Thousands gathered in St. Peter's Square on April 29, 1981, for the weekly general audience. Continuing his treatment of the theology of the human body, the Holy Father delivered the following address.

Before his main address the Holy Father spoke on St. Catherine of Siena whose feast occurs on this day.

Dear brothers and sisters,

Today's audience falls on the feast of St. Catherine of Siena, the patron saint of Italy together with St. Francis of Assisi. The memory of the humble and wise Dominican virgin fills the hearts of us all with spiritual exultation and makes us thrill with joy in the Holy Spirit, because the Lord of heaven and earth has revealed His secrets to the simple (cf. Lk. 10:21). Catherine's message, animated by pure faith, fervent love and tireless dedication to the Church, concerns each of us and sweeps us along sweetly to generous imitation. I am glad, therefore, to address a special greeting to the Italians present at this meeting and to the whole dear Italian people.

Listen, dear faithful, to these words of St. Catherine: "In the light of faith I am strong, constant and persevering; in the light of faith I hope: I do not let myself stop along the road. This light teaches me the way" (Dialogue, chap. CLXVII).

Let us implore through her intercession an ever deeper and more ardent faith, so that Christ may be the light of our way, of that of our families and of the whole of society, thus ensuring beloved Italy true peace, founded on justice and above all on respect of divine law, for which the great Saint of Siena yearned.

1. We have already dedicated a series of reflections to the meaning of the words spoken by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount, in which He exhorts to purity of heart, calling attention even to the "lustful look." We cannot forget these words of Christ even when it is a question of the vast sphere of artistic culture, particularly that of a visual and spectacular character, as also when it is a question of the sphere of "mass" culture -- so significant for our times -- connected with the use of the audiovisual communications media. We said recently that the above-mentioned sphere of man's activity is sometimes accused of "porno-vision," just as the accusation of "pornography" is made with regard to literature. Both facts take place by going beyond the limit of shame, that is, of personal sensitivity with regard to what is connected with the human body, with its nakedness, when in the artistic work by means of the media of audiovisual production the right of the privacy of the body in its masculinity or femininity is violated, and -- in the last analysis -- when that intimate and constant destination to the gift and to mutual donation, which is inscribed in that femininity and masculinity through the whole structure of the being-man, is violated. That deep inscription, or rather incision, decides the nuptial meaning of the body, that is, the fundamental call it receives to form a "communion of persons" and to participate in it.

2. It is obvious that in works of art, or in the products of audiovisual artistic reproduction, the above-mentioned constant destination to the gift, that is, that deep inscription of the meaning of the human body, can be violated only in the intentional order of the reproduction and the representation; it is a question, in fact -- as has already been previously said -- of the human body as model or subject. However, if the sense of shame and personal sensitivity are offended in these cases, that happens because of their transfer to the dimension of "social communication," therefore owing to the fact that what, in man's rightful feeling, belongs and must belong strictly to the interpersonal relationship -- which is linked, as has already been pointed out, with the "communication of persons itself," and in its sphere corresponds to the interior truth of man, and so also to the complete truth about man -- becomes, so to speak, public property.

At this point it is not possible to agree with the representatives of so-called naturalism, who demand the right to "everything that is human" in works of art and in the products of artistic reproduction, affirming that they act in this way in the name of realistic truth about man. It is precisely this truth about man -- the whole truth about man -- that makes it necessary to take into consideration both the sense of the privacy of the body and the consistence of the gift connected with the masculinity and femininity of the body itself, in which the mystery of man, peculiar to the interior structure of the person, is reflected. This truth about man must be taken into consideration also in the artistic order, if we want to speak of a full realism.

3. In this case, therefore, it is evident that the deep governing rule related to the "communion of persons" is in profound agreement with the vast and differentiated area of "communication." The human body in its nakedness -- as we stated in the preceding analyses (in which we referred to Gn. 2:25) -- understood as a manifestation of the person and as his gift, that is, a sign of trust and donation to the other person who is conscious of the gift, and who is chosen and resolved to respond to it in an equally personal way, becomes the source of a particular interpersonal "communication".

As has already been said, this is a particular communication in humanity itself. That interpersonal communication penetrates deeply into the system of communion (communio personarum), and at the same time grows from it and develops correctly within it. Precisely because of the great value of the body in this system of interpersonal "communion," to make of the body in its nakedness -- which expresses precisely "the element" of the gift -- the object-subject of the work of art or of the audiovisual reproduction, is a problem which is not only aesthetic, but at the same time also ethical. In fact, that "element of the gift" is, so to speak, suspended in the dimension of an unknown reception and an unforeseen response, and thereby it is in a way "threatened" in the order of intention, in the sense that it may become an anonymous object of "appropriation," an object of abuse. Precisely for this reason the integral truth about man constitutes, in this case, the foundation of the norm according to which the good or evil of determined actions, of behavior, of morals and situations, is modeled. The truth about man, about what is particularly personal and interior in him -- precisely because of his body and his sex (femininity-masculinity) -- creates here precise limits which it is unlawful to exceed.

4. These limits must be recognized and observed by the artist who makes the human body the object, model or subject of the work of art or of the audiovisual reproduction. Neither he nor others who are responsible in this field have the right to demand, propose or bring it about that other men, invited, exhorted or admitted to see, contemplate the image, should violate those limits together with them, or because of them. It is a question of the image, in which that which in itself constitutes the content and the deeply personal value, that which belongs to the order of the gift and of the mutual donation of person to person, is, as a subject, uprooted from its own authentic substratum, to become, through "social communication," an object and what is more, in a way, an anonymous object.

5. The whole problem of "porno-vision" and "pornography," as can be seen from what is said above, is not the effect of a puritanical mentality or of a narrow moralism, just as it is not the product of a thought imbued with Manichaeism. It is a question of an extremely important, fundamental sphere of values, before which man cannot remain indifferent because of the dignity of humanity, the personal character and the eloquence of the human body. All these contents and values, by means of works of art and the activity of the audiovisual media, can be modeled and studied, but also can be distorted and destroyed "in the heart" of man. As can be seen, we find ourselves continually within the orbit of the words spoken by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. Also the problems which we are dealing with here must be examined in the light of those words, which consider a look which springs from lust as "adultery committed in the heart."

It seems, therefore, that reflection on these problems, which are important to "create a climate favorable to education to chastity," constitutes an indispensable appendage to all the preceding analyses which we have dedicated to this subject in the course of the numerous Wednesday meetings.

from

Schall, James V., S.J., ed. "Art Must Not Violate the Right of Privacy." Sacred in All Its Forms. Boston: The Daughters of Saint Paul, 1984. 340-5.