I think Mumbles is thinking of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, which started in the 1550’s and ended in 1966. It’s in French, but here’s an example of the banned book list in 1948:
cvm.qc.ca/gconti/905/BABEL/Index%20Librorum%20Prohibitorum-1948.htm
If you really want to read Voltaire’s
Romans et Contes or Victor Hugo’s
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, I don’t think anyone will stop you.
Nowadays, the USCCB reviews/rates both books and movies, and flags items that are of “pastoral concern”, if that makes sense. So, say for example, the 2007 book
Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God gained a lot of attention when the USCCB suggested it be removed from Catholic schools.
So this is from an article about the flagging:
The Conference said that while it did not have the authority to order the removal of the book from Catholic institutions (only the Vatican could do that), it wanted to draw attention to certain “misrepresentations, ambiguities, and errors” of Catholic doctrine in the book. Among these were assertions by Johnson that all names for God are metaphors, that God is continually suffering, and that all religions bear some presence of God. Because the book was “by a prominent Catholic theologian” and “written not for specialists in theology but for a ‘broad audience’,” the Conference believed it was necessary to make the public aware of its problems.
So basically, the USCCB list is more of a way to say, “Be careful, okay?” rather than, “AUUUGHH! MORTAL SIN! STAY AWAY!”
But honestly, it’s easier to find a movie review by the USCCB than it is to find a book:
catholicnews.com/movies.htm
It’s also important to remember that not all “banned book” lists are Vatican-banned-books.
You get people who say, “Auuughh! How can Catholics be literate, when they’re banning
Huckleberry Finn and
To Kill a Mockingbird, etc, etc, etc!” But anyone can challenge a book.
