The text under consideration is the motu proprio “Boni Pastoris” of John XXIII (22 February 1959), which reorganizes and strengthens the so-called Pontifical Commission for Cinematography, Radio, and Television, presenting modern audio-visual media as privileged instruments for forming consciences, promoting “culture,” coordinating national Catholic offices, and centralizing all these activities under a Roman structure aligned with Pius XII’s “Miranda prorsus.” It solemnly grants this body curial status, broad competencies, and a program of systematic engagement with cinema, radio, and television as normal and even exemplary means of apostolate.

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This apparently administrative act is in truth a programmatic manifesto of accommodation to the mass-media machinery that would soon serve as the universal catechism of the conciliar revolution, subordinating supernatural faith to technical instruments, psychological influence, and secular cultural criteria.

Programmatic Embrace of Modern Media as Preludium to the Neo-Church

The motu proprio emanates from the man who inaugurated the line of usurpers beginning with John XXIII, and already bears all the essential marks of the coming conciliar subversion: sentimental rhetoric, technocratic enthusiasm, horizontal “pastoral” vocabulary, and the quiet displacement of the supernatural center of gravity from the Cross and the sacraments to earthly communication channels and public opinion.

From the perspective of the integral Catholic faith, the core perversion is this: instead of measuring cinema, radio, and television by the strict criteria of *fides, mores, disciplina* as taught consistently up to Pius XII, “Boni Pastoris” theologically ennobles these media themselves, institutionalizes permanent collaboration with them, and establishes a central Roman organ whose mission is not primarily to condemn and separate (as demanded by *Lamentabili sane*, *Pascendi*, and the Syllabus of Errors), but to “promote,” “direct,” and “coordinate” their use as normal instruments of ecclesial life. In doing so, it plants in the heart of the structures occupying the Vatican the idea that salvation history must henceforth pass through the channels of modern mass culture.

This is not merely a prudential misjudgment; it is a structural handing over of the sheepfold to the mechanisms designed by the world, Freemasonry, and modern ideology to dissolve the natural and supernatural order.

From Defense of the Faith to Seduction by Technique

At the factual level, “Boni Pastoris” claims continuity with Pius XII:

“…cui mandavit, ut iussa et praeceptiones diligenter exsequeretur, quae, in iisdem Encyclicis Litteris, a verbis ‘Miranda prorsus’ incipientibus, proposita…”

It invokes Pius XII’s grave warnings and appears to extend them. But the decisive move is the shift in accent:

– The document speaks at length of “mirandis technicae artis inventis” (marvellous technical inventions), their “non parvum momentum” for spiritual life, and their capacity “ad altiorem humanitatis cultum, ad veri nominis artem et maxime ad veritatem propagandam.”
– It praises cinema, radio, television as quasi-neutral tools often in a tone of admiration, while mentioning dangers in a soft, regretful key, without the sharp condemnatory language characteristic of the pre-1958 Magisterium when confronting systemic near occasions of sin and anti-Christian propaganda.

Integral Catholic doctrine, reaffirmed by Pius IX in the Syllabus (esp. 55, 77–80) and by St. Pius X in *Pascendi* and *Lamentabili*, insists that:

– The modern press and cultural organs, largely guided by enemies of the Church, are main vehicles of naturalism, indifferentism, liberalism, and Modernism.
– The Church’s first duty is to guard, define, condemn, and separate: *separatio a mundo*, not symbiosis with its instruments of seduction.
– Any concession that the world’s ideological machinery is “neutral” or naturally apt to serve evangelization without prior radical cleansing and subordination to Christ the King is naïve at best, and practically suicidal.

“Boni Pastoris” inverts this hierarchy:

– Instead of first reaffirming Christ’s absolute kingship over nations, laws, and public morality (as Pius XI thunders in *Quas Primas*), it speaks like a cultural manager, designing a Roman “Office” to interface with mass media.
– Instead of proclaiming the need to submit all media to the public confession of the true Faith and the social reign of Christ, it speaks of promoting “culture,” guiding youth, and supporting national commissions.

