Archbishop of Sydney

His Eminence,
Cardinal George Pell
Cardinal Priest of the Title of S. Maria Domenica Mazzarello

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Home > Our Archbishop > Homilies 2003 > Article	Printable Version

World Communications Day

St Mary's Cathedral
Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48; 1 Jn 4:7-10; Jn 15:9-17

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
25 May 2003

The gospel of John today links the two great commandments, love of God and love of our neighbours, with keeping the Ten Commandments, a link that is lost on quite a few people today. It runs in parallel with Pope John Paul's linking together of freedom and truth, which even more contemporary people find disconcerting. No one is less free than someone imprisoned by bad habits e.g. by an addiction.

Fewer people today mark the necessary link between love and the commandments; some cannot see where love of God fits into the picture at all.

Older Catholics, perhaps like myself, often lament the decline in religious practice and the rise in confusion about the relationship between faith and love and law and look for the causes of this decline. Perhaps the schools have let us down, the priests are old and overworked, the religious have abandoned their distinctive dress and cannot get the young to join them and the bishops do not know whether they are coming or going. Etc, etc.

Whatever of these suggestions, I believe the main culprits are elsewhere. Although 70% of Australians are Christians, Catholics are only a minority of 28% and practising Christians from all denominations are fewer than that. Christian values are being besieged by the world around us. On many issues Christian views are in the minority. Especially the young and impressionable are liable to be deformed, especially by the influence of the media.

Therefore for many years now the Church has an annual World Communications Day. It is not enough to ponder only what the media does to young people, but also useful to consider what effect it has on us. Then we might be able to do something about it!

I was 15 when television was introduced to Australia, and can remember the days when we would sit around the radio in the evening listening to the serial before the seven o'clock news. Things have changed enormously since then.

Recent studies have found that Australian children start watching TV soon after they are born. At four months old, children are watching an average of 44 minutes of TV a day. This figure rises to 60 minutes a day at 12 months, and 2.5 hours by age four. I found these figures hard to believe. In an average lifetime, 18 years is now spent watching TV. Thank God, this is one fate I have escaped!

By the time they are 18, the average Australian child has spent 14,000 hours watching TV, more time than they have spent at school (12,000 hours). When you add to this the time young people spend listening to the radio and accessing the internet, it is clear why the influence of parents, schools and parishes has declined.

A free press is necessary for a healthy democracy, to limit corruption, even when the media gives people too much of what we want; i.e. bad news and controversy. Competing voices reveal the truth.

Depending on their attitudes to a particular issue or story, the same persons can be either deeply cynical about the media or naively willing to believe everything they are told. Schools can do a lot to help here. Young people should be educated to discern fact from fiction, to recognise propaganda and "spin". It is also useful to recognise what we want to hear and be a bit sceptical about supporting arguments, while trying to assess objectively opposing points of view.

A child watching only 2.5 hours of TV a day will see over 25,000 advertisements over the course of the year. These messages are reinforced through radio, internet and glossy magazines. It is a powerful and effective tool for marketing. It extols individualism, but traps youngsters into one conformist mould.

This is often a concern to parents. Whoever tells the story controls the values and beliefs imparted. It is easy for parents to feel that they are powerless against a many-headed media monster battling for the hearts and minds of their children. I do not have a list of practical remedies for you, only one or two suggestions. But we continue to face a significant challenge to Christian values and the value of TV as a child minder does not cancel out these challenges.

Ensuring that the family regularly has meals together, around the table rather than around the telly, is a start. I heard of one good family where the parents did not allow the children to have their meals in front of the television, like so many apparently of the children's classmates did. One young boy asked for his birthday present that he be allowed to do that - eat his meal while watching TV! Parents' watching what their children watch also helps.

Putting the computer in the kitchen rather than in the kids' bedrooms is a simple way of monitoring what they are accessing and doing. And of course, there's no substitute for making time just to talk to your children and to be with them.

The media does bring many blessings. We cannot imagine life without it. But it is also a trap for the unwary.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.