This Embassy hosted, on Friday, May 26, 2023 at Palazzo Borromeo, the presentation of the book “Popes and the media. Drafting and reception of the documents of Pius XI and Pius XII on cinema, radio and TV” edited by Dario Edoardo Viganò, President of the MAC Foundation (Audiovisual Memories of Catholicism) and the CAST (Catholicism and Audiovisual Studies) Research Centre at the UniNettuno International Telematic University.
The event was an opportunity to reflect on the complex relationship between the Church and the media with a look at the pontificates of Pius XI and Pius XII, years that coincided with the advent of new mass communication tools such as radio, television and, above all, cinema. The book brings together the analysis of five important pontifical documents, the Encyclical on the motion picture ‘Vigilanti Cura’ by Pius XI (1936), the Apostolic Exhortation ‘I rapidi progressi’ by Pius XII (1954), the two “Discourses on the ideal film” delivered by Pius XII on 21 June and 28 October 1955, and finally the Encyclical ‘Miranda Prorsus’ promulgated by Pius XII in 1957.
After the welcome greetings by Ambassador Francesco Di Nitto, Prof. Gennaro Sangiuliano, Minister of Culture, and Card. Secretary of State Pietro Parolin took the floor. The meeting was moderated by Giovanna Pancheri, journalist and Sky TG24 anchor.
The Minister of Culture Prof. Gennaro Sangiuliano pointed out that “this research is not limited to reconstructing the editorial processes of some of the most important documents of the Papal Magisterium on the media, but goes further by providing an original picture of the challenges, suggestions, the criticalities and solicitations that the emergence of the mass media has launched at the Church”. From the essays collected in this volume it emerges quite clearly how the relationship between the Church and the media has influenced over time – and with varying effectiveness – parts of the country’s public opinion and large segments of the population that relate to the Christian message. The cinema, in particular, has played a central role in this sense also because – the Minister pointed out – “since the 1950s, parish cinemas have multiplied throughout the country, assuming an important role in cultural dissemination and aggregation”. Even today, Pope Francis, in a recent interview with Monsignor Viganò, reiterated the need to understand the cinema as a great instrument of aggregation that ‘has contributed, in difficult moments of national history, to reconstituting the social fabric and building a sense of community’.
Card. Secretary of State Pietro Parolin highlighted the progressive passage, also witnessed in the book, from a cautious vigilance towards what appeared to be a powerful vehicle of suggestions in contrast with the dictates of Catholicism, to a proactive strategy towards the cinema and other media, aimed at adapting the message of the Church to a rapidly changing society. In particular, Card. Parolin wanted to recall Pius XI’s will, starting with the Encyclical “Vigilanti Cura”, to promote the cinema as a “means of apostolate and transmission of the faith”. It was, in other words, a way to adequately prepare for the “cultural, social, political, geopolitical and geo-religious challenge” imposed by the rapid development of the medium par excellence of the new mass culture and to give “a response with which trying to place the cinema at the service” of a new global protagonism of the Church. The problem of the rapid spread of television in the 1950s is also vast and complex.
Also in his two “Discourses on the ideal film”, the Pontiff demonstrates an adequate awareness of the pervasive power of the cinema within the different strata of society and in particular of its influence on the behaviour of young people, departing however from the more cautious attitude held in “Vigilanti Cura” and indicating as the primary duty of a film that is of “instructing, delighting, spreading noble joy and pleasure, so that the spectator might leave the theatre happier, freer and, in his heart, better than when he had entered”. Finally, the Encyclical “Miranda Prorsus” (analysed by Monsignor Viganò himself), dedicated to cinema, television and radio, in some ways represents the end of the Church’s merely prescriptive attitude towards the mass media and demonstrates how Pius XII and the Church itself were now aware of the need to find new forms of presence and apostolate in an increasingly modern and media-driven world.
Speaking at the conclusion of the event, Monsignor Edoardo Viganò wanted to recall the great impulse given by the CAST research centre, set up precisely with the aim of strengthening the field of study on the relationship between Catholicism and audiovisuals in an international and interdisciplinary perspective. He also recalled the establishment of the MAC Foundation, in March 2023, to “respond to the cultural urgency of the recovery, preservation and enhancement of the historical audiovisual heritage and related documentary heritage related to Catholicism”.
It is from this, study, research, collaborations and ongoing projects, that the idea of this volume arose, the greatest merit of which – underlined Viganò – consists in a new historical-critical approach that clarifies the coherent evolution of the Catholic Church’s attitude towards the media.
