A response to: Do You Know Who’s Behind Your News?
I read attentively the important discourse of the archbishop of Denver on «Catholics and the ‘Fourth Estate,'» which should be required reading for all those that have a social or political responsibility.
I remembered reading in the book «His Holiness Pius XI» by R. Fontenelle, edited in 1939, the following, said at the audience the Pope gave to French journalists that were accompanying the French Prime Minister Pierre Laval on his Vatican visit on Monday, Jan. 7, 1935: «You journalists represent the greatest power that exists in the world. It is said frequently that opinion has this power, […] but it is the press that forms opinion and the cause is always more powerful than the effect.
«I know that you are aware of your power, of the duties that it implies, of your great responsibilities. You are the great men of the word. […] Don’t ever betray the truth, don’t ever say a word that could lead to an error or to evil.»
I would like the archbishop to know about these wise words of the great Pius XI, perhaps a little forgotten […].
A greeting in Christ, Mary, Don Bosco, the great promoter of the good media.
Carlos Antonio Gasparri
[Translation of Spanish original by ZENIT]