The order is reversed: what was once tolerated with fear and strict vigilance is now institutionally embraced and domesticated. The wolf is invited into the sheepfold with the explanation that a commission will watch him.

Softened Language as a Symptom of Doctrinal Dilution

The linguistic register betrays the underlying mentality. The motu proprio avoids clear condemnatory formulas, preferring:

– “pericula morumque detrimenta… haud raro… oriuntur” — “dangers and damages to morals… not rarely arise”;
– paternal “hortamur,” “exhortationes,” “commonendi” — mild, pastoral counsel instead of binding, penal language;
– bureaucratic phrases: “examiner,” “dirigere,” “incrementis augere operam,” “componant,” “Officia,” “Consilia,” “normae,” “praescriptiones.”

Contrast this with the grave style of the pre-1958 condemnations:

– Pius IX: *“We denounce, reprobate, and condemn…”* (Syllabus and associate allocutions).
– St. Pius X in *Lamentabili sane exitu* and *Pascendi*: unambiguous denunciations of propositions, with explicit labels: heretical, blasphemous, erroneous.

“Boni Pastoris” does not name the real architectonic enemies: Freemasonry, socialism, laicism, the “synagogue of Satan” that Pius IX publicly identified as the driving force behind the war on the Church. It does not connect the systematic corruption of morals by cinema, radio, and television with the organized anti-Christian forces. Instead, it psychologizes the problem (“pericula,” “detrimenta”) and proposes a technocratic solution: more commissions, more coordination, more presence.

This is precisely the rhetorical mutation by which Modernism, condemned as *“the synthesis of all heresies”* (St. Pius X), re-enters under the mask of “pastoral care” and “updated methods.”

Theological Misalignment: Naturalizing the Apostolate

On the theological level, the most serious errors of “Boni Pastoris” are not in isolated phrases, but in its overall horizon:

1. Reduction of the supernatural mission to cultural medialization

The act treats cinema, radio, television as privileged instruments “ad veritatem propagandam” without clearly subordinating them to the Church’s divinely instituted means: preaching by ordained ministers, catechesis faithful to dogma, the Most Holy Sacrifice, the sacraments administered in the state of grace, hierarchical governance.

By making a curial “Office” for media a stable organ of the Holy See, it implies that the Church’s mission is structurally incomplete without integration into the modern communication system. This subtly contradicts the sufficiency and perfection of the Church as taught in the Syllabus (19: the Church is a true and perfect society, endowed with proper and perpetual rights from her Founder).

The Catholic position: *Instrumenta communicationis* are accidental; the Church is essentially hierarchical, sacramental, dogmatic. The motu proprio’s framework risks suggesting that efficacious evangelization now depends on mastering these worldly media, shifting confidence from grace and truth to technique and visibility.

2. Silence on the necessity of integral doctrine

The text speaks of forming youth, conscience, and promoting truth through media, but nowhere specifies:

– that this concerns exclusively the one true Catholic faith;
– that all content must explicitly profess Catholic dogma and reject errors;
– that collaboration with non-Catholic structures, studios, broadcasters is to be shunned unless they submit to Catholic moral and doctrinal norms.

Given the historical context—already saturated with errors condemned by Pius IX and St. Pius X—such silence is not neutral. It is a tacit concession to the liberal thesis that media are common cultural goods where the Church is one voice among many.

3. Institutionalization of dialogue with a corrupt cultural system

The Commission is tasked to:

“cognoscere, quo propendeant et quo modo reapse peragantur cinematographicarum imaginum series, auditiones radiophonicae, spectacula televisifica; dirigere et incrementis augere operam Coetuum catholicorum…”

So instead of condemning vast sectors of immoral production and commanding separation, it studies “tendencies,” encourages “Catholic groups,” and manages participation. This anticipates the deadly “dialogue with the world” ideology: the Church no longer speaks with sovereign authority; she “accompanies,” “observes,” “fosters,” “guides”—terminology that later blossoms in the conciliar sect’s cult of dialogue.

