CSDC 415

The media must be used to build up and sustain the human community in its different sectors: economic, political, cultural, educational and religious.⁸⁴⁸ Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree Inter Mirifica, 3: AAS 56AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 56 (1964) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1964), 146; Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, 45: AAS 68AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 68 (1976) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1976), 35-36; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Missio, 37: AAS 83AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 83 (1991) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1991), 282-286; Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Communio et Progressio, 126-134: AAS 63AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 63 (1971) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1971), 638-640; Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Aetatis Novae, 11: AAS 84AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 84 (1992) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1992), 455-456; Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Ethics in Advertising (22 February 1997), 4-8: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 16 April 1997, pp. I-II. “The information provided by the media is at the service of the common good. Society has a right to information based on truth, freedom, justice and solidarity”.⁸⁴⁹ Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2494; cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree Inter Mirifica, 11: AAS 56AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 56 (1964) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1964), 148-149. The essential question is whether the current information system is contributing to the betterment of the human person; that is, does it make people more spiritually mature, more aware of the dignity of their humanity, more responsible or more open to others, in particular to the neediest and the weakest. A further aspect of great importance is the requisite that new technologies respect legitimate cultural differences.