CATHOLIC HERALD REPORTER
HREE Catholic American journalists in Rome, all laymen, have severely criticised the Vatican Council's Schema "On Communications Media" in a signed statement. They say that the decree, as it now stands, "may one day he cited as a classic example of how the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council failed to come to grips with the world around it".
The journalists are John Cogley of Commonweal, Robert Kaiser of Time, and Michael Novak, who writes fur Harpers, New Republic and the Catholic Reporter of Kansas City.
The statement also carries the names of four prominent theologians serving as Council experts— Father John Courtney Murray, S.J., from the United States; Father Jean Danielou, S.J., from France; Father Jorge Mejia from Argentina: and Father Bernard Haering. C.S.S.R., from Germany.
The schema is said to contain a "moralistic emphasis and simplistic treatment of the difficult problem of art and prudence" which "appears to deny the intrinsic value of a work of art and to compromise the integrity of the Christian artist".