Cardinal Foley talks with high school students
By Lou Baldwin
Special to The CS&T
WYNCOTE — Bishop McDevitt High School’s annual Papal Colloquium
has clearly set a mark as one of the premier events for Catholic Schools
Week in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
Previous distinguished keynote speakers in the three-year-old program
were the theologian and author George Weigel and Princeton professor Robert
P. George. This year on Jan. 29, about 160 student leaders from 20 area
high schools gathered at the high school to hear John Cardinal Foley speak.
The Cardinal, who is now grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy
Sepulchre of Jerusalem, spent his entire career in communications, including
years as editor of The Catholic Standard & Times and, in Rome, as
president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
At the colloquium, he discussed major issues the council addressed during
his tenure, including ethics in advertising, ethics for use of the Internet,
and pornography and violence in the media.
The Cardinal spoke at length of his own forays in print, radio and television
as a way of encouraging the students to consider communications as a career.
He also gave them a few guidelines.
The first guideline was truth: “Never, never, never, tell a lie,”
Cardinal Foley said.
The second principle was never to violate the dignity of a human person.
The third was always to serve the common good.
Then he added a fourth. “A mortal sin in advertising is to be dull,”
Cardinal Foley said, acknowledging that Church communications are often
guilty of that. While commercial media can learn much about ethics from
the Church, the Cardinal added, the Church can learn a lot about the delivery
of its message from the commercial media.
As he fielded questions from the teenagers, Cardinal Foley conceded that
he is not an expert on everything related to the media, especially issues
surrounding the Internet.
He has never seen the controversial video game Grand Theft Auto, for instance,
and could only speculate on its possible deleterious effects, he said.
Neither does he consider himself an expert in the dangers of such sites
as YouTube or MySpace.
Many of the young people, themselves, were unsure of what to do about
the pitfalls of modern communications.
Lauren Melendez from the Country Day School of the Sacred Heart said she
thinks there is a fine line between protecting the First Amendment and
abusing the right to free speech.
“I think [speech] should be monitored and people should be aware
of how it affects others,” she said.
Joseph Collins of Kennedy-Kenrick High School said he thinks advertising
could be more ethical: “Most times, they do exaggerate the quality
of the products.”
A project of Bishop McDevitt’s World Affairs Club, the colloquium
was initiated by its moderator, David Horn.
School President Salvatore J. DiNenna explained, “We like to bring
to the attention of our students the reason we exist — and that
is to serve Jesus and, of course, the vicar of Christ, who is the Pope.”
Lou Baldwin is a member of St. Leo parish and a freelance writer.