Staying away from certain media

[tommydude2112]

I write this in the Traditional Catholicism forum as I don’t more modernist Catholics would have or follow such a tradition. Here we are…

Are there any lists of books or DVDs which Catholics aren’t supposed to read/watch?
I’m asking this because I know about some branches of Evangelical Protestantism which ban Harry Potter (although I know Catholics are fine with this book). If there are any officially sanctioned book lists or film lists published by the Church or certain religious orders that people know about, could someone post a link to them?

Thank you in advance for responses

Edited by moderator

 

[EasterBeagle]

I write this in the Traditional Catholicism forum as I don’t more modernist Catholics would have or follow such a tradition. Here we are…

Are there any lists of books or DVDs which Catholics aren’t supposed to read/watch?
I’m asking this because I know about some branches of Evangelical Protestantism which ban Harry Potter (although I know Catholics are fine with this book). If there are any officially sanctioned book lists or film lists published by the Church or certain religious orders that people know about, could someone post a link to them?

Thank you in advance for responses

They did that route before, St. Faustina’s Divine Mercy was banned on it for 43 years, now we have Divine Mercy Sunday one week after Easter. Didn’t work out so well.

 

[Neofight]

I write this in the Traditional Catholicism forum as I don’t more modernist Catholics would have or follow such a tradition. Here we are…

Are there any lists of books or DVDs which Catholics aren’t supposed to read/watch?
I’m asking this because I know about some branches of Evangelical Protestantism which ban Harry Potter (although I know Catholics are fine with this book). If there are any officially sanctioned book lists or film lists published by the Church or certain religious orders that people know about, could someone post a link to them?

Thank you in advance for responses

I don’t mean this pejoratively, but why do we always look for Mother Church to provide a cookie cutter answer to all the spiritual temptations posed on us. We have free will, a gift from God, which has been tempered with another gift, our conscience. Use them!

Peace and all good!

 

[Ad_Orientem]

They did that route before, St. Faustina’s Divine Mercy was banned on it for 43 years, now we have Divine Mercy Sunday one week after Easter. Didn’t work out so well.

This is a gross misrepresentation of the facts. St. Faustina’s diary was put on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in part because the Holy See had a faulty Italian translation (which they did not know to be faulty), and in that translation, certain parts *were *problematic. And the diary was not banned in perpetuity but pending further investigation.

But cases like this in no way mean that the Index was useless or inefficient. On the contrary, it was very effective in deterring the faithful from many things which are offensive or harmful to faith or morals. And today there are more such books and movies than ever. Probably 99% of them.

While the Index is no longer canonically enforced, it still carries moral authority. It is no longer updated because it would be impossible to keep up with everything that’s printed nowadays. It is no longer legally enforced, probably because it would be practically impossible to do so, with the amount of material out there and the ease with which it is circulated.

We can still ask our priest, or a knowledgeable person, whether a particular book or movie is something we should read. This doesn’t mean we should check our brains at the door, but that we should have the humility to admit that we can be corrupted.

 

[johnnyc176]

I don’t mean this pejoratively, but why do we always look for Mother Church to provide a cookie cutter answer to all the spiritual temptations posed on us. We have free will, a gift from God, which has been tempered with another gift, our conscience. Use them!!

And we use the teachings of Jesus and His Church to properly form that conscience.

 

[johnnyc176]

I write this in the Traditional Catholicism forum as I don’t more modernist Catholics would have or follow such a tradition. Here we are…

Are there any lists of books or DVDs which Catholics aren’t supposed to read/watch?
I’m asking this because I know about some branches of Evangelical Protestantism which ban Harry Potter (although I know Catholics are fine with this book). If there are any officially sanctioned book lists or film lists published by the Church or certain religious orders that people know about, could someone post a link to them?

Thank you in advance for responses

Here is a list of Top 100 Pro Catholic Films…

ncregister.com/info/top_100_pro_catholic_movies/

Decent Film Guide is a good film review site…

decentfilms.com/

Catholic Fiction…

catholicfiction.net/

Top 25 Catholic fiction books…

catholicfiction.net/book-reviews-by-top-25.php

 

[EasterBeagle]

This is a gross misrepresentation of the facts.

Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani had big issues with Divine Mercy, he wrote up a condemnation that cited that devotional practices cannot be used to forgive sins and that Saint Faustina’s writings focused too much on herself. He presented this condemnation to Pope Pius XII who refused to sign it. He simply waited for the next Pope to take Office and presented it to Pope John XXIII with a bunch of other documents, and managed to obtain a signature. It remained condemned by the Church till we had a Polish Pope (St. Faustina was Polish). Pope John Paul II said His very Pontificate was to spread this Devotion. The translation explanation doesn’t seem to hold water, as it remained in the original translation, with almost no adjustments. I know this is against what most consider, so I provided ample links to affirm:

“After a failed attempt to persuade Pope Pius XII to sign a condemnation, Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani at the Holy Office included her works on a list he submitted to the newly elected Pope John XXIII in 1959. The Pope signed the decree that placed her work on the Index of Forbidden books.” & "An article in the National Catholic Reporter reveals that the ban stemmed from theological issues, for example that “Jesus had promised a complete remission of sin for certain devotional acts that only the sacraments can offer, and what Vatican evaluators felt to be an excessive focus on Faustina herself ran contrary to the views at the Holy Office”.

catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=510

catholicpio.com/2013/04/saint-faustina-biography.html

socialjournalist.org/home/travel/chaplet-of-divine-mercy-krakow-poland

angelorum.lt/en/su-lietuva-susije-sventieji/lietuviu-sv-faustina-kovalska-1905-1938/

catholicdaily.net/ourcatholicworld/2012/03/01/196/

catholicgene.wordpress.com/2011/09/24/index-librorum-prohibitorum/

solemncharge.com/post/2012/10/04/The-Story-of-St-Maria-Faustina-Kowalska-the-Apostle-of-Divine-Mercy.aspx

datingtheshroud.com/Pages/Critics.htm

missionariesofdivinemercy.com/index.php/links/2-uncategorised

huynhufamily.com/Kamila/StFaustina.pdf

filipinos-in-hannover.de/index.php/aboutus/the-divine-mercy/75-mary-faustina-kowalska

divinemercynatomas.com/files/Bulletin20121209.pdf

natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2002c/083002/083002f.htm

 

[Marie5890]

I don’t mean this pejoratively, but why do we always look for Mother Church to provide a cookie cutter answer to all the spiritual temptations posed on us. We have free will, a gift from God, which has been tempered with another gift, our conscience. Use them!

Peace and all good!

^^^^ This.

 

[ccmcmg]

I write this in the Traditional Catholicism forum as I don’t more modernist Catholics would have or follow such a tradition. Here we are…

Commenting on above:
Why do we continue to draw lines, build fences, between ‘modernist’ and ‘traditionalist’ Catholics? There aren’t ‘traditionalist’ and ‘modernist’ forums on this site. I have no idea which box you would put me in, and I just tire of it so much on here. And which ‘tradition’ is it that one side or the other doesn’t follow? Can’t we all just get along?

 

[edwest2]

I write this in the Traditional Catholicism forum as I don’t more modernist Catholics would have or follow such a tradition. Here we are…

Are there any lists of books or DVDs which Catholics aren’t supposed to read/watch?
I’m asking this because I know about some branches of Evangelical Protestantism which ban Harry Potter (although I know Catholics are fine with this book). If there are any officially sanctioned book lists or film lists published by the Church or certain religious orders that people know about, could someone post a link to them?

Thank you in advance for responses

Regarding specific lists, I would recommend the following prohibitions regarding movies and TV:

No parts of the human body that are meant to be covered, cannot be seen uncovered.

No profanity at all.

No buckets of blood, guts and people being cut to pieces.

No police or other “good guys” acting as judge, jury and executioner.

No movies where cold, heartless, graphic killing occurs.

No sex scenes, simulated or otherwise. I mean graphic fornication and simulated fornication.

