Hooray for Hollywood! Showbiz isn't just a dirty business. Catholics should give two thumbs up even to some of Hollywood's provocative creations and choose to learn from rather than criticize them.

I HAVE WORKED IN AND AROUND HOLLYWOOD FOR SEVERAL years. Besides teaching media literacy in the faith community, I screen films; attend press junkets; hear directors, writers, and actors speak about their craft; and review at least six movies a month. I have discovered some fine aspects of the entertainment industry as well as some weak elements, too.

Contrary to what some people think, I believe Catholics need to build bridges with Hollywood rather than gripe about it. Instead of simply boycotting objectionable films and television shows, those of us in the faith community need to thank the industry when they do well, educate ourselves about the media as storytellers and businesses, critically discuss and question the stories they give us, and use appropriate media in creative, thoughtful ways for faith formation. In short, we need to take responsibility for our media consumption and stop demonizing Hollywood.

Whether we recognize it or not, Hollywood can and does make movies that matter. Recent films prove this: Mad Hot Ballroom documents the power of the arts to teach children about life; The Chronicles of Narnia captures C.S. Lewis' imaginative adaptation of the Paschal Mystery in film; and The Constant Gardener challenges us to integrate Catholic social teaching into the process of globalization. I love how a film like Crash exhibits the quality of a great novel and that a film like Hotel Rwanda makes me uncomfortable with stories of human suffering. TV shows like CBS' now-cancelled loan of Arcadia, about a teenage girl who has conversations with God, and TV movies with transcendent themes such as HBO's Wit, TNT's Door to Door, and ABC's Tuesdays with Morrie also inspire me.

TRUE, HOLLYWOOD CAN AND DOES MAKE MOVIES AND TV shows that dismiss human dignity and exploit the body. It makes movies that show vengeance as a virtue. Hollywood is first and foremost a business, and it makes films that people will pay to see. The one good thing about bad movies is that they often fizzle.

But instead of blaming the media for everything, we in the audience need to take some responsibility, engage our faith, and not be afraid that we will wilt in a culture that promotes virtue while challenging it at the same time.

As a film critic and media literacy educator, I am bothered when audiences miss the point of a movie because of a bad word. In one scene in the wonderful film Simon Birch, the 12-year-old Christ-figure, Simon, yells at his fellow Sun day school students, "Put me down, you assholes!" I showed this clip at a catechetical workshop for adults but failed to warn them of the language. Even though the power of the scene was far stronger than the shock of a kid saying a bad word, a couple of ladies were furious that a nun would show it.

It's also maddening when audiences miss the point of a movie because of a low-cut blouse. Erin Brockovich shows its namesake as a spiritually impoverished woman with no life skills, no support system, and a history of poor choices. She's also portrayed as a Good Shepherd figure who works for the oppressed and was willing to lay down her life for her "sheep." But too many people wrote her--and the movie--off simply because of the way she dressed.

SO DON'T JUST COMPLAIN OR TURN OFF THE SET. PEOPLE of faith and goodwill create community and a culture of civility when they respectfully share insights, differing opinions, and values about the stories they experience on the big--or small--screen. Everyone can choose carefully which films to watch and everyone can critique a film; everyone can work out what the filmmaker was trying to say by talking about it with other people.

One mother told me that when her 15-year-old daughter asked to see R-rated films, she responded, "First, you have to ask each time, and second, when you come home you have to tell me how you saw--or didn't see--God's presence in that movie." They realized, as do most mature adults, that an R rating does not mean immoral; it means the story is for people old enough to understand the complexities of human behavior and the consequences of choices. Several years later the daughter still calls her mom to talk about the movies she's seen. Movies serve them well as a moral and spiritual laboratory.

That opportunity is lost when parents turn off a recommended TV show or DVD because a single scene makes them nervous. One mother was very upset with me for recommending the film Millions. She said that there was a "pornographic" scene in it when a boy lands on a website that showed a woman in a bra. His little brother comes in and asks, "What are those [breasts] for?" "To feed babies," the older brother responds. True, the older brother was probably looking for trouble, but the scene was luminous as the younger brother realized how much his recently deceased mother must have loved him to feed him with her body.

It was a teachable moment about the beauty of the body--and the dark side of the Internet--but this mom turned it off as soon as the computer screen appeared. All that kids learn in situations like this is what their mother doesn't like. They don't get a chance to learn why. It's crucial to remember that the future storytellers are in our pews, living rooms, and classrooms today. How shall we prepare them to be relevant and faithful media consumers and media makers?

Engaging the media is not just for parents. What I most dislike is when people react intensely to something they haven't seen or when they call something anti-Catholic or anti-religious before they have seen it. Take The Da Vinci Code, for instance. Fifty million copies of the novel are in print, and just before the movie opened, there was a movement afoot to boycott it. So what do we say to people who ask us what Catholics believe, who want to engage us about the book and movie on the level of our faith? Do we say, "Oh, I won't see it because it's anti-Catholic"? How does that break open the Word of God and the Nicene Creed for people who seek truth from us? A negative reaction to a film does not constitute faith-sharing. A shared experience can bring forth a faith-filled conversation about issues the film addresses and plant seeds of the gospel.

WE HAVE SOME WONDERFUL CHURCH TEACHINGS IN DOCUMENTS like the 1992 pastoral instruction Dawn of a New Era, which mandated that each diocese has a pastoral plan for communications, including media literacy or mindfulness programs that teach people how to choose media wisely and critically engage with it. Pope John Paul II's final document, The Rapid Development, and Pope Benedict XVI's first message for World Communication Day, The Media: A Network for Communication, Communion, and Cooperation, describe the media as gifts of God and ask for our faithful, creative, and critical engagement with them.

This body of church teachings encourages us to get out there and do something with the media rather than wail about being victimized. These documents do not ask that we boycott the media; they ask that we educate ourselves and young people in the critical use of the media.

The new National Directory for Catechesis from the U.S. bishops says, "Especially in the U.S., 'the very evangelization of modern culture depends to a great extent on the influence of the media.' In fact, the mass media are so influential that they have a culture all their own, which has its own language, customs, and values. Heralds of the gospel must enter the world of the mass media, learn as much as possible about that culture, evangelize that culture, and determine how best to employ the media to serve the Christian message."

TRUE ART PORTRAYS ALL ASPECTS OF OUR HUMAN REALITY, including sin, and as the artist Georgia O'Keefe once said, "True art irritates." Some protagonists will triumph, some will struggle and fail, and some won't even try. Sounds like some people I know--and some of the folks Jesus hung out with as well.

We in the faith community are compelled first to understand and articulate our own values and then to watch the movies and TV shows that are products of our culture. Only then can we address the sensitive issues being portrayed and challenge the material that conflicts with our beliefs, our morality, and our faith's teachings. Only then can we offer relevant, alternative attitudes and actions. We can't just not watch and hoard our faith. That's not the answer.

Advance copies Sounding Board are mailed to a sample of U.S. CATHOLIC subscribers. Their answers to questions on the topic of this article and a representative selection of their comments follow in Feedback.

By SISTER ROSE PACATTE, F.S.P., director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies in Culver City, California. She is co-author of four award-winning books on film and scripture, and of a resource book on media mindfulness due out next year from St. Mary's Press.