Pope condemns printing press?

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raychel

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Hi all,
Our local newspaper printed a letter to the editor which was in response to a letter from a priest. The response letter ended with the following quote:

“The newspaper [the priest] reads is printed on a mechanical device condemned by the early church fathers and several popes as the work of the devil.”

I would like to write a letter to the editor responding to this statement.

First, didn’t the early church fathers live over a thousand years before the printing press? (The printing press was invented in 1440).

Second, I have done a google search and I did find a web site that claimed the popularity of the Protestant Reformation could be partially attributed to the printing press, but no one stating that a Pope had condemned the printing press. So has anyone heard of a Pope condemning a printing press?

Thanks,
Raychel
 
I too looked this up and found no evidence of this. I did find that after the printing press was invented it was used to print noncatholic bibles which the church told its people not to buy because they were not good copies (in fact, they were terrible translations and not suitable for serious study). I guess that could be twisted into condemning printing press printed bibles? In any case, your newspaper printed a catholic bashing letter and I would write another responce letter to the editor chock full of what the facts are and how you found no evidence of the claim that the paper had printed and a request for them to recant. Thats what I would do. Please to a more in depth explaination than I did, fill it with real dates and instances to back up your letter. Have a nice day.–Rebecca
 
raychel said:
“The newspaper [the priest] reads is printed on a mechanical device condemned by the early church fathers and several popes as the work of the devil.”
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The first priting presses were set to work on religious manuscripts for abbeys and other Church institutions.

However, like Wikipedia today, printing was a academic controversy. Some people felt that the ability to reproduce works without reading them might lead to a decline in knowledge. To some extent maybe they were right.
Popes would have opinions on the learned issues of the day, without necessarily pronouncing on them ex cathedra.
 
Malcom has it. I have no problem believing that popes were wary of new technologies. That doesn’t in any way amount to a binding condemnation. It frankly sounds made up.
 
Moreover, the first printed bible was the Gutenberg, a Catholic bible.
 
raychel said:
…(The printing press was invented in 1440)…
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Not quite.

Gutenberg built his press, using movable metal type, in 1440. But presses had been used to produce prints from woodcuts and ceramic plates hundreds of years earlier, I don’t know exactly how much earlier.
 
This response is littered with errors, and seems to me to be a rather feeble anti-Catholic.

First of all, as was stated, there were no Church Fathers alive at the time (1430 to about 1460)–nor were there any Doctors of the Church alive at the time.

Also, the first thing printed using movable metal type was the Catholic Gutenberg Bible. From thereon, the press was used for the mass printing of indulgences. For this reason, the printing press was a great tool for the Pontiff at the time, and condemning it made no sense.

Third, I can find no statement ever issued by a Pope, Bishop, Doctor or the Church, or Mystic ever condemning the printing press.

Additionally, even if a Pope condemned one, it certainly wasn’t ex-Cathedra, meaning that the statement was not infalliable.

I would tell this fellow to try to engage the priest in a civil argument instead of splitting hairs and twisting facts.

P.S. Ceramic movable type was invented in China c. 1040 A.D.)
 
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