No cohabitation is a good thing and no casual sex as a good thing.

No, divorce is a good thing unless for a cause, like adultery.

No movies where adultery is a good or casual thing.

The same with books.

In the case of the Harry Potter series, one has to be careful. The magic portrayed in the books may encourage curious minds to attempt to use the real thing. That’s right, there are books that claim to contain real spells and there are witches. The Harry Potter books need to be treated with extreme caution.

There are too many Catholics who are living like pagans. That is supported by facts that show divorce rates, immoral sex and other types of sexual immorality are about the same as our secular counterparts. Many young Catholics, even though they have gone to a Catholic school, will stop going to Mass shortly after high school. Why? Some were not properly taught, or correctly catechized. They were given a watered down version of what being Catholic means. There are a number of reasons for this but that’s another topic. The point is - each one of us needs to understand our faith, and take the time to know the answers to the questions of the day. Why is there so much abortion, casual sex, viewing of immoral media and other types of sins so prevalent among Catholics? Why do marriages fail and what is the real purpose of marriage?

Wrong attitudes regarding sex represent the bulk of our problems, and the media is not helping.

amazon.com/Extreme-Makeover-Transformed-Conformed-Culture/dp/1586175610

amazon.com/Be-Man-Becoming-God-Created/dp/1586174037

amazon.com/The-Marketing-Evil-Pseudo-Experts-Corruption/dp/1581824599

Anyone reading this, do yourself a favor. Get to know what challenges Catholics face in today’s dysfunctional media world that sells us immorality in many ways.

Peace,
Ed

 

[EasterBeagle]

Nuns on the Bus would be a good example of modernist Catholics. They tour the country in a bus before every election exclusively supporting political candidates whose core values are founded on the assembly-line systematic murdering of defenseless innocent babies (abortion) and government funded recreational sex (free contraception coverage).

 

[Ad_Orientem]

Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani had big issues with Divine Mercy…

Perhaps so, but that doesn’t overthrow my main point. The Index served a purpose, and to some extent still can, even though it isn’t updated anymore. We should always avoid those things which may harm our faith or unnecessarily expose us to near occasions of sin.

 

[Brooklyn]

Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani had big issues with Divine Mercy, he wrote up a condemnation that cited that devotional practices cannot be used to forgive sins and that Saint Faustina’s writings focused too much on herself. He presented this condemnation to Pope Pius XII who refused to sign it. He simply waited for the next Pope to take Office and presented it to Pope John XXIII with a bunch of other documents, and managed to obtain a signature. It remained condemned by the Church till we had a Polish Pope (St. Faustina was Polish). Pope John Paul II said His very Pontificate was to spread this Devotion. The translation explanation doesn’t seem to hold water, as it remained in the original translation, with almost no adjustments. I know this is against what most consider, so I provided ample links to affirm:

“After a failed attempt to persuade Pope Pius XII to sign a condemnation, Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani at the Holy Office included her works on a list he submitted to the newly elected Pope John XXIII in 1959. The Pope signed the decree that placed her work on the Index of Forbidden books.” & "An article in the National Catholic Reporter reveals that the ban stemmed from theological issues, for example that “Jesus had promised a complete remission of sin for certain devotional acts that only the sacraments can offer, and what Vatican evaluators felt to be an excessive focus on Faustina herself ran contrary to the views at the Holy Office”.

That is fascinating. I never knew this. This is the same Cardinal who wrote against the “New Mass”. I think this shows why we have a Pope who makes the final decisions.

We have many wonderful and holy saints from the 20th Century, but I personally consider the message of St. Faustina, that of Divine Mercy, to be the most important of all.

 

[Brooklyn]

Regarding specific lists, I would recommend the following prohibitions regarding movies and TV:

No parts of the human body that are meant to be covered, cannot be seen uncovered.

No profanity at all.

No buckets of blood, guts and people being cut to pieces.

No police or other “good guys” acting as judge, jury and executioner.

No movies where cold, heartless, graphic killing occurs.

No sex scenes, simulated or otherwise. I mean graphic fornication and simulated fornication.

