European bishops meet to discuss influence of media on young people

Warsaw, Poland, Sep 20, 2005 / 22:00 pm

After an extensive debate on the influence of the mass media on young peoples’ vision of reality, the European Bishops’ Commission on the Media concluded its general meeting in Warsaw this week.

According to statements to Europa Press by the representative of the Bishops of Spain, Jose Maria Gil, the event brought together spokesman of the different Bishops’ Conferences of Europe, as well as a number of experts on the media, in order to discuss the vision young people have of reality and the language used by the media to transmit the faith.

Gil added that the subject of the media’s impact on young people was especially relevant this year due to the recent World Youth Day in Germany and because the bishops’ meeting took place in Warsaw, the capital of the country where John Paul II was born.

Archbishop Leszek Slawoj Glodz of Warsaw led the bishops’ meeting, and attendees included Archbishop John Foley, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, and the Apostolic Nuncio of Poland, Archbishop Jozef Kowalczyk.

In his address at the meeting, the Dean of the Department of Communications at the Catholic University of San Antonio in Murcia, Spain, Arturo Merayo, noted the values and counter values of the media for young people, as well as the challenges for the Church in regards to the “evangelization of the information society.”

He also recalled that the counter values the media continuously promote to young people include “consumerism, relativism and individualism.”