Coyright on Vatican documents?

[beafedor]

Is there any kind of copyright on the materials posted on the Vatican website? (apostolic constitutions, apostolic letters, encyclicals, prayers, speeches…) what about the Catechism of the Catholic Church?

Are we free to copy, quote and use these documents (both doctrinal and non doctrinal) as we please to evangelize if we find them inspirational? Thanks in advance.

 

[Spencerian]

Is there any kind of copyright on the materials posted on the Vatican website? (apostolic constitutions, apostolic letters, encyclicals, prayers, speeches…) what about the Catechism of the Catholic Church?

Are we free to copy, quote and use these documents (both doctrinal and non doctrinal) as we please to evangelize if we find them inspirational? Thanks in advance.

Hi.

I’m not an attorney, but since the writings and other documents are placed on the Vatican web site for the purposes of instruction in the faith, you are absolutely allowed to reproduce these to help in apologetics, catechesis and evangelization.

That said, the Vatican Publishing House, or Libreria Editrice Vaticana, is the copyright holder for these documents. Copyright prohibits the reformulation of Vatican documents into any other form (binding into a book, pamphet or magazine) for resale, even if not for personal gain. So: Printing a copy for a friend, yes. Copying and pasting more than a few passages of Vatican statements into a published work, probably not.

 

[beafedor]

Thank you for you reply Spencerian.
If anybody has experience with asking the Vatican permission to quote Encyclicals or other Papal writing in a book or pamphlet, please answer this thread or share your experience with me by personal message. Thank you friends!

 

[beafedor]

By the way, is it the same with the Bible or can anyone reproduce the Catholic Bible (NAB) freely?

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

By the way, is it the same with the Bible or can anyone reproduce the Catholic Bible (NAB) freely?

The NAB is definitely under copyright and the USCCB charges royalties if you reproduce it. A friend of mine wrote a book that included quotations from Scripture. He used the NAB in his manuscript but the publisher changed it to the NRSV saying that otherwise all his profits would be eaten by the royalties he’d have to pay. (The NRSV is also under copyright but the owner charges lower fees.)

 

[beafedor]

The NAB is definitely under copyright and the USCCB charges royalties if you reproduce it. A friend of mine wrote a book that included quotations from Scripture. He used the NAB in his manuscript but the publisher changed it to the NRSV saying that otherwise all his profits would be eaten by the royalties he’d have to pay. (The NRSV is also under copyright but the owner charges lower fees.)

Oh Thanks, that’s good to know!

 

[quiet52]

By the way, is it the same with the Bible or can anyone reproduce the Catholic Bible (NAB) freely?

The NAB is definitely under copyright and the USCCB charges royalties if you reproduce it. A friend of mine wrote a book that included quotations from Scripture. He used the NAB in his manuscript but the publisher changed it to the NRSV saying that otherwise all his profits would be eaten by the royalties he’d have to pay. (The NRSV is also under copyright but the owner charges lower fees.)

This is one of my beefs with the USCCB.
The Word of God should be free.

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

This is one of my beefs with the USCCB.
The Word of God should be free.

Tell the translators and publishers that they should do it all for love, not money. People need to support themselves with the work they do.

And to the OP, I just looked at a couple of documents on the Vatican web site (Caritas in Veritate and Evangelium Vitae). Both are marked with copyright notices. If you plan to reproduce documents you need permission.

 

[Joannm]

I write for publication and yes you can quote Vatican documents, but just like writing a paper for school, you have to give proper credit. That means including the proper citation (name, author, city of publisher, name of publisher, date, page #s). When writing for publication it is better to quote an actual text rather than a web site. You don’t have to pay for it unless you are copying an entire document into your text, say you were editing a book on documents and needed to include the entire text or a large portion of it.