NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- Pope John Paul II today received participants in an international conference on cinema and art, and told them that film can be "a particular artistic expression for the Year 2000."

      The Pope made his remark at an audience for participants in a conference organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. The conference is designed to address the ethical, spiritual, and cultural issues involved in the world of cinema.

      The Holy Father said that the arts, insofar as they "make life rich and open to the beauty and truth of God," constitute a central concern for the Church. Films can have an educational influence, he said, and can be "a fascinating instrument for transmitting the eternal message of life" to a modern audience. At a time when technological developments have given the medium remarkable new capabilities, he said, films could contribute to the development of a "new humanism," by acting as "a mirror of the human soul which is constantly searching for God."