FILM CENSORSHIP BY BISHOPS

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21826, 4 July 1936, Page 15

FILM CENSORSHIP BY BISHOPS

Pope’s Plea for WorldWide Supervision POSSIBLE FORMATION OF DECENCY LEAGUE (VBITBD FBBSB absocutiob—coftbiobt.) (Received July 3, 10.5 p.m.) LONDON, July 3. The film critic of the “Daily Mail” believes that the Pope’s plea in the la'.est encyclical for the establishment of a world-wide film censorship by Roman Catholic bishops brings nearer the general formation of a league of decency on the lines existing in the United States. Conversations between Catholic leaders and the film industry in Britain had already resulted in the expectation of the classification of films according to moral standards. The British industry generally welcomes the church’s interest and does not show the alarm which the creation of the league caused in Hollywood. A Rome message says that the Pope has urged, in addition to the organisation of a censorship by the bishops, that the clergy should secure from parents and others a promise not to witness bad films, which, he declared, not only occasioned sin, destroying pure love and family life, but created international prejudices.