Inter mirifica

Inter mirifica (lit. 'Among the wonderful' in Latin), subtitled "Decree on the Media of Social Communication", is one of the Second Vatican Council's 16 magisterial documents.

The final text was approved on 24 November 1963 by a vote of 1,598 to 503. On 4 December 1963, it was promulgated by Pope Paul VI, after another vote, this time of 1,960 in favour and 164 opposed.^[1]

It is composed of 24 points, with the aim of addressing the concerns and problems of social communication. Inter mirifica identifies social communication as the press, cinema, television, and other similar types of communication interfaces.

The term social communications, apart from its more general use, has become the preferred term within documents of the Catholic Church for reference to media or mass media. It has the advantage, as a term, of wider connotation - all communication is social but not all communication is "mass". In effect, though, the two terms are used synonymously.