ARCHBISHOP FOLEY ON FILM MAKING AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

VATICAN CITY, DEC 4, 2002 (VIS) - Archbishop John Foley, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, spoke at Holy Cross Pontifical University in Rome during a December 2-3 meeting on the theme "Starting from the beginning. The Ten Commandments in the Movie Culture of the Third Millennium."

"Speaking of universal values," he told the assembly, "it is impossible not to refer to the ten commandments. Speaking of movies, it is impossible to forget that they are one of the powerful means of social communications, a privileged voice that reaches everyone and has the power to condition choices and ways of thinking. The media have changed our way of being informed, of knowing, of producing culture, of becoming close to one another; but within them many voices are raised; sometimes one voice can drown out another, creating confusion, because of plurality and the incapacity to succeed in preparing and discerning as a whole the messages of true value."

The archbishop added that "the use of all media and movies, in particular, calls therefore for a great responsibility because communicating distorted, erroneous or false contents risks disorienting the spectator." He stressed that "truth, the dignity of the human person and the common good should be the basis from which to depart to create movies that are a living instrument in modern social communications, at the center of which is man. The communicative strength of the screen is exceptional and has a great impact, capable of making it a vehicle of values, linked to life and human spirituality."

"Films are our legacy to future generations," he noted. "If in these films, which will live after us, there is a message worthy of being handed down, those universal and eternal values that we believe are fundamental for the survival of mankind, we will continue to exist and to lead man's journey toward other conquests. I hope that all who work in the cinema can follow the ten commandments: thus they will achieve their happiness and will be a good example for people who consider them models to follow."

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