But integral doctrine demands: *non possumus.* God’s law is not negotiable. Entertainment industries systematically disseminating impurity, blasphemy, and indifferentism cannot be mere partners in communication strategy; they are occasions of sin that must be warned against, boycotted, or put under moral interdict.

By failing to articulate this, “Boni Pastoris” contributes to the moral disarmament that allowed generations of Catholics to devour obscene or naturalistic content while pacified by the illusion that “the Vatican has a film office,” therefore everything is under watch.

Symptomatic Fruit of the Coming Conciliar Revolution

The motu proprio is emblematic of a deeper mutation: from the militant, antithetical Church of Christ the King to the conciliatory, media-conscious “Church of the New Advent.”

Key symptomatic points:

– Technocratic optimism: Instead of reading the explosive growth of radio, cinema, television as a providential test exposing the “machinations of the sects”—as Pius IX clearly saw in his denunciation of Masonic networks—the document casts them primarily as gifts to be “used well.” This naive optimism is foreign to the sober supernatural realism of the pre-1958 Magisterium, which always linked large-scale cultural power with grave moral responsibilities and dangers.

– Administrative centralization without doctrinal sharpening: It creates a central Commission, integrates members from various Congregations, coordinates, consults, advises. But nothing in its mandates demands a hardening of censorship, a stricter Index, or more frequent public condemnations. The apparatus grows while doctrinal clarity shrinks—typical pathology of the conciliar sect.

– Lack of eschatological and sacramental focus: Most devastating is what is not said. In a document about powerful instruments that form imaginations, shape morals, and fill leisure time:
– no mention of the Last Judgment as the ultimate criterion of what is seen and heard;
– no insistence that content must lead to repentance, frequent confession, worthy reception of the Most Holy Sacrifice;
– no warning that habitual exposure to impurity, violence, blasphemy can damn souls eternally.

This silence about the supernatural stakes—the salvation or loss of souls—constitutes a grave indictment. As St. Pius X made clear, Modernism often manifests not only in propositions but in omissions, in a pastoral that hides the supernatural and eternal behind this-worldly discourse. “Boni Pastoris” is permeated by such softening omissions.

Subtle Undermining of Christ’s Social Kingship

Pius XI in *Quas Primas* teaches that peace and order are possible only when individuals and states publicly recognize and submit to the reign of Christ the King; laws, schools, and civil institutions must be conformed to His law. He explicitly condemns laicism and the exclusion of Christ from legislation as the root of social ruin.

“Boni Pastoris,” however:

– does not affirm that cinema, radio, and television must recognize Christ as King and be subordinated legally and publicly to His law;
– does not call upon Catholic rulers or legislators to restrict immoral content under temporal penalties for the protection of souls;
– contents itself with internal Church structures (Commissions, Offices, Vatican archives) and “exhortations.”

This is functional acceptance of the laicist framework: the media sphere is implicitly treated as an autonomous cultural domain, where the Church may morally “guide,” but not command. In practice, this is the abandonment of the thesis of the Catholic State and of the due subordination of public communication to the natural and divine law—an error formally condemned by Pius IX (55, 77–80).

Thus, under a veneer of continuity with Pius XII, this motu proprio rehearses the later conciliar tricks: diminishing Christ’s kingship to private influence, replacing coercive, juridical moral authority over public life with mere “pastoral” persuasion, and sanctifying pluralism in the name of technique.

Media Apostolate as Trojan Horse for Modernism

From the perspective of the subsequent catastrophe, the structural wickedness of this orientation is evident. The media commission:

– normalized the idea that the Church’s teaching must be adapted to and transmitted through the formats, rhythms, and aesthetics of modern entertainment;
– encouraged Catholic producers and “apostles” to operate within systems fundamentally controlled by enemies of Catholic morality;
– accustomed clergy and laity to seek guidance not from clear anathemas and from the perennial discipline regarding dangerous occasions of sin, but from “ratings,” lists, and approvals negotiated by experts.

Once the usurping hierarchy fully embraced Modernism after 1958, this apparatus was ready-made for:

– televising sacrilegious pseudo-liturgies, thus desacralizing worship before millions;
– propagating doctrinal confusion, ecumenism, religious liberty, and humanism with emotional efficacy;
– silencing or marginalizing any voice still faithful to the integral faith, by controlling official channels.

