Pope Benedict XVI hit out at the mass media on Tuesday, accusing it of deadening sensitivity to violence, exploiting individuals and ignoring everyday acts of love and kindness.Speaking during a ceremony in Rome's historic Piazza di Spagna, where he paid homage to a statue of the Virgin Mary, the pope said the media ''poisoned'' people's souls.
''It recounts, repeats and amplifies evil, making us accustomed to horrendous acts, desensitizing us and, in some ways, poisoning us,'' he said.
''This poison makes our faces darker and makes us smile less, stopping us from greeting one another or making eye contact.
''The mass media makes us feel like spectators, as though evil only concerns others and as though certain things could never happen to us''.
Benedict said media exposure often prevented people from looking below the surface of others to the soul underneath.
He urged the faithful to open their hearts and view others with ''compassion, love and infinite tenderness, particularly those who are most alone, most desperate and most exploited''.
The pope also criticized the media for exploiting people for profit and then dropping them once they are no longer headline news.
''Every now and again, people who are usually invisible end up on front page or on our television screens, and they are wrung for every last drop, until the news and their image no longer attracts attention,'' he said.
The flip side of this is the media's failure to celebrate acts of everyday love and kindness, the pontiff continued. Benedict referred to people ''who respond to badness with goodness'' in many different forms, yet almost never receive media recognition. ''There are many men and women of every age who have understood that condemning, complaining and recriminating serves little purpose, while meeting evil with good can make a real difference.
''This is what changes things and people for the better, and as a consequence, improves society''.
This is not the first time Benedict has criticized the media.
In particular, he has complained about the spread of content that ''exalts violence and trivializes human sexuality'' and has expressed concerns that the sector is dominated by a few, hugely powerful conglomerates.
The German pope made his comments during a ceremony celebrating the feast of the Immaculate Conception, where he was greeted by thousands of Romans.
The ceremony is staged in the Piazza di Spagna, the northern section of which houses a statue of the Virgin Mary erected by Pope Pius IX in 1854 after he declared the dogma of her immaculate conception.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to us or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that we agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
SIC: ANSA