Francis Sales Betten

“ Let those who think they have a good reason for reading a forbidden book, and who are not mistaken in supposing that there is no danger for them, humbly ask for permission, as did the Saints. By doing so they declare that the standpoint of the Church is theirs, and that they willingly submit to a power which was entrusted with the care of "teaching to observe whatsoever I have commanded you." "We have to develop a loving habit of loyalty and obedience to the Church as to Christ, our Savior." ”

“ Let them set aside absolutely all prejudice in favor of nation, family, school or order; let them relinquish all party spirit, and keep before their minds the undoubted doctrine of the Church, as laid down in the decrees of the councils, in papal documents, etc., knowing that there are opinions that, while they seem certain to one nation, school, or order, are, with the knowledge of the Holy See, opposed by others ”

“ Should a consultor find that he is not competent to judge a book which he is asked to examine, let him know that he will not be free from guilt, either before God or man, unless he at once confesses his incompetence. Far from damaging his reputation with the pope or the cardinals, such an avowal will rather gain their esteem and praise for his straghtforwardness and honesty. ”

“ Nor can the Church, possessing the power to watch over our reading, neglect to make use of this power when the salvation of souls calls for its exercise. Bad literature is one of the worst enemies of mankind. The Church can never allow it to corrupt the hearts of her children or to undermine the foundation of their faith, without at least raising a warning voice. ”

“ Moreover, to be a trustworthy guide, the Church must state the truth clearly and unmistakably. The faithful are not guided by ambiguous circumlocutions, by terms that may be understood in two or perhaps more ways. Neither may she keep exclusively in the lofty heights of theory; but she must instruct with regard to the facts of everyday life. The dangers arising from books are concrete not abstract, and they must be met by concrete measures. This can be done effectively only by an energetic and unmistakable "thou shalt not," which makes men realize that they are "under authority." ”

“ If you read a forbidden book without permission, you are as good a Catholic as one who eats meat on Friday. The object of the law of abstinence is to make sure that every Christian performs at least a certain minimum of penance. ”

“ Whenever there is a doubt about the nature of a book, recourse may be had to Rome; sometimes the Roman authorities appointed for this purpose, will take up the matter without being appealed to. They will investigate and decide by putting the book on the Index, or, by dismissing it. This is the case with most books publicly censured. It was the case with the books of Schell and Loisy, which, it was strongly urged by learned men, propagated ideas contrary, or at least dangerous, to the faith, though a host of followers admired them as orthodox masterpieces. ”

“ No one, whether he be the owner or not, is allowed to keep a forbidden book. He must either destroy it or give or sell it to some one who has permission or he must obtain permission for himself.
Rule 3. It is not lawful for a Catholic publisher or printer to issue or print, or reprint forbidden books. Nor may a bookseller keep such books in stock, unless he has obtained leave to do so; and he may sell them only to those whom he can reasonably presume to have permission for their perusal. ”

“ All who are dispensed from the Church law regarding forbidden books, must use every precaution, not to suffer injury to their faith or purity of heart. Such precautions are: the hearing of sermons, the reading of Catholic books, the frequenting of Catholic society, regular prayers, and above all the humble reception of the sacraments. The same holds good as to those objectionable publications which on account of their smallness or for other reasons escape ecclesiastical prohibition. ”

“ But when nothing so extraordinarily harmful occurs, good moralists hold that as much as six pages may be read without mortal sin." He also quotes the opinion of F. Vermeersch, a very good authority, that when a book becomes dangerous only through a long perusal of it, quite a considerable portion must be read to incur grievous guilt, and that the reading even of a great portion of a condemned book may be excused from mortal sin, as long as the part read is not injurious in itself and does not tempt one to read further. ”

“ This very fact must also convince us that the observation of these laws must be salutary and conducive to the welfare of the Church at large and of the individual Christian.
The inventions, discoveries and progress of our times can introduce no change in this respect. The human mind is still as prone to err and as much subject to the persuasive influence of books as it ever was. Good books are as useful to-day as they were in olden times, and objectionable writings have the same deplorable effects they had a thousand years ago. ”

“ It is not the intention of the Church that the prohibition be understood to include the reading of small sections torn or cut from prohibited works or the perusing of articles clipped from forbidden newspapers, even if it would be unlawful to read the same amount of matter while still in the book or paper. Nor is a sin against the law of the Church committed by listening to the reading of proscribed publications, or by witnessing a play which is the dramatization of a prohibited novel. ”

“ There are some well-meaning people who, while agreeing that the productions of Zola, Dumas and other writers of the same sort, fully deserve condemnation, cannot understand why works like Ranke's History of the Popes, which is an acknowledged authority in its line, should be proscribed. Such works are not on the Index for the good things they contain, but for the poison they mix with the wholesome food so cleverly that it takes more than ordinary scholarship and discretion to separate the one from the other. ”

“ The Roman Committee of Cardinals, which has charge of this part of ecclesiastical discipline, is not at all bent on proscribing books. Works like the one mentioned are never put on the Index unless it is quite clear that the mischief to be feared from them will far outweigh the good they may do. Scholars and students well grounded in their faith, who have a real and legitimate cause for reading a forbidden book can easily obtain a dispensation. ”

“ These considerations also show that the condemnation of a book after its author's death is not unreasonable. A book remains what it is independently of its author. Nor would it change the nature of a book were the author afterwards to prove his orthodoxy to the satisfaction of the authorities, or to do penance in sackcloth and ashes, or for the rest of his mortal life consort with the Trappists. Were it morally certain, however, that almost all the copies of a book were destroyed, a prohibitory decree would fail of its purpose.
B. The Index Does Not Advertise Bad Books. ”