No cohabitation is a good thing and no casual sex as a good thing.

No, divorce is a good thing unless for a cause, like adultery.

No movies where adultery is a good or casual thing.

Ed, I would normally agree with you, but I to use your criteria would ban large portions of the Old Testament of the Bible. I think we should stay away from any movie or book that “glorifies” these things in any way. And certainly watching a lot of violence and/or graphic sex scenes can be very harmful to us. But does this mean banning such movies as “Saving Private Ryan”? And nothing is much more gruesome or violent than “Passion of the Christ.”

We need to be careful about making such blanket statements.

 

[edwest2]

Ed, I would normally agree with you, but I to use your criteria would ban large portions of the Old Testament of the Bible. I think we should stay away from any movie or book that “glorifies” these things in any way. And certainly watching a lot of violence and/or graphic sex scenes can be very harmful to us. But does this mean banning such movies as “Saving Private Ryan”? And nothing is much more gruesome or violent than “Passion of the Christ.”

We need to be careful about making such blanket statements.

The best approach is to not let any exceptions become the rule. I saw Saving Private Ryan and the graphic scenes did nothing to enhance the horror of war. I watched a lot of war movies growing up. My Dad was a veteran. And like most of his veteran friends in the neighborhood, they very rarely talked about what they had seen. Sitting in a movie theater and seeing all the blood and guts is nothing compared to actually being there. In fact, especially regarding the last two generations, the increase in movies with graphic killing has left some insensitive to it.

Peace,
Ed

 

[ccmcmg]

Nuns on the Bus would be a good example of modernist Catholics. They tour the country in a bus before every election exclusively supporting political candidates whose core values are founded on the assembly-line systematic murdering of defenseless innocent babies (abortion) and government funded recreational sex (free contraception coverage).

Thank you. I personally would have difficulty calling them Catholic if they are openly speaking out against basic Church doctrine.

I have a trouble with the distinction that is often drawn on this forum; if someone attends the OF/NO, and *enjoys *it, doesn’t know Latin, and follows (so to speak) Vatican II, she is labeled a modernist, never mind that she is following, believing, everything that the Church holds as true. I personally won’t accept the label of modernist or traditionalist (as it’s labeled here). I am Roman Catholic. I enjoy Latin Mass ‘okay’, but I regularly attend and belong to a parish that celebrates only the OF/NO. I pray the Rosary regularly, as well as other devotions and novenas. I pray with the Saints, honor the clergy for their service, visit the Adoration Chapel, share my Faith with others (strangers, friends and family, when called to do so). I believe in Lourdes and Fatima. I believe in the charisms of the Holy Spirit, and know people who have them. I don’t look ‘down’ on other Catholics who may celebrate Mass (in the Church) in other forms than I do. I don’t try to divide and conquer the other ‘side’ (since I don’t have a ‘side’ other than being Catholic). That’s what division inside does. It conquers us for the enemy; it doesn’t unify the Church.

Both ‘sides’ are still Catholic. Why wouldn’t ‘modern’ Catholics follow the traditions mentioned in the OP? Traditional Catholicism isn’t either EF or NO/OF. This is not what some what call a ‘traditionalist’ forum. It’s a Catholic forum, with this subgroup for traditions of the Church.

Sorry if this wasn’t the answer to the OP, but it’s comment on part of the OP, and does answer the question that many Catholics follow tradition, not just one ‘subset’ or group.

 

[Brooklyn]

The best approach is to not let any exceptions become the rule. I saw Saving Private Ryan and the graphic scenes did nothing to enhance the horror of war. I watched a lot of war movies growing up. My Dad was a veteran. And like most of his veteran friends in the neighborhood, they very rarely talked about what they had seen. Sitting in a movie theater and seeing all the blood and guts is nothing compared to actually being there. In fact, especially regarding the last two generations, the increase in movies with graphic killing has left some insensitive to it.

Peace,
Ed

What about the Passion of the Christ? Do you prefer “King of Kings” with the blue-eyed Jeffrey Hunter and barely a scratch on him?