ETHICS AND INFORMATION: CONFINES, LIMITS, IMPEDIMENTS

VATICAN CITY, NOV 16, 2004 (VIS) - Archbishop John Foley, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, spoke yesterday afternoon at a round table on "Ethics and Information: Confines, Limits and Impediments in Modern Communication" at the Patristic Institute Augustinianum in Rome.

  He began his remarks by "congratulating the Order of St. Augustine on the occasion of the 1,650th anniversary of the birth of their founder, St. Augustine of Hippo," noting that in the Church of St. Augustine in Rome there are relics of both this saint and Doctor of the Church and his mother, St. Monica. He also spoke of "the Basilica of St. Peter in Cieldoro in Pavia where the relics of St. Augustine have been kept under the main altar for almost 1,300 years." These same relics - the mortal remains of St. Augustine - were brought to Rome for a week and were in Pope John Paul's private apartment from the afternoon of November 11 to the morning of November 12.

  Noting that St. Augustine "has continued to communicate after 1,600 years," Archbishop Foley spoke of communications today and said "for us, the limits of communication should be truth, the dignity of the individual and the common good. Thus, the first principle is, 'Never tell a lie' - for any person or for any cause. The second principle is that the dignity of the person should never be violated - for example, by false propaganda, by pornography, by speech designed to foment hatred. The third principle is that all communication should contribute to the common good, not detract from it. … Thus, authentic communication should foster conformity with just law; it should be an encouragement to contribute to the common good."
CON-CS/ETHICS:INFORMATION/FOLEY            VIS 20041116 (290)