TELEVISION: AN OCCASION OF SIN?
A child came to confession one day and accused himself of having
serious temptations against the angelical virtue, perhaps even of
having given in, by thoughts and, who knows, maybe in actions.
However, the priest sought the cause of such a misfortune: "So, do
you have television at home?" he asked. The child had to admit it and
that he did watch the cursed box, sometimes behind his parents' back,
sometimes with them, as a family, and that was the cause of his
temptations.
The priest gave the unfortunate and sorrowful child the holy
absolution, but could he give it to his parents?
Dear Christian parents, are you CONSCIOUS of your terrible
responsibility? Do you realize that due to the weakness of accepting
and of keeping at home that tool, a source of corruption of minds and
souls, you are the cause of unsuspected damages to innocent souls?
Because of your cowardice, souls, tender and pure, are stained by the
infamous sin? These children will stand up at the last judgment and
will accuse you of having been the cause of their damnation....
Let us remember the Saviour's grave words: "He that shall scandalise
one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him
that a millstone should be hanged about his neck and that he should
be drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matt.XVIII,6).
Do you understand, by this sad example, what is an occasion of sin?
Our catechism teaches us that we must avoid not only sin, but also
the occasion of sin and that it is as grievous to put ourselves (or
to put others) in the occasion of sin as it is to commit the sin
itself, when we know by experience that we will fall into that sin.
(...).
Let us suppress courageously all the occasions of sin for ourselves
and for those under our care. Let us determine at this time to get
rid of the dirty box. Give it back to your dealer and let there be no
more mention of it. Instead, you should re-establish the nice family
oratory, you should enthrone the statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
and that of Our Blessed Lady. And long live Jesus Who will have freed
you from a nasty slavery!
-- By a Catholic Bishop
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EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE FOR CATHOLIC PARENTS:
Have you voluntarily exposed yourself to the occasion of sin by
sinful curiosity, by watching impure movies, or indecent plays or
videos?
Have you listened with willful pleasure to immodest language on TV?
Have you harmed anyone's soul by giving scandal, destroying this soul
by bad example?
Have you, by your wicked words, deeds or bad example, ruined innocent
children?
Have you exposed your children to impure temptations resulting from
watching TV?
Have you kept a TV in your home knowing it is an occasion of sin for
you and your children?
Have you allowed your children to watch TV, especially without your
knowledge and consent?
IMPORTANCE AND POWER OF MOTION PICTURES:
As long ago as 1936, Pope Pius XI, warned of the dangers of the
cinema. "It admits of no discussion that the motion picture has
achieved these last years a position of universal importance among
modern means of diversion. There is no need to point out the fact
that millions of people go to the motion pictures every day; that
motion picture theatres are being viewed in ever increasing number in
civilized and semi-civilized countries; that the motion picture has
become the most popular form of diversion which is offered for the
leisure moment not only of the rich but of all classes of society.
At the same time, there does not exist today a means of influencing
the masses more potent than the cinema. The reason for this is to be
sought in the very nature of the motion pictures projected upon the
screen, in their popularity and in the circuмstances which accompany
them.
The power of the motion picture consists in this, that it speaks by
means of vivid and concrete imagery which the mind takes in with
enjoyment and without fatigue. Even the crudest and most primitive
minds which have neither the capacity nor the desire to make the
efforts necessary for abstraction or deductive reasoning are
captivated by the cinema. In place of the effort which reading or
listening demands, there is the continued pleasure of a succession of
concrete and, so to speak, living pictures.
(...) Since then the cinema, being like the school of life itself,
which, for good or for evil, teaches the majority of men more
effectively than abstract reasoning, it must be elevated to
conformity with the aims of a Christian conscience and saved from
depraving and demoralizing effects.
Everyone knows what damage is done to the soul by bad motion
pictures. They are occasions of sin; they seduce young people along
the ways of evil by glorifying the passions; they show life under a
false light; they cloud ideals; they destroy pure love, respect for
marriage, affection for the family. They are capable also of creating
prejudices among individuals and misunderstandings among nations,
among social classes, among entire races.
The motion picture is viewed by people who are seated in a dark
theatre and whose faculties, mental, physical and often spiritual,
are relaxed. One does not need to go far in search of these theatres:
they are close to the home, to the Church and to the school and they
thus bring the cinema into the very centre of popular life.
Moreover, the acting out of the plot is done by men and women
selected for their artistic ability and for all those natural gifts
and the employment of those expedients which can become, for youth
particularly, instruments of seduction. Further, the motion picture
has enlisted in its service luxurious appointments, pleasing music,
the vigour of realism, every form of whim and fancy. For this very
reason, it attracts and fascinates particularly the young, the
adolescent and even the child. Thus at the very age when the moral
sense is being formed and when the notions and sentiments of justice
and rectitude, of duty and obligation and of ideals of life are being
developed, the motion picture with its direct propaganda assumes a
position of commanding influence.
It is unfortunate that, in the present state of affairs, this
influence is frequently exerted for evil. So much so that when one
thinks of the havoc wrought in the souls of youth and of childhood,
of the loss of innocence so often suffered in the motion picture
theatres, there comes to mind the terrible condemnation pronounced by
Our Lord upon the corruptors of little ones: "whosoever shall
scandalize one of these little ones who believe in Me, it were better
for him that a mill stone be hanged about his neck and that he be
drowned in the depths of the sea." (Matt. XVIII, 6).
Pope Pius XI: Encyclical Vigilanti Cura, June 29, 1936
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THE DANGERS OF TELEVISION:
"But television, besides the element it shares in common with the
other two inventions We have spoken of for the spreading of
information, has a power and efficacy of its own. Through the medium
of television viewers are enabled to see and hear far-distant events
at the very moment at which they are taking place and in this way the
illusion is created that they are actually present and taking part in
them. This sense of intimacy is greatly enhanced by the home
surroundings.
The special power which television has of giving pleasure within the
family circle is to be reckoned its most important feature (...). If
there is any truth at all in that text: 'a little leaven currupteth
the whole lump' and if the physical development of young people can
be arrested by an infectious germ and prevented from reaching full
maturity, how much more havoc can be wrought upon the nerve-centres
of their religious life by some insidious element in their education
sapping their moral vitality! It is a matter of common experience
that children are frequently able to resist the violent onset of
diseases in the world at large, whereas they have no strength to
avoid the disease that is latent in the home. It is wrong, therefore,
to endanger in any way the sanctity of the home and the Church who as
her right and duty demand, has always striven with all her power to
prevent these sacred portals from being violated under any pretext by
the evils television shows.
Unless wise counsels exert an immediate restraining influence on the
use of this art, the damage will be done; a damage which will affect
not merely individuals, but the whole of human society - and indeed
it is not an easy matter to assess the amount of damage that may
already have been caused."
Pope Pius XII: Encyclical Miranda Prorsus, (Sept.8, 1957)
Topic: Television - an occasion of sin? (Read 4319 times)