VATICAN CITY, (Zenit.org).- Participants of the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications are working this week to prepare a document on Ethics in Internet.
Archbishop John P. Foley, council president, told Vatican Radio that Internet, like other means of communication, raises ethical concerns. The current initiative is part of a series of documents published by this pontifical council, which began with Ethics in Advertising (1997), and was followed by Ethics in Communications (2000).
During the meeting, which began today and will end Friday, the participants also will analyze the media´s role in the celebration of the Jubilee Year. Moreover, Archbishop Foley explained that the meeting offers the opportunity to study the way in which the media can respond to John Paul II´s call in Novo Millennio Ineunte, to look ahead.
We must enter all the means of social communication to evangelize in two ways: to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in and through the media, Archbishop Foley said. We must also think of our own media, as well as of a program for the formation of persons, within the media in general, to obtain a more comprehensive view of human life and its end -- not the consumerist view, spread throughout the world today, but [one] inspired by the values of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.