A monthly newsletter called "Our Lady's Apostolate for No TV" was run by
Fr. Frank Poncelet. It was started in A.D. 2000 and continued for several years.
Fr. Poncelet is the author of two books on television:
Airwaves From Hell and its sequel,
Television, Prelude to Chaos.
From their website:
http://www.ourladysapostolatefornotv.org/Our Mission
The mission of this Apostolate is to save souls and to make reparation for sins committed against the Divine Majesty and against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. As many sins are committed as a result of television, our desire is to convince Catholics to rid their homes of its destructive influence. To accomplish this we need your help! By persuading your families and friends to go TV-free you share in this work for souls. If you are successful in your efforts, please let us know.
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His primary message was to
eliminate TV in the Catholic home. I tried keeping it turned off, but it was a never-ending battle. Every time I came home it was on, and then I found out that my children learned to turn it off when they heard me coming in. I didn't get any support from my wife. She liked having her TV shows, too.
So I disabled the antenna, and only used it for video tapes. That was okay, for a while, then eventually one of my daughters decided that I was being oppressive and mean, so when she moved out, she got her own TV and had a lot of "catch-up" to do. Now she's abandoned all religion.
But overall, I think that having no TV in the house has been a benefit, if nothing else, for my own good, for this way I can spend more time reading good books and praying the Rosary, when I'm not posting a comment on the Internet!
The website linked above has 4 issues of the Newsletter that you can read online.
There were many years of issues but only these 4 from 2007 are viewable.
From the last one, December 2007:
TELEVISIO EJICIENDA EST!
(Television set must be thrown away)
by Father Jean-Luc Lafitte, SSPX
...
On The Christmas Season
Very slightly adapted from Bishop Challoner’s
Meditations for Every Day in the Year
...
Excepts from the
Midnight Caveby Father Frederick William Faber
...
It ends with this from the Editor:
From the Editor…
Exposing Children to TelevisionA while back, I was speaking with a Catholic friend about television. She mentioned that she had television and used it sparingly because she wanted her children to be exposed to it so that when they went out into the world they would be less inclined to experiment with it. Naturally, I was rather astonished at what, to me, was a novel idea. She explained that her daughter had once noticed how her classmates at a Catholic school, who had never been exposed to television, were fascinated by the medium whenever they were exposed to it in stores.
Desensitizing children to TV?
I was taken aback by this mother’s idea that by desensitizing her children to television, which is so often an occasion of sin, she hoped that they would use it “responsibly” when they were out in the world. Our conversation started a train of thought in my mind: Does the end justify the means? Can exposing children to what is an addictive medium transmitting primarily sinful content, rather than teaching them to avoid it, make them less likely to avoid it in adult life? Would anyone in their right mind use the same technique with drugs, alcohol, or pornography? What does the Church have to say about exposing children to the proximate occasion of sin?
Television is an occasion of sinThe Catholic faith teaches us that occasions of sin are those places, persons, or things which as a rule are the means of leading us into sin.[1] Does television qualify as an occasion of sin? Given the pernicious content of the programs aired today and the morally corrosive advertising which accompanies them, television is decidedly an occasion of sin to those who watch it. To expose oneself carelessly to an occasion of sin is in itself sinful and leads not only to a loss of divine grace, but to other more grievous sins.[2] In the case of television it seems self-evident that a person who watches shows or commercials that are unchaste (and very few are not these days) allows into the soul unchaste desires which, aside from being temptations, may easily become the source of grievous sin. To consent with the will to unchaste or unlawful thoughts is always sinful. But from whence came these sinful desires? From the tele-vision which has been the proximate occasion of sin.
What follows?So what then are we to think of this idea of exposing children to television so that they lose any fascination for it? Firstly, as Dr. Byrne’s article pointed out in the September 2007 Newsletter, television is an intrinsically addictive medium. That being so it is very unwise to expose children to it at all. Rather than making a child disinterested, exposure to television is likely to excite a desire to watch television which the child will not have the moral strength to resist. Would there not be an outcry of rage if schools began exposing children to street drugs with the idea that by doing so they would ensure that the children lost all fascination for drugs? Television is an electronic opiate, and once a person becomes “hooked” on it, it is exceedingly difficult to be weaned from the habit. Secondly, television, because of the pernicious content of the programming, is a proximate occasion of sin and it is never lawful to deliberately expose anyone, especially children, to what may cause their moral and spiritual ruin. St. Augustine says: “If thou persuade thy neighbor to sin thou art his murderer.” Television, because it is a proximate occasion of sin, must be avoided by adult and child alike.
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[1] Fr. Francis Spirago, The Catechism Explained, TAN Books and Publishers, Rockford, IL, 1993, pg.475.
[2] Ibid, pg. 475
Topic: Television - EXCELLENT ARTICLE! A Must Read! (Read 244297 times)