(This update courtesy of Vatican Information Service.)
VATICAN CITY, DEC 11, 2002 (VIS) – Archbishop John P. Foley, president of
the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, spoke yesterday afternoon
at the Monaco World Summit in Montecarlo on “Corporate Responsibility,
Dignity and Human Rights.”
The archbishop recalled that his dicastery has published various
documents in the last few years on ethics in advertising, communications
and in Internet. These documents have stressed the “three principles for
ethics in all types of communication: truth, the dignity of the human
person and the common good.”
“The dignity of the human person can be enhanced or harmed by advertising
and indeed by all means of communication. How often have we seen
advertisements which treat individuals – especially women – as objects,
very often sex objects? How often have we perceived that advertising seeks
not a positive contribution to an individual's well-being but a greater
contribution to the bottom line? Individuals come to be viewed as numbers
to be delivered, not as human beings to be served.”
“The human person and the human community are the end and the measure of
the use of the communications media; communication should be by persons to
persons for the integral development of persons. Integral development …
requires attention to the 'inner dimension', a dimension which is at least
moral if not religious and spiritual. … Individuals have irreducible
dignity and importance, and they may never be sacrificed to collective
interests.”