“ Only a few verdicts concerning objectionable books have emanated from the Holy Office since the suppression of the Index Congregation.
The Roman Congregations are not infallible. But they represent the Pope in his capacity as shepherd of the entire flock of Christ. Therefore we owe them obedience. Their regulations and orders must find us even more willing to obey than those of our bishops and pastors, to whom only a small portion of Christ's kingdom is committed. ”

“ Therefore, all Christians, good and bad, priests, religious and lay people, students and professors, unless they have a dispensation, are bound by the ecclesiastical laws regarding books. By asking for a dispensation we implicitly acknowledge and approve of the official position of the Church on the subject of wicked books, and, so far as in us lies, ratify and sanction the reasons which lead to their condemnation. ”

“ Every subsequent age records similar measures of vigilance. The first General Council of Nicaea, in 325, besides proscribing the heresy of Arius, also issued a decree prohibiting the use of Arius' book Thalia, which contained his heresy; indeed, at all times the condemnation of a heresy by the Church entailed the prohibition of the works propagating it. Pope St. Leo the Great, 440–461, does not hesitate to declare that one who reads forbidden books cannot be considered a Catholic. ”

“ About 1698, a book by Archbishop Fénelon was under investigation at Rome. Fénelon was a great scholar and one of the greatest preachers of all centuries, but he was also a loyal son of the Church. He knew a condemnation of his book would mean his own condemnation in the eyes of Catholic France. His friends as well as his antagonists were eagerly awaiting Rome's decision. At last the verdict was pronounced in the most solemn way by the Pope himself, and it was a condemnation. ”

“ In case a prohibited work consists of several volumes which form but one organic whole, as the sundry volumes of a novel, each of them is forbidden; otherwise only those are proscribed, which contain the objectionable matter. The volumes of a large history of the world or similar works treat of matters sufficiently different to make each an independent book. ”

“ Therefore neither pamphlets nor leaflets nor any publications reproduced by handwriting or authographing or similar methods will fall under the ecclesiastical prohibition unless they are expressly included, as in Rule 10, or forbidden by particular decrees. If several pamphlets treating of different subjects are bound together they will make up a "volume" but not a "book." Of course this does not free from the ban of the Church the bound volumes of the periodicals which are forbidden by Rule 9, because there is in them both bulk and unity enough to make them "books." ”

“ The formula Nihil obstat, "there is no objection," is as a rule only the verdict of the censor deputatus, the priest who was commissioned by the bishop to examine the book. Catholic books are sometimes reprinted or translated from other languages by Protestants, who not unfrequently change the text to suit their own errors, for instance the excellent "Imitation (Following) of Christ." The bishop's Imprimatur is always the test of orthodoxy. ”

“ Without ecclesiastical approbation the publications mentioned under b and c as well as all Bible editions in the vernacular are forbidden, though they may have been issued by most pious and learned men. The failure to obtain the approbation for the rest that fall under rule 10 would be a sin for the author (and publisher) , but the works themselves would not be forbidden, provided they are not, on account of their contents, proscribed by other rules.
An author who is a member of a religious order must add the permission of his "praelatus" to the approbation of the bishop.
NOTES
Note 1. ”

“ We Germans practically control the whole intellectual market of civilized Europe; the books, however, which we bring to this market are for the most part high-class works, tending to the honor of God, the salvation of souls, and the civilisation of the people. ”

“ It is precisely because he cannot multiply himself that he employs printer's ink to convey his ideas to others. It must, therefore, be supposed that his words mean what he intends to say. The reader, at any rate, has no corrective. He has only the book, not the author to fall back upon. It is impossible to recur to the author when there is question of the correctness or incorrectness of a book. If the author has to be called upon to explain the meaning of his book, he should have left it unprinted. ”

“ Those newspapers and periodicals which not merely now and then, but regularly and of set purpose, attack religion or morality, or propagate anti-Catholic views.
Rule 10. The following classes of publications require the approbation of the bishop of the place where the work is to be published, or of some higher authority, which is to be printed in the beginning or at the end of the work and must be renewed for every new edition.
a. Books on theology, Church history, canon law, natural theology and ethics, and all editions of the Bible or parts of it in any language. ”

“ And yet there is practically but one case, during more than three centuries, in which they are accused of having made a mistake. It is the condemnation, by both the Holy Office and the Index, of Galileo Galilei (died 1639) for defending the theory that the earth moves around its own axis and around the sun.
This teaching was according to the common belief of Catholics and Protestants, at that time, clearly opposed to Holy Scripture, which the Church was bound to vindicate. If Galileo's theory was true, the traditional interpretation of sundry Bible texts would have had to be abandoned. ”

“ Of still greater importance than this catalogue are the first thirty-four pages, which give, in the "Apostolic Constitutions," the general laws of the Church regarding books.
There are only two "Constitutions." But the whole work is introduced by a brief of Leo XIII, in which the Pontiff declares that this edition is to be the authentic one for the whole Church. It is to be binding on all the faithful of the universe, regardless of race or language, nationality or country, education, learning or station in life. ”

“ Needless to remark, the civil authorities have the right to prohibit books that seriously endanger the common welfare. If they use this right in a reasonable way, their measures are likely to bring about good and prevent evil. ”

“ The encyclical of Pius X on Modernism merely enjoins on the bishops special vigilance in regard to publications infected with modernistic views.
This universal legislation, however, does not preclude the local prohibition of books by bishops or other ecclesiastical authorities. Thus Spain had, until 1820, its own Index, controlled by the Spanish Inquisition. ”