The Catholic Church in the modern age and the works of Marshall McLuhan: An investigation into the dialogue between the church teachings on social communication and secular communication and media studies

The Second Vatican Council is generally considered as the Church’s serious effort to engage the modern world, which at the turn of the twentieth century confronted the crisis brought by the two world wars, the Cold War, the increasing secularization of culture, and the challenges posed by the late industrial age and the new information society. One of the documents of Vatican II, the Decree on Social Communication, laid down the principles and means by which the Church will utilize the mass media in its work and in guiding the laity in its proper use. Behind the scenes, Marshall McLuhan, a Catholic communication and media theorist, was seen to have a huge influence on the shaping of the details of Inter Mirifica and subsequent documents on social media. This paper is an investigation into the interaction between the Vatican and McLuhan, and how the Church sought his ideas in subsequent development of the decree on social communication, and how McLuhan represented, interpreted and invoked the Catholic faith in his various writings.