Keep Pressure On TV, Pope Tells Catholics

Roman Catholics must keep applying pressure to curb violence and explicit sex on television, Pope John Paul II said Thursday.

The pontiff, speaking to a Vatican committee on the media, appealed for “all efforts genuinely aimed at bringing to the media a renewed sense of public service and higher standards of decency.”

A strong backlash is already under way against shows and advertisements “which erode moral and cultural values,” said the pope.