Giovanni Montini’s (the late Pope Paul VI) decree on Inter Mirifica is a manifestation on how the people must respond to the real objective of the Church regarding the proper usage of Mass Media as a source of information, communication and entertainment. I realized that the Church’s decree encourages us to be more decent and extra cautious in utilizing the means of social communication for fostering better mutual understanding between people, for promoting the human dignity, for enlarging and enriching of men’s mind and for the propagation and consolidation of the Kingdom of God. Decency and Caution are the two aspects that make the means of social communication capable of conveying its thoughts and insights on men’s mind as regards its reaction on particular events and situation without harming man’s dignity and orientation.
I found it obvious in Martini’s decree that the Church’s rationale for employing the means of social communication promotes life-centered values across the world. For Martini, the Church does not end in encouraging the means of social communication for fostering better mutual understanding between people, for promoting the human dignity, for enlarging and enriching of men’s mind and for the propagation and consolidation of the Kingdom of God per se. Therefore, the Church gives us an insight that the media and social communications must be made available to all people around the world because this is part of their development, provided that they have a proper orientation regarding the media especially in the third millennium.
It is good thing to know and understand that the Church is concerned of her flock as regards the information, communication and entertainment the flock received and diffused through the means of social communication. Moreover, the Church is emphatic in saying that every information, communication and entertainment the flock assimilated must be properly converged to the Magisterium in employing the means of social communication, to man’s search for truth and ultimately, his search for God. It would go to the point that the Church’s interest in the development of people’s through media seeks a concrete, good result from those who are using the means. The Church therefore seeks to promote human dignity and Christ-centered values that must be imbibed in the media for the people to have a clear understanding of life given by God.
