"Nowadays reads the message , sometimes it seems communication claims not just to portray reality, but to determine it through the power and influence it has": so much so that, denounces the Pope, "on some issues the media are not used for the sake of proper information, but to ‘create’ such events". "This dangerous change in their role is worrying many Pastors criticises the Pontiff, according to whom, "just because these realities deeply affect all the dimensions of human life, putting at stake the good of man, we must insist that not all that is technically possible is also ethically practicable". According to Benedict XVI, "the impact of the mass media on the life of contemporary man raises questions that cannot be avoided, which need choices and answers that cannot be put off any more", since "nowadays mankind is at a crossroads" between "unprecedented opportunities of doing good" and "abysmal opportunities of doing evil". Hence the need to wonder "whether it is wise to let the social mass media be subjected to an indiscriminate self-promotion or end up at the mercy of people who will use them to manipulate the consciences" instead of serving as they should the "ethical education of man". (continued)
