Dominicans and the Printed Word

Extract

It has become a commonplace to repeat what has been so often said of St. Paul, that had he lived in our day he would have been a journalist. And had St. Dominic been living in our own times instead of in the 13th century, what would he have done? I believe that, for reasons similar to those which moved him to found his Order, he would not have changed any essential point of its Constitutions; but, because of the spirit which quickens them, essentially an apostolic spirit, he would have required his Order to make use of the Press as one of the most efficacious means of its apostolate. These are the two points that I shall endeavour to develop briefly, before referring to what the Order of St. Dominic has actually accomplished in the domain of the Press in order to remain faithful to the apostolic spirit of its Founder.

Why did St. Dominic found the Order of Preachers? For a simple answer to this question it suffices to recall in a few words the religious condition of society as it was then, at the beginning of the 13th century. Admittedly that century was one of faith; historical witness of every kind which has come down from those times will not allow us to think otherwise. But at the beginning of that same century the Faith throughout Europe was exposed to great danger, from two sources, firstly, because of the ignorance of religion prevalent among the faithful themselves, and then because of the spread of certain heresies fostered by this very ignorance.