The contemporary world of media and journalism discusses journalistic and media ethics more often nowadays, and questions regarding the (in) ability to set universal ethical standards in the field of traditional and new digital media have become more actual and relevant. The Catholic Church, in its documents, directly or indirectly, discloses the issues of the media, as well as the issue of media and journalistic ethics, and proposes and outlines ethical principles and postulates aimed not only for its own religious media but also for the secular media. The purpose of this dissertation is, accordingly, to explore the relationship between the ethical content and the criteria delineated in the documents of the Catholic Church on the one hand, and the contemporary content and codes of media and journalistic ethics on the other. The first chapter of the dissertation addresses contemporary philosophical tendencies in media ethics, through a detailed review of selected authors. Ethical issues in the context of the media have become more important, and not only have they also become more relevant to many scholars (philosophers, theologians, communication scientists ...), but also to media professionals - journalists or "media practitioners" – who, on a daily basis, make decisions which have significant ethical implications. In the second chapter, the dissertation outlines the main highlights of media ethics present in church documents, both of those who speak directly about the media and of those who do not primarily address this topic, but also cover the topic from the standpoint of theological reflection. Some of these documents are contemporary, while the earliest document is issued in the first half of the 19th century. The third chapter provides a comparative critical analysis of the prevailing ethical trends in the field of media ethics on the one hand and media ethics in church documents on the other hand, so that specific topics of media ethics are systematically addressed from both points of view, with a particular consideration of possible points of agreement and divergences. The fourth chapter of the dissertation presents the results of a survey conducted among members of the Croatian Society of Catholic Journalists (Hrvatsko društvo katoličkih novinara) and secular media professionals who write about religious issues. The survey investigated the extent to which the members of the Croatian Society of Catholic Journalists were acquainted with the required criteria for journalistic activities and the theological ethics of the media. The purpose of the research was also to explore the perceptions of the interviewees in order to find out how they, in their role as active participants and as respondents in the media process, act (or do not act) in accordance with the basic postulates of media ethics. The control group consisted of journalists who write about religious topics for the public television, national commercial televisions, and national daily papers.