopted a rating system for their
programs, despite their hue and cry
that the system would be the end of
broadcasting as we know it.
While “the media” are not alone
in influencing our society for good
or ill, they are a powerful force.
Ultimately, however, their power
depends on us as media consumers.
The television networks, the
movie and music production com
panies, the artists, producers, direc
tors and everyone else involved in
entertaining and informing us are
only one side of the business. In
large part, they respond to what
their consumers demand—or at
least tolerate.
In other words, we must examine
our own decisions about what tele
vision programs and movies we
watch and what Web sites we visit.
Do our decisions set good exam
ples within our families and our
communities, and second, do they
encourage content providers to con
tinue offering programming we say
is objectionable?
The bishops encourage you to
step back from the constant bom
bardment of the media and to think
critically about your media deci
sions. Talk with your family and
neighbors about troubling
aspects of television programs,
movies, popular music and video
games, as well as the types of
wholesome entertainment that
you’d like to see. Familiarize your
self with the U.S. Catholic Con
ference’s toll-free movie review
line (1-800-311-4222) and-start
making decisions about movies
based on moral content and not just
what is the latest Blockbuster. Look
for the pledge in your parish bul
letin the weekend of May 12-13,
read it, act on it. The pledge—and
additional information—can also be
read on the Web at the following:
http://www. renewingmedia. org.
Remember that the media are not
beyond our influence. Together, we
can “Renew the Mind of the
Media.”
This reflection was prepared by
the Committee on Communica
tions of the National Conference
of Catholic Bishops. Bishop
Boland is a committee member.
Q uestion: Have the priests’ vestments worn
at Mass changed over the years?
—A Reader
A nswer: In the early days of the Church,
vestments worn by priests at Mass were
similar to the garments in ordinary popular use.
In the Roman Church, the basic clothes worn by
working people were also worn by the priest: a
white, sleeved tunic called an “alb” after its
color (alba means white in Latin) and a poncho
like outer garment worn by the lower classes and
called a paenula (made from a semi-circle of
cloth). The alb is regarded as a baptismal gar
ment that can be worn by any baptized person.
The paenula or casula (“chasuble”, meaning
“house-tent”; made from a third of a circle) or
planeta (made from two-thirds of a circle) is
restricted to bishops and priests presiding at
Mass or the Liturgy of Good Friday. The toga
worn by the upper classes was never used as a
Questions & Answers
Christian liturgical garment. The stole, which
became a sign of ordained ministry, may be de
rived from the prayer shawls worn by Jewish
men or from the Roman sudarium, a large ker
chief worn around the neck.
Even after the clothes ordinarily worn changed
over the years, Mass vestments remained the free-
flowing garments of ancient times. In the Middle
Ages, however, the vestments were reduced in
size as they came to be made from more expen
sive cloths, such as silk. These vestments, some
times known as “fiddle backs” from their violin
like shapes, allowed for less restricted move
ments, but were rather stiff and unattractive in
their shape. More free-flowing vestments that al
low for grace of movement, similar in style to the
early vestments, have returned in recent years.
According to the current rubrics, an amice is
worn around the neck, under the the alb, “unless
other provision is made,” such as the alb’s being
tailored in such a way that it completely covers
the neckwear worn underneath the alb. A cinc
ture or rope-like belt is ordinarily worn over the
alb around the waist.
The stole is worn under the chasuble, unless it
•is made to be worn over it. Both priests and bi
shops wear the stole hanging down in two equal
sections. The stole and chasuble are the color of
the liturgical season or feast (white, green, pur
ple or red, with black rarely worn these days).
Rose-colored vestments may be worn on Gau-
dete and Laetare Sundays. Concelebrating
priests wear the same vestments as the presider,
although they may omit the chasuble.
—DKC
Editor’s Note: Submit questions to The Sou
thern Cross, 601 E. Liberty St., Savannah, GA
31401 (e-mail: DCIark5735@aol.com). If your
question is used, you will receive a souvenir
from the diocesan sesquicentennial. Please
include address.