Newly elected Pope Leo XIV previously criticized Hollywood and Western mass media for promoting anti-Christian values, including support for abortion, euthanasia, and LGBTQ lifestyles.
In 2012, then-Father Robert Prevost voiced concerns about the cultural influence of anti-Christian media in an address to the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization.
“Western mass media is extraordinarily effective in fostering within the general public enormous sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel. For example, abortion, homosexual lifestyle, euthanasia,” he said.
He went on to argue that religion is often only tolerated when it refrains from challenging prevailing social norms.
“Religion is at best tolerated by mass media as tame and quaint when it does not actively oppose positions on ethical issues that the media have embraced as their own,” he said. “However, when religious voices are raised in opposition to these positions, mass media can target religion labeling it as ideological and insensitive in regard to the so-called vital needs of people in the contemporary world.”
He added that the Christian message often seems “ideological and emotionally cruel” when contrasted with sympathetic media portrayals of individuals in morally complex situations.
“Catholic pastors who preach against the legalization of abortion or the redefinition of marriage are portrayed as being ideologically driven, severe and uncaring, not because of anything they say or do, but because their audiences contrast their message with the sympathetic caring tones of media produced images of human beings, who because they are caught in morally complex life situations opt for choices that are made to appear as helpful and good,” he explained.
“Note, for example, how alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children are so benignly and sympathetically portrayed in television programs and cinema today,” he continued. “If the New Evangelization is going to counter these mass media-produced distortions of religious and ethical reality successfully, pastors, preachers, teachers, and catechists are going to have to become far more informed about the context of evangelizing in a world dominated by mass media.”
As the successor to Pope Francis, who was widely considered one of the most liberal leaders in modern Catholic history, Pope Leo XIV’s past positions are now drawing attention as observers try to anticipate the direction he may take the Catholic Church. Pope Leo XIV’s election as the new pontiff also marks the first time the church has had a US-born leader.
