[Nettime-bold] PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS

[Diana McCarty <diana@vifu.de>]

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_20020228_ethics-internet_en.html


                                       I

                                INTRODUCTION

  1. “Today's revolution in social communications involves a fundamental reshaping of the elements by
  which people comprehend the world about them, and verify and express what they comprehend. The
  constant availability of images and ideas, and their rapid transmission even from continent to
  continent, have profound consequences, both positive and negative, for the psychological, moral and
  social development of persons, the structure and functioning of societies, intercultural
  communications, and the perception and transmission of values, world views, ideologies, and religious
  beliefs”.1

  The truth of these words has become clearer than ever during the past decade. Today it takes no
  great stretch of the imagination to envisage the earth as an interconnected globe humming with
  electronic transmissions—a chattering planet nestled in the provident silence of space. The ethical
  question is whether this is contributing to authentic human development and helping individuals and
  peoples to be true to their transcendent destiny.

  And, of course, in many ways the answer is yes. The new media are powerful tools for education and
  cultural enrichment, for commercial activity and political participation, for intercultural dialogue and
  understanding; and, as we point out in the document that accompanies this one,2 they also can serve
  the cause of religion. Yet this coin has another side. Media of communication that can be used for the
  good of persons and communities can be used to exploit, manipulate, dominate, and corrupt.

  2. The Internet is the latest and in many respects most powerful in a line of media—telegraph,
  telephone, radio, television—that for many people have progressively eliminated time and space as
  obstacles to communication during the last century and a half. It has enormous consequences for
  individuals, nations, and the world.

  In this document we wish to set out a Catholic view of the Internet, as a starting point for the
  Church's participation in dialogue with other sectors of society, especially other religious groups,
  concerning the development and use of this marvelous technological instrument. The Internet is being
  put to many good uses now, with the promise of many more, but much harm also can be done by its
  improper use. Which it will be, good or harm, is largely a matter of choice—a choice to whose
  making the Church brings two elements of great importance: her commitment to the dignity of the
  human person and her long tradition of moral wisdom.3

  3. As with other media, the person and the community of persons are central to ethical evaluation of
  the Internet. In regard to the message communicated, the process of communicating, and structural
  and systemic issues in communication, “the fundamental ethical principle is this: The human person
  and the human community are the end and measure of the use of the media of social communication;
  communication should be by persons to persons for the integral development of persons”.4

  The common good—“the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as
  individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily”5—provides a second basic principle
  for ethical evaluation of social communications. It should be understood inclusively, as the whole of
  those worthy purposes to which a community's members commit themselves together and which the
  community exists to realize and sustain. The good of individuals depends upon the common good of
  their communities.

  The virtue disposing people to protect and promote the common good is solidarity. It is not a feeling
  of “vague compassion or shallow distress” at other people's troubles, but “a firm and persevering
  determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say to the good of all and of each
  individual, because we are all really responsible for all”.6 Especially today solidarity has a clear,
  strong international dimension; it is correct to speak of, and obligatory to work for, the international
  common good.

  4. The international common good, the virtue of solidarity, the revolution in communications media
  and information technology, and the Internet are all relevant to the process of globalization.

  To a great extent, the new technology drives and supports globalization, creating a situation in which
  “commerce and communications are no longer bound by borders”.7 This has immensely important
  consequences. Globalization can increase wealth and foster development; it offers advantages like
  “efficiency and increased production... greater unity among peoples... a better service to the human
  family”.8 But the benefits have not been evenly shared up to now. Some individuals, commercial
  enterprises, and countries have grown enormously wealthy while others have fallen behind. Whole
  nations have been excluded almost entirely from the process, denied a place in the new world taking
  shape. “Globalization, which has profoundly transformed economic systems by creating unexpected
  possibilities of growth, has also resulted in many people being relegated to the side of the road:
  unemployment in the more developed countries and extreme poverty in too many countries of the
  Southern Hemisphere continue to hold millions of women and men back from progress and
  prosperity”.9

  It is by no means clear that even societies that have entered into the globalization process have done
  so entirely as a matter of free, informed choice. Instead, “many people, especially the disadvantaged,
  experience this as something that has been forced upon them rather than as a process in which they
  can actively participate”.10

  In many parts of the world, globalization is spurring rapid, sweeping social change. This is not just an
  economic process but a cultural one, with both positive and negative aspects. “Those who are
  subjected to it often see globalization as a destructive flood threatening the social norms which had
  protected them and the cultural points of reference which had given them direction in life....Changes in
  technology and work relationships are moving too quickly for cultures to respond”.11

  5. One major consequence of the deregulation of recent years has been a shift of power from national
  states to transnational corporations. It is important that these corporations be encouraged and helped
  to use their power for the good of humanity; and this points to a need for more communication and
  dialogue between them and concerned bodies like the Church.

  Use of the new information technology and the Internet needs to be informed and guided by a
  resolute commitment to the practice of solidarity in the service of the common good, within and
  among nations. This technology can be a means for solving human problems, promoting the integral
  development of persons, creating a world governed by justice and peace and love. Now, even more
  than when the Pastoral Instruction on the Means of Social Communications Communio et
  Progressio made the point more than thirty years ago, media have the ability to make every person
  everywhere “a partner in the business of the human race”.12

  This is an astonishing vision. The Internet can help make it real—for individuals, groups, nations, and
  the human race—only if it is used in light of clear, sound ethical principles, especially the virtue of
  solidarity. To do so will be to everyone's advantage, for “we know one thing today more than in the
  past: we will never be happy and at peace without one another, much less if some are against
  others”.13 This will be an expression of that spirituality of communion which implies “the ability to see
  what is positive in others, to welcome it and prize it as a gift from God,” along with the ability “to
  ‘make room' for our brothers and sisters, bearing ‘each other's burdens' (Gal. 6, 2) and resisting the
  selfish temptations which constantly beset us”.14

  6. The spread of the Internet also raises a number of other ethical questions about matters like
  privacy, the security and confidentiality of data, copyright and intellectual property law, pornography,
  hate sites, the dissemination of rumor and character assassination under the guise of news, and much
  else. We shall speak briefly about some of these things below, while recognizing that they call for
  continued analysis and discussion by all concerned parties. Fundamentally, though, we do not view
  the Internet only as a source of problems; we see it as a source of benefits to the human race. But the
  benefits can be fully realized only if the problems are solved.

   

                                       II
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