Moviegoing Morals

Everyone knows what damage is done to the soul by bad motion pictures. Pius XI (Vigilanti cura).

Once a year* all U.S. Catholics are asked to take the public pledge of the Legion of Decency: "... I acknowledge my obligation to form a right conscience about pictures that are dangerous to my moral life. ... I pledge myself to remain away from them. I promise, further, to stay away altogether from places of amusement which show them as a matter of policy."

Many a priest has posted the weekly Legion of Decency film ratings on his church bulletin board and let it go at that. To help such fathers better guard their flocks, the American Ecclesiastical Review recently devoted a lead article to an explanation of Catholic moviegoing policy. Gist: when you don't know, don't go.

Sample dicta:

". . . Before going to see a picture, a person must have reasonable positive assurance that it will not be dangerous to his spiritual welfare. His attitude must be: 'I may not see a picture unless I have good reason to believe that it is not harmful to me,' not, 'I am allowed to see a picture unless I have good reason to believe that it is harmful to me.' ... In other words . . . the burden of proof rests on the individual to prove that he may attend without grave danger.

"As to the ability to see the picture without grave danger, a person might make a fair judgment of his own moral strength and weakness based on his inclinations, his intellectual development, his past experience, etc., but the safer course would be to submit the problem to his confessor. . . . All this may seem like a very difficult and complicated process, especially to those who are accustomed to attend a picture without giving the matter a second thought, but it seems to be the only solution that can be logically drawn from Catholic theological principles."

* Within the octave of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception-Dec. 8-15.

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