On the Index Librorum Prohibitorum

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Aeden

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Can somebody educate me on what this was? I am engaged in a debate with some body regarding, you guessed it, church “censorship,” with scientific works in particular being the focus. Can somebody explain to me what this is, its purpose, effects, etc. so that I can debate without making a fool of myself?
 
I try to avoid wikipedia for these kinds of things, since they can be edited by anybody, and thus tend to be subject to heavy spin and occasionally outright falsehood.
 
Aeden said:
I try to avoid wikipedia for these kinds of things, since they can be edited by anybody, and thus tend to be subject to heavy spin and occasionally outright falsehood.
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I said it was a good place to start 😉 But for a strictly Catholic resource, here’s the article from New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia (a trustworthy source): LINK
 
It may be helpful to note that the index of prohibited books began in the 1500’s, at about the time of the spread of printing press. We think today that first computers and then the internet are staggering changes in the way the world turns–but I think the printing press was even more so–as suddenly papers of all sorts were floating around everywhere and people were suddenly saying, hmm maybe I should try reading?
The Index was ended by Vatican Council II, although I’ve read that a new regulation was adopted related to publications that are considered to undermine either Catholic faith or morality. This regulation doesn’t seem to jump out at me from the web–does anyone know how to find it–and/or the name of it. I have Sources of Renewal, but don’t see any mention in the index. Can anybody please point me in the right direction? I have only Vol II (a gift) of Vat II docs and don’t see it listed in that index either.
By the way, if you’re not thrilled by some of today’s Bible versions, it should be easy to imagine some of the disasters that first appeared in the 1500-1600’s. Perhaps you can imagine some of them being condemned.
 
Although the publication of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum ceased in 1966, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) retained the right to censor books, a right that has been exercised. I’m only aware of the following 4, but there could well be more. I was unable to find any sort of listing of currently banned books.

Oblate Father Tissa Balasuriya’s book “Mary and Human Liberation”
vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19970102_tissa-balasuriya_en.html

early works of Jesuit Father Anthony de Mello,
vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19980624_demello_en.html

Sr. Margaret Farley’s book “Just Love. A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics”
news.va/en/news/72432

Jesuit Father Roger Haight’s book “Jesus Symbol of God”
vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20041213_notification-fr-haight_en.html
 
Aeden said:
I try to avoid wikipedia for these kinds of things, since they can be edited by anybody, and thus tend to be subject to heavy spin and occasionally outright falsehood.
Click to expand...
As Alazarin said, “it’s a good place to start”. If you scroll down a bit on the wikipedia link he gave, you’ll come to the section titled “Recent canonical judgments and publications”. You can look thru that list to locate authors and their writings. If the link they provide isn’t one to the actual Vatican/CDF document - try googling:
CDF (then author & book title given by the wikipedia article) vatican.va
It should bring up a link to the document on the Vatican website.

I was unable to get the Vatican website document on Sr. Farley. Not sure why; it’s the most recent one, so maybe they don’t have it up in English yet.
 
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