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THE FILM AND CATHOLICISM.
(From the German)
Ever since it came into existence, Catholicism has been faced by a constant succession of external problems, which in the course of its millenary career it could not pass by without expressing approval or disapproval, without scrutinizing right through the husk to the very core the sweet but often poisonous fruit offered on all hands. Now it was a heresy or other religious error, now matters perhaps in themselves indifferent, such as the progress of every branch of culture may bring forth. The pursuit of such matters was a subject of interest to all true believers, whom it behoves to watch over the forces of the human soul, to dispel dangerous influences, and to make helpful ones subservient to the ends of religion. Very diverse contributions have been made to civilization in its several aspects in the course of the ages by philosophy and theology, by natural science and medicine, by art and mechanics. Such names as those of Galileo and Copernicus stand out as conspicuous crystallization points.
It is only in the last decades that science, art and mechanics have combined to produce a cultural conglomerate which affects all mankind. Thus the markings that vein a marble block, though coeval with the marble, can only be admired in their sparkling beauty and brilliant hues after it has been finished by the master polisher. From these manifold variations in the evolution of modern culture — fruit of a strange union between art and mechanics — has sprung a child whose importance is still considerably underestimated and overlooked, namely the film.
The film is animated by an intense activity which has enabled it in the course of its brief thirty years of life to conquer the whole world. It had hardly appeared on the scene before it had already become a problem, many sided as problems are wont to be. And this problem must be approached in all earnest by Catholicism. Edison said : « The film is the most powerful instrument for good or evil ». This fact alone brings it within the range of the tasks of Catholicism a? a doctrine and principle of life, and it is the practical use made of its possibilities which dictates the standpoint Catholics should take.
Thus the pith of the problem lies on the one side in the film itself and on the other in the human beings who are subject to its influence.
The problem of the film arose at the moment when it ceased to be purely a vehicle of instruction and began to show in motion human conduct, actions, and vicissitudes ; from the moment it had power, like a conjuror, to set in motion and to impart life to things which are not in reality as it shows them to be. Mere possibilities were represented as realities. Sound and voice have already come within its sphere, and plasticity and colour will soon.
How does all this react on man ? It is known that, just as every other stimulus, so also optical stimuli produce strong emotions, which in their turn