Papal Document on Entertainment Prophetic

I am in the process of reading an encyclical from Pope Pius XII - Miranda Prorus.  It amazes me how the Holy Spirit works through the Church.  I will be writing here about parts I find that are needed in this day and age and some of the ideas contained in the encyclical that will help us as Catholics in Entertainment.  One of the first things that jumped out at me is the purpose the Holy Father spells out for our field - "Indeed, this should be the first aim of the arts of the Motion Pictures, Radio and Television: to serve truth and virtue."  Both of these definitely need to be reclaimed in all media.  Consider reading this with me and growing closer to Christ.

Pope Benedict XVI on Music

Recently the Pope said there is "a kinship between music and hope, between song and eternal life," and for this reason, "the Christian tradition represents the souls of the blessed in a choir."  He also referred to the "spiritual values of musical art, called in a particular way to instill hope in the human spirit wounded by the earthly experience."  He also thinks that new generations can find new inspiration by approaching the "universal value of the artistic patrimony," thus making it easier to build a society "open to the values of the spirit."

I think he has a great insight that we can learn from.  It seems that a lot of music, and the arts in general, is composed for selfish reasons - because it pleases the artist or listener - instead of trying to uplift the listener and society in general.  Maybe we need to step back and look at our arts in a renewed way.

Zenit

CWNews

Expelled Review

I saw Ben Stein's movie "Expelled" today and it was great!  It has received the New Ethos  Excellence Award. 

I believe it is an honest look at the bias that is going on in the majority of colleges.  It exposes the closed mindedness of the University.  People think colleges are a place to learn and explore truth, since it will set us free.  But they shackle us by telling us we have the freedom to think as long as it is what they want us to think.

Assisted Suicide on Boston Legal

The Boston Legal episode that aired on Apr 15th 2008, had one of the story lines deal with physician assisted suicide/homicide.  As Catholics we need to learn what the Church teaches on this subject so we can inform the people we work with the truth of the wonderful meaning of life.  This episode tries to make an argument that will foster a Culture of Death.  We need to counter with a Culture of Life!

I think one of the lessons Pope John Paul II wanted to show us is Salvation through Suffering.  I know this is a very sensitive subject, but that is what makes it important and imperative to get right.  Pope John Paul II wrote an Apostolic Letter SALVIFICI DOLORIS (On the Meaning of Human Suffering) that is a very good explanation of the Church's Teaching.  Another good resource is the Encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) by John Paul II.

Why take away someone's pain when it is possible to be helpful to their salvation.  I am not advocating undue or unnecessary pain, but the normal pain of death may be redemptive. Also the pain we experience can do the same for us and we have the opportunity to apply our sufferings to them.

I also came across an article on John Paul II and the Meaning of Suffering by Fr John Hardon that puts the Church's Teaching eloquently as does and article in This Rock magazine from Catholic Answers, A Pope’s Answer to the Problem of Pain

Refer also to the Catechism Paragraphs 2269, 2276-2279, 1502 and the Compendium of the Catechism question 470-471 and 368.

Papal Coverage

I just found out that the Bishops have a web site to chronicle the Pope's 2008 visit.  You can go to http://www.uspapalvisit.org/ to read and watch streaming coverage of what is happening and what has happened throughout the visit.  I looks like it will have really good coverage.

Pope's Visit

In my experience of the media covering matters pertaining to the Church I would be very careful about what you hear from the media coverage during the Holy Father's Visit.

Great coverage will be on EWTN where you can watch online Also from Catholic World News , Catholic News Agency, and Zenit News Agency.

The Truth will set you free (me too)

One of the major problems with hollywood and the media seems to me to be truth telling. Most probably don't do it on purpose, but they actually believe lies that they are told or are just really lying to them self. If more actual truth was told the world would be a better place.

From what I hear, it seems like a good movie that exposes a lot of this falsehood is Ben Stein Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed I looks like it will dispel a lot of the lies that have been told over the years.

One of the big lies told today is about Global Warming. If you notice they have changed their rhetoric recently, you don't hear Global Warming anymore, now you hear climate change. They won't tell you that the latest numbers say the earth is cooling now, they have too much invested in their lie. Like we can control the weather anyway. Face the fact that Climate does change, yesterday it was near 100 degrees, today it'll be 85 and tomorrow it'll be 65.

Another lie I heard told years ago was when they told women they were in danger of breast cancer more than they actually were. They admitted to lying to possibly save more lives telling women to get checked.

Those two scenarios go against the Catholic principal to do no evil (bad) so that good can become of it. We need to concentrate on the Truth - the Truth of the person Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Our work in entertainment is very powerful and has changed man lives. Only in truth can we change people's lives for the better and not for the worse when we participate in telling lies or even unknowing false statements.

G.K. Chesterton had a saying - "when you stop believing in God, you don't believe in nothing, you believe in anything."