Harman Patil (Editor)

Pontifical Council for Social Communications

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Abbreviation
  
PCSC, PCCS

Founded at
  
Vatican City

Founder
  
Pope John Paul II

Merged into
  
Secretariat for Communications

Established
  
January 30, 1948; 69 years ago (1948-01-30)

Dissolved
  
March 2016; 1 year ago (2016-03)

The Pontifical Council for Social Communications (Latin: Pontificium Consilium de Communicationibus Socialibus) was a dicastery of the Roman Curia that was suppressed in March 2016 and merged into the Secretariat for Communications.

Contents

According to Pastor bonus, Pope John Paul II's 1988 apostolic constitution on the Roman Curia, the council was "involved in questions regarding the means of social communication, so that, also by these means, human progress and the message of salvation may benefit secular culture and mores." It worked "to encourage and support" the Church and its members in social communication to imbue mass media "with a human and Christian spirit."

History

First established by Pope Pius XII in 1948 and later given wider jurisdiction and new names by successive popes, most recently by John Paul II on June 28, 1988, it was responsible for using mass media to spread the Gospel.

It was established by the Secretariat of State as the Pontifical Commission for the Study and Ecclesiastical Evaluation of Films on Religious or Moral Subjects and was renamed the Pontifical Commission for Educational and Religious Films later that year. The commission was renamed to the Pontifical Commission for Cinema in 1952, to the Pontifical Commission for the Cinema, Radio and Television in 1954, and became a permanent office of the Secretariat of State in 1959. It was reorganized as the Pontifical Commission for Social Communications in April 1964. The commission was renamed Pontifical Council for Social Communications and promoted to a dicastery of the Roman Curia in March 1989. The council was suppressed in March 2016.

Publications

The PCSC and its predecessor bodies have published a number of statements on various topics connected with social communications, including:

  • Pornography and violence in the communications media: a pastoral response. May 7, 1989. OCLC 718088151. 
  • Aetatis Novae (pastoral instruction). February 22, 1992. 
  • 100 Years of Cinema. October 1996. 
  • Ethics in Advertising. February 22, 1997. OCLC 47657206. 
  • Ethics in Communication. June 2, 2000. OCLC 838938585. 
  • The Church and Internet. February 28, 2002. ISBN 9788820972783. 
  • Ethics in Internet. February 28, 2002. ISBN 9788820972820. 
  • Communio et progressio (pastoral instruction). May 23, 1971. 

    • In addition, the PCSC helped to draft John Paul II's 2005 apostolic letter The Rapid Development, on technological changes in the media.

    List of presidents

  • 1948 (1948)–1971 (1971): Martin John O'Connor
  • 1969 (1969)–1971 (1971): Agostino Ferrari Toniolo as pro-president
  • 1971 (1971)–1973 (1973): Edward Louis Heston
  • 1973 (1973)–1984 (1984): Andrzej Maria Deskur
  • 1984 (1984)–2007 (2007): John Patrick Foley
  • 2007 (2007)–2016 (2016): Claudio Maria Celli

    • References

    Pontifical Council for Social Communications Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA