Pope Pius XII And Technology

 

I hold Pope Pius XII to have been one of the greatest popes of the Church, and unfortunately, he has had no successor for just over 65 years. His Holiness was (and remains) the object of scorn and derision by those who claim he was "soft on Modernism," and "enabled" the Modernists, leading to the creation of the Vatican II sect. He has been accused of aiding and abetting Hitler, and introducing liturgical changes that "became harmful." I had written a post defending him: (See https://introiboadaltaredei2.blogspot.com/2018/07/in-defense-of-pope-pius-xii.html). 

The pope is the Vicar of Christ on Earth, and is protected by the Holy Ghost from teaching heresy and giving anything evil to the Church. This is true of all popes; the great ones, the good ones, and even the bad ones. However, I have noticed that what separates great popes from the merely good or the (unfortunately) bad ones, is seen in their apparent prescience.  This can be detected in popes such as St. Pius V, Leo XIII, St. Pius X, and Pius XII. 

When Pope Pius XII went to Judgement on October 9, 1958, the world was a very different place. Not merely religiously, but technologically. No one was talking about the dangers of AI, the Internet was nonexistent, the phone was attached to the wall, television was pretty new on the scene, and a tablet was medicine you ingested. Most people don't realize that Pope Pius gave many papal addresses on technology during his reign which lasted 19 years,7 months, and seven days. 

There are some Traditionalists who spurn all technology as evil and to be avoided. They have a Luddite mentality one would expect from the heretical Amish, and not Catholics. On the other end of the spectrum, you have Traditionalists who embrace all technology without regard for the real dangers presented. Pope Pius XII spoke as if God granted him a glimpse into the technological world of today, and what he said demonstrated that he understood both the benefits and dangers technology poses, and he approached it with the right attitude, avoiding both total condemnation as well as unrestrained advocacy.

This post will show the wisdom of Pope Pius XII in approaching technology. It is a wisdom we all should embrace. 

Television

Television can be a tool for great good or great evil. Unfortunately, many can't seem to distinguish between the content and the television itself. Fr. DePauw, my spiritual father, was an approved canonist from pre-Vatican II. From 1955 to 1962 he was Professor of Canon Law, Moral Theology, and Latin at Mount Saint Mary's Seminary for the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The Ave Maria Chapel (where Fr. offered the True Mass and sacraments from June 23,1968 until his passing on May 6, 2005) was located in Westbury, Long Island, not too far from an SSPX chapel. 

Fr. DePauw would watch a half-hour of the evening news after reciting his Breviary and other prayers, and before retiring for the night. The resident priest of the SSPX chapel in the mid-1990s gave a sermon claiming that the mere possession of a TV set was an occasion of sin, and that watching television (regardless of content) was mortal sin. He also made the mistake of accusing Fr. DePauw of mortal sin for watching the evening news, and causing scandal by owning one. Word of this got back to Fr. DePauw, and he was visibly angry as he responded the following Sunday in his sermon to those unfounded charges.

"Perhaps Fr. (name withheld by me---Introibo) would like to explain to me how an invention which he claims to be intrinsically evil was given a Patron Saint, St. Clare of Assisi, by Pope Pius XII. Popes don't give patron saints to that which is intrinsically evil, like abortion clinics that murder innocent babies. Not only is he incapable of making necessary and proper distinctions between content and the medium through which it comes, he would never be able to pass my Moral Theology course in a real pre-Vatican II seminary. If this is the kind of so-called guidance he gives his parishioners, he should refrain from ever giving any advice again. A priest should only give guidance when he knows what he's talking about; in the case of Fr. and all the SSPX priests I've ever known, this would require perpetual silence." The priest in question never retracted his incorrect statements, nor did he apologize to Fr. DePauw (quote written from notes I made after the sermon). 

Fr. DePauw knew his theology, as did the great Pope Pius XII. In the pontiff's address to delegates of the European Radio Union on October 20, 1955, he said the following:

Television has already appeared in many sectors and will appear in even more places, in public as well as in the privacy of the home, so that it is possible for all to enjoy it in peace and recollection. The good and evil which can result at the moment of broadcast or after it are incalculable and unforeseen. Make absolutely sure, therefore, that television does not serve to spread error and evil. On the contrary, make it an instrument of information, formation, and transformation...

Television can above all be of aid to schools and make teaching more efficacious by becoming a complementary element in the formation of pupils...The history teacher, for example, would be greatly helped by the projection of documentary films concerning the places which were the stage of important events. The teaching of the history of art would profit by placing before the pupils' eyes the masterpieces of painting, sculpture, the beauties of a picture gallery and in general the marvels of a city, with a lifelike presentation no book could guarantee...

Beyond the influence on school teaching we must consider that television can become an efficacious means of helping family unity in the home...[television] can reunite the whole family around the set... program directors must always concern themselves with more than artistic levels, in the respect that is due, obviously, to just standards of human and Christian morality.

Television also can become a providential instrument for a larger participation in the manifestations of religious life for all those who would be prevented from being actually present at them. The televising of liturgical ceremonies, the illustration of the truths of faith, the presentation of masterpieces of sacred art and many other things will carry the Word of God to homes, hospitals, prisons, and the most remote centers of population. God grant that the day may soon come when the pagan masses will themselves receive the Gospel more easily, thanks to this remarkable instrument. (Emphasis mine).   

In 1958, Pope Pius XII declared St Clare of Assisi the Patron Saint of Television, just as televisions were becoming universal in homes across most of the world. She was chosen because the virtuous nun had a miraculous event in her life. She was once too sick to attend Mass on Christmas, and she wept bitterly at not being able to attend and receive her Lord in Holy Communion. Suddenly, the Mass that was going on was projected onto the wall of her room where she could see and hear everything as if she were present. As the priest was giving out Communion, an angel appeared in St. Clare's room, and gave her Holy Communion while on her sick bed. God had "produced the first television" so to speak, in order to show His love to His beloved saint! 

The False Spirituality of Those Who Overemphasize (and Those Who Devalue) Technology

As I wrote above, there are those who condemn all technology and those who embrace it with no concern for the attendant dangers. In his Christmas Message of 1955, Pope Pius exposes and eschews the false spirituality the underlies both attitudes. The holy Pontiff lives by the old aphorism In medio stat veritas---In the middle lies the truth. 

...In truth modern man , precisely because he is in possession of all that the mind and labor of man have produced, ought to recognize even more the infinite distance between what he can do and what proceeds from the limitless power of God. But the reality is quite different... Not a few indeed permit themselves to be dazzled by the limited splendor deriving from these works, refusing to follow that internal prompting to seek their source and end, outside of and above the world of science and technology... Others on the contrary, in the opposite way... hope that man may renounce all this feverish external and, above all, technological dynamism, that he may enter within himself where he will find the richness of an interior life, all his, exclusively human, such as will satisfy every possible exigency. And yet, this...is rather a withdrawing from life prompted by arrogance, almost despair, by the fear and incapacity to give oneself to the external order and has nothing in common with a genuine interior life which is complete, dynamic, and fruitful...(Emphasis mine). 

Youth and Technology

Millennials, and more so Gen Z, are the product of a technological age. My generation, Gen  X, is the last to remember growing up in a world devoid of personal computers and cell phones/iPhones. It is not unusual for me to see a family sitting in a restaurant and saying nothing to each other throughout the meal with eyes on their phones. It is the age of "antisocial media." It is a world of "cyberbullying," and where every form of evil and error can spread. The truth can also be given a boost as websites like Novus Ordo Watch prove. Here's what His Holiness had to say about youth and technology in an Address to Catholic Action on September 12, 1948:

It is no wonder then that technology too often dazzles the mind, especially of youth, which, entirely overcome by its fascination, runs the danger of losing the sight and the sense of what is spiritual, supersensible, and interior, of what is religious, supernatural, and eternal. Yet, it is precisely the men of the century of technology who have more need than ever before of the protective and steadying forces of religion. Take fire as an example. Restrained and guided, it is a good and indispensable help to man. Once out of control, it carries death and destruction, in annihilating flame, through city and countryside. 

The same is true of technology. A gift of God by its very nature, today's ultrapowerful technology becomes in the hands of violent men, of parties ruling with the brutality of force, of omnipotent and oppressor states, a terrible instrument of injustice, slavery, and cruelty. In modern warfare, technology intensifies---to an intolerable degree---the sufferings and torments of the populations. 

On the other hand, restrained and directed by a society which fears God, which obeys His precepts and esteems spiritual, moral, and eternal things incomparably more than the material; technology can bring us those blessings for which it was ordained according to the Creator's design. ...To the young of this generation: it is up to you to bring to your life and the State an energy of true religious faith so great that the scale of values established by God, the Creator and Redeemer, in which matter does not rule but serves, will be contentiously observed, and technology will be subordinated, according to the Divine Will, to man's dignity and liberty, to his peace and happiness, both earthly, and above all else eternal...(Emphasis mine). 

Will the Traditionalist youth of today take up the pope's call to action? Hopefully, it's not too late. 

Ultimate Value to be Found in Love of God Not Technology  

Humanity, in its arrogance, must never think more highly of itself as technology allows for greater domination over the world. People have always thought highly of themselves, lacking humility, until God brings them down to reality, as in the time of the Tower of Babel. Science and technology have become "gods" to many. Pope Pius XII warned of this in his Address to Gynecologists given on January 8, 1956.

Although the Christian applauds new scientific discoveries and makes use of them, he rejects all of materialism's exaggerated glorification of science and culture. He knows these occupy a place on the scale of objective values, but that, while they are not the lowest, neither are they the highest. In their regard too, he repeats today as ever and always: "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His Justice." (St. Matthew 6:33)...The highest, the ultimate value for man is to be found, not in science or its technical capabilities, but in the love of God and devotion to His service...(Emphasis mine). 

Conclusion

Never before has there been such dangers, or such opportunities for true advancement, as technology gives to us today. Pope Pius XII was able to see what was  awaiting us over 80 years ago when his reign began. Before we make any decisions regarding technology, we would all do well to heed the sage advice of this true Vicar of Christ.