Catholic Press Urged to Support Age of Literacy

By Ed Wilkinson

Catholic newspapers can encourage a new age of literacy by printing more book reviews.

That advice was delivered by Father Raymond A. Schroth, SJ, a professor of journalism, whose family once owned The Brooklyn Eagle, the borough’s one-time daily newspaper which has been resurrected by a new publisher.

Father Schroth was the featured speaker at the diocese’s annual luncheon observing World Communications Day, called for by the Vatican. It was held May 11 at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge, which also will be the site of the national Catholic Media Convention, May 23-25.

Linda Busetti Photo

LOCAL MEDIA STARS, such as NBC-TV's Maurice DuBois, right, were on hand for the annual Diocesan World Communications Day luncheon.

“Two weeks from now the Catholic Press Association will meet in this very spot,” he pointed out. “It would be wonderful if they could consider ways in which all the papers could give more space to book articles and reviews to compensate for the scandalous shrinkage of book review space in the major newspapers.

“Judeo-Christian culture is a culture of literacy. Of books. Whatever the well-documented historic shortcomings of the American Catholic Church in its record of intellectual achievement, our faith today stands on the shoulders of scholars and writers, from the evangelists and Augustine and Aquinas to Karl Rahner and Teilhard de Chardin, and one of our missions as Catholic communicators is like that of Jesus at the party, to introduce the public, particularly young people, to those great and good persons whom they have not met.

“These great persons include first of all Jesus and those first generation Christians who preserved his original message, then the Fathers, saints, martyrs, and scholars who interpreted that message for succeeding generations, right down to us and to every young person who sits in our classrooms and to their families who read the New York secular press, the NCR, the Brooklyn Tablet, Catholic New York, America, and Commonweal, and who tune in to the radio and TV programs where any one of us here appears or has influence.”

Father Schroth described today’s society as caught up in a struggle between a culture of literacy and a culture of distraction, which he defined as the “combined force of the entertainment industry determined, for profit motives, to seize, occupy, and possess every second in the consciousness of the younger generation. For one purpose: to sell them stuff, stuff, and more stuff – CDs, DVDs, sneakers, iPods, computers, cell phones, video games, text messengers, music, smokes, booze, cool clothes, cars, films, travel, more clothes, sex, and more expensive sneakers — everything but books.”

He claimed that “high schools and colleges re-enforce this bubble of electronic alienation when they place TV monitors booming MTV all over the campus – in the cafeteria, campus center lobby, snack bar, dorm recreation rooms, exercise rooms, even in the gym locker rooms – as if it were somehow sinful to allow a moment of peace when young people might think, read, or even quietly concentrate and talk.”

He called upon priests, teachers, parents, opinion leaders in the Church to look for ways to penetrate the electronic bubble that screens off the young. He encouraged adults to read aloud to children and give them books, not videos, for Christmas and birthdays. He also suggested the formation of home and parish book discussion groups and libraries. And he added, “Let children see adults themselves read books rather than watch TV.”

He challenged the Catholic Press Association to consider a joint publishing effort to serialize popular Catholic classics, such as Myles Connelly’s “Mister Blue,” selections from Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day, and Walter Miller’s “Canticle for Liebowitz.”

“Then make these issues available in bulk to high school and college teachers to be integrated into the curriculum,” he said, adding, “publish adult, controversial articles that will make young readers, reach, think, ask what their belief really means.

“But isn’t that what all of us here – as we celebrate World Communications Day – feel called to do? We tell the stories – including the troublemakers and controversies – that, because they are both complex and true, may inspire the next generation of the men and women in our classrooms and pews to someday speak up, and maybe even, die, for what they believe.”

The diocesan luncheon, which was organized by the Diocese’s Public Information Office, honored two local communicators – former Associated Press correspondent Hugh Mulligan, a graduate of Brooklyn’s Cathedral College, and Brooklyn resident Frank Comerford, president of NBC-TV in New York.

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, whose remarks closed the program, said communications was more than the distribution of information. “It’s about building a relationship of trust that builds the world in which we live,” said the bishop.

“We need to develop a media that helps people relate to one another.”