Films Are Unsettling
THE flint world has an unsettling influence on most Catholics who enter' it—this comment comes from the August issue of Catholic Film News, which quotes the sentiments of a very interesting refugee Catholic Jew. C.F.N. goes on to give reasons for this state of affairs: " The film-medium is vivid and absorbing: it fills the mental horizon of many who use it; they think, talk, live nothing else but film. Gradually then grow out of sympathy with real life, and create and live by their own filmic values. Unless a man has a deep spiritual and ascetic foundation, the medium he sets out to use ends by controlling him."
MORAL devaluation could perhaps be prevented in two ways, the refugee professor suggested. Either by renunciation and a return to a more primary life, or by building up and strengthening character that will make men big enough to cope with the marvellous opportunities they are offered. "Let it be clearly understood that to do this the ordinary means will not suffice, i.e., the usual training and spiritual help given to the faithful. Men subjected to grave spiritual dangers must take special and even extraordinary means to survive these dangers. Every effort must be made to deepen their interior and spiritual life," writes C.F.N.