The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1953-01-23
Press Sunday
Continued from Page II

N0OnLiiluGu lIOlIi L dSG IL
His is the intellectual, moral and
religious inheritance of the ages.
He does not need to begin this
thinking on any current problem as
if no one before him ever exam
ined the question before or offered
a solution. He judges in the light
of human and divine wisdom come
to him through generations of
thinkers. II he can make his own
new contribution he is happy, but
always his opinions, his judgments,
his conclusions are arrived at in the
light of inherited and complete sys-
TENS of philosophical and theologi-
cal truth.
How fortunate. then, the read
ers of a Catholic press edited by
such we'll equipped, we'll rounded
journalists. News items cease to
be isolated pieces in some shatter-
ed iigsaw puzzle and become a
nicely fitting whole. Views are no
longer bits of opinion uttered in
vacuum, but reasoned conclusions
related to a complete and coordi-
mated plan Of life "
Bishop German calls "aimless"
any reporting that fails to relate a
news item to the complete human
scene" How mentally undernour-
ished the readers thus deprived of
such information" he eXclaims.
Although this meaningless, iso-
lated" presentation of the news,
Bishop German continues, may give
plenty Of color to incidents, it sell
dom tells what they signify in a
larger, human, Christian way"
"Such general failure to supply
background does not indicate any
studied malice as rule" the
Bishop points out 1T merely re-
veals an unfortunate absence of
breadth OF view, historical back
ground coordinated philosophy of
life, to say nothing about ignorance
of revealed truth, on the part of
reporters and editors. we seem to
be confronted, as a result, with a
strange contrast between high de-
gree OF technical skill to exploit
the fruits of marvellous newsgath-
ering facilities and a frightening
ignorance of or even contempt for
a knowledge of the inner facts OF
life. There is nothing wrong with
the reporting, the description Of
what happened. II is in the fail
ure to relate the items TO the lives
of men and their destiny that the
picture is left incomplete"
The Bishop says that next to
the presentation of events and peo-
pie on an empty stage comes the
expression of views in vacuum.
Indeed" he adds, this latter may
be the cause of the former falling
Because so many, even so-called
intellcctuals, condemn the world OF
ideas, value only material, prag
matte realities, despise logic, we
are all too often treated to views
based on emotional or utilitarian
considerations, Bishop German as
serts. This of course makes for
superficial comment unrelated to
the ultimate fatcS of life. So wide.
spread has this attitude become II
has even invaded The ranks Of jour
nalists. "
Catholic Press Month, the Bishop
notes, "redirects our attention TO
most important Catholic activity"
Indeed. IT would be difficult to ex-
aggerate the value or overempha-
size the need of our newspapers,
magazines and reviews" he adds.
"In today's world they play top
role"
While many reasons might be
pointed out to prove this fact, Bish
op German continues, he wishes
this year to select one for consld-
Grafton which makes the reading
of the Catholic periodical press
mandatory for every intelligent
member of our Church" +" This rea-
son, he says, is: News and views
are never presented by competent
Catholic reporters and editors as
isolated happenings or mere opin-
ions unrelated to complete phiIos-
onhY of life