What “Boni Pastoris” presents as care of the “Good Shepherd” is structurally the opposite: it provides the wolves with microphones and cameras, under a pious pretext.

Denial of the Radical Remedy: Separation from Corrupt Channels

The integral Catholic remedy, consistent with the pre-1958 Magisterium, is clear:

– *Abstine et resiste* (abstain and resist): the faithful must be seriously warned against frequenting immoral cinema, radio shows, and television content that are near occasions of sin.
– Pastors (true ones) must condemn, not “dialogue with,” productions that attack faith and morals.
– Catholic participation in such industries must be conditional on total submission to Catholic moral teaching and censorship.

Instead, “Boni Pastoris”:

– treats the matter as primarily one of classification, coordination, and “formation” within the same media universe;
– speaks to those responsible for programs as if they were simply educators of goodwill, not often mercenaries of vice;
– declines to postulate clear lines of separation and boycott.

This abdication is not pastoral prudence; it is betrayal of the Good Shepherd’s example, who lays down His life for the sheep, not their ratings.

The Underlying Ecclesiological Deformation

The very self-understanding of authority in this text is skewed. The document formalizes an “Office” that:

“…communicare [debet] cum Sedis Apostolicae Congregationibus et Officiis, cum Coetibus Episcopalibus singulisque Ordinariis locorum de iis, quae ad multiplices ac difficiles quaestiones huiusmodi pertinent.”

In other words, a technocratic hub, cross-linking episcopal conferences, dicasteries, experts, consultants. This meshes perfectly with the later conciliar sect’s preference for commissions, conferences, and anonymous bodies instead of clear, personal, hierarchical responsibility. It dilutes the direct, paternal authority of the true Pope and bishops into committees of specialists.

Such bureaucratization:

– prepares the way for the democratization and horizontalization rejected by integral Catholic ecclesiology;
– provides Modernists with institutional shelters from doctrinal accountability;
– buries divine authority under human procedure.

Authentic Catholic government is simple, personal, vertical, rooted in dogma; not a technocratic network obsessed with media strategies.

Conclusion: The “Good Shepherd” As Program of Controlled Ruin

Viewed against the unchanging doctrine of the Church prior to 1958:

– “Boni Pastoris” is not an innocuous administrative adjustment, but a theological-pastoral signal: the shift from condemnation and separation to fascination and integration with modern mass media;
– it obscures the primacy of supernatural means and of Christ the King, in favor of neutralized cultural language and technocratic structures;
– it relativizes the mortal danger of corrupt media by trusting in commissions instead of insisting on radical moral discipline;
– it prepares the mental and institutional framework by which the conciliar sect would later turn cinema, radio, television, and then all digital networks into conduits for its apostasy, ecumenism, and the cult of man.

The integral Catholic response must be the opposite of this motu proprio’s spirit:

– to reassert openly that cinema, radio, television, and analogous media, as concretely existing in modern society, are predominantly instruments of anti-Christian powers;
– to demand a return to clear condemnations, to the objective doctrine of near occasions of sin, to a robust Catholic censorship in service of truth and purity;
– to recall that any so‑called “pontifical” legislation that normalizes cooperation with such structures, dilutes Christ’s social kingship, and eclipses the supernatural end of the Church, bears the mark not of the Good Shepherd, but of hirelings paving the way for the “abomination of desolation” in the holy place.

Until the Church is again visibly governed by pastors who think and speak with the clarity of Pius IX, St. Pius X, and Pius XI, documents of this nature stand as milestones on the road from venerable Rome to the media-driven neo-church: a counterfeit “pastoral care” that caresses the wolves and abandons the lambs.

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Source:
Boni Pastoris, Litterae Apostolicae Motu proprio datae Pontificium Consilium rei cinematographicae, radiophonicae et televisificae praepositum novis legibus constituitur, XXII Februarii MCMLIX, Ioanne…   (vatican.va)
Date: 11.11.2025