Catholic Answers Imprimatur

[Sanctus]

Can someone please explain this seeming contradiction to me:

Catholic Answers Tracts have an Imprimatur–as follows:

IMPRIMATUR: In accord with 1983 CIC 827
permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004

NIHIL OBSTAT: I have concluded that the materials
presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004

Ok, now I just happened to look at the www.catechismclass.com website and they have this answer to a question in their FAQ section:

Question #2: Do you have an Imprimatur?
The answer is yes and no. The Latin word Imprimatur is translated “let it be printed.” When a Roman Catholic bishop grants his imprimatur to a printed work, he assures the reader that nothing therein is contrary to Catholic faith or morals. Neither Catholic practice nor Canon Law has caught up to the concepts of cyberspace or virtual reality, so there is no controlling legal authority which can make the kind of judgements on Internet materials you seek. “We don’t have anything like an imprimatur for the Internet,” Avery Cardinal Dulles said at a June 12, 2004 conference in Milwaukee. Cyberspace comprises all Catholic Dioceses, and virtual reality allows for no printed works. Which bishop is going to give assurances to people who are not his subjects that these non printed materials are free from error? We have checked with the experts at the U.S.C.C.B. and their conclusions are much the same as ours.

So Catholic Answers has an imprimatur from the San Diego Bishop…either that is not “sufficent” or a website which proports to be a Catechetical tool is very wrong . I’m confused.

 

[Genesis315]

The tracts are also available in print form.

 

[Sanctus]

Yes, but the tracts do appear on the internet with the Imprimatur

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Sanctus:

Yes, but the tracts do appear on the internet with the Imprimatur

And one would hope that those tracts are an exact electronic copy if the original printed version to which the Imprimatur was granted. In other words if you take a book and copy a page out of it on a copy machine. Can you say that the Imprimatur granted for the whole book is also valid for the photo copy of the one page? Of course as long as that photo copy is an exact copy of the page in the book.

 

[Sanctus]

So what the other website is saying is, in fact, incorrect…because an Imprimatur can apply to a webpage (as in the Catholic Answers case) and it has nothing to do with what diocese it crosses over.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Sanctus:

So what the other website is saying is, in fact, incorrect…because an Imprimatur can apply to a webpage (as in the Catholic Answers case) and it has nothing to do with what diocese it crosses over.

In a sense it would be like saying that If I write a book here in NC and ask my Bishop for his Imprimatur on it. The Imprimatur only applies in this diocese it does not appply if I sell the book in Seattle. Of course not. Would I have to obtain the Imprimatur of the Bishop of Seattle? No. Every Catholic has a Pastor (or equivalent) and is the subject of a Bishop (or equivalent in jurisdiction) no matter where they reside. It is the author’s Bishop (E) who must approve material that requires approval under Canon Law. Once approved it does not matter what media is used to produce it. Only that it be unaltered in content.