Moral Theology: A Complete Course Based on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Best Modern AuthoritiesCallan, Charles J. (Charles Jerome)
Religion
Moral Theology: A Complete Course Based on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Best Modern Authorities
Callan, Charles J. (Charles Jerome)
Christian ethics -- Catholic authors
(a) If a book is forbidden, one may not read even the harmless parts of
it, for there is the danger that, if one part is read, the other parts
will also be read. But, if the part that occasioned the prohibition be
removed, the prohibition ceases as regards the remainder of the book.
(b) If a work is forbidden, one may not read any volume, if all the
volumes deal with the same subject. But, if the volumes treat of
different subjects or of one subject that is divisible (e.g., universal
history), one may read such volumes as do not contain the danger that
occasioned the prohibition.
(c) If all the works of an author are condemned, the prohibition is
understood to apply only to books (i.e., not to smaller works), and
only to books dealing with religion, unless it appears that the other
kinds of writings are also included; but the prohibition is to be
presumed to include works that appear after the condemnation, unless
the contrary is manifest.
861. Some outstanding works that have been condemned are the following:
(a) In English: _Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire_ (Gibbons);
_Myth, Ritual, and Religion_ (Andrew Lang); _History of England_
(Goldsmith); _The Roman Popes_ (Ranke); _The Life and Pontificate
of Leo X_ (Roscoe); _Constitutional History of England_ (Hallam);
_Political Economy_ (Mill); _Happiness in Hell_ (Mivart); _History
of English Literature_ (Taine); _Reign of Charles V_ (Robertson);
_Zoonomia_, or The Laws of Organic Life (Darwin).
(b) In French: _Notre Dame de Paris_ (Hugo); _Life of Jesus_ and
eighteen other works of Renan; all the works of Anatole France; _The
Social Contract_ and four works of Rousseau; nearly all the works
of Voltaire; _The Gospel and the Church, Gospel Studies, The Fourth
Gospel, Apropos of a Little Book, The Religion of Israel_ (Loisy); all
the works of Jean Paul Sartre; _La Deuxieme Sexe_ and _Les Mandarins_
by Simone de Beauvoir.
862. What is meant by “use” of forbidden writings? (a) In the first
place, those “use” a writing who read it--that is, who go over it
with their eyes, understanding the meaning therein contained. Hence,
a person does not violate the church law against forbidden books if
he merely listens to another read; although he might sin against the
natural law, and even against the church law, if he induced the other
to read to him; neither does a person violate the church law, if he
merely glances at the characters, without understanding the sense
expressed. Example: Titus, a professor of theology, has permission to
read forbidden books, and he sometimes reads to his class doctrinal
passages from works on the Index in order to explain and refute errors.
Balbus examines very carefully the pages of a beautifully printed copy
of a forbidden work, but he understands hardly a word of it, since it
is in a foreign language. Neither Titus’ class nor Balbus are guilty of
reading as forbidden by the Church, for strict interpretation is given
to penal laws (see 485).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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