Acta Benedicti Pp. XVI 93

ilable.3 In doing so, parents should have the encouragement and assistance of

schools and parishes in ensuring that this difficult, though satisfying, aspect

of parenting is supported by the wider community.

Media education should be positive. Children exposed to what is aesth-

etically and morally excellent are helped to develop appreciation, prudence

and the skills of discernment. Here it is important to recognize the funda-

mental value of parents' example and the benefits of introducing young

people to children's classics in literature, to the fine arts and to uplifting

music. While popular literature will always have its place in culture, the

temptation to sensationalize should not be passively accepted in places of

learning. Beauty, a kind of mirror of the divine, inspires and vivifies young

hearts and minds, while ugliness and coarseness have a depressing impact on

attitudes and behaviour.

Like education in general, media education requires formation in the

exercise of freedom. This is a demanding task. So often freedom is presented

as a relentless search for pleasure or new experiences. Yet this is a condem-

nation not a liberation! True freedom could never condemn the individual -

especially a child - to an insatiable quest for novelty. In the light of truth,

authentic freedom is experienced as a definitive response to God's 'yes' to

humanity, calling us to choose, not indiscriminately but deliberately, all that

is good, true and beautiful. Parents, then, as the guardians of that freedom,

while gradually giving their children greater freedom, introduce them to the

profound joy of life.4

3. This heartfelt wish of parents and teachers to educate children in the

ways of beauty, truth and goodness can be supported by the media industry

only to the extent that it promotes fundamental human dignity, the true

value of marriage and family life, and the positive achievements and goals of

humanity. Thus, the need for the media to be committed to effective forma-

tion and ethical standards is viewed with particular interest and even urgen-

cy not only by parents and teachers but by all who have a sense of civic

responsibility.

3 Cfr Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris consortio, 76. 4 Cfr Address to the Fifth World Meeting of Families, Valencia, 8 July 2006.