ABSTRACT
Pope Pius XII delivered two speeches on cinema that represent a fundamental passage of the Catholic Church's magisterium on cinema and the media, in 1955. In these two speeches, called Discorsi sul film ideale or Discourses on Ideal Film, the pope set out principles that cinema should 'ideally' follow when seeking to inspire the audience, and the ability to serve the community, family, state and Church. The complexity and ambivalence of the Catholic cultural policy can also be seen in the unresolved tension between modernization and tradition. In reality, the Catholic Cinematographic Center (CCC) quickly assumed the role of 'nongovernment' censorship, and was able to influence the decisions of audiences in Italy and, indirectly, production and distribution trends of Italian cinema. The development of small-gauge theaters during the first half of the 1960s filled the gap left by commercial movie theaters, which had started to close in the beginning of the decade.
