1. Our Duties in Relation to Forbidden Books.
Rule 1. We are not allowed to read forbidden books, nor any considerable portion of them, even if those portions be in themselves harmless. If, however, a book is forbidden merely on account of the one or other objectionable passage it contains, the objection ceases as soon as these passages are expunged or rendered illegible.
Rule 2. No one, whether he be the owner or not, is allowed to keep a forbidden book. He must either destroy it, or give or sell it to some one who has permission, or he must obtain permission for himself.
Rule 3. It is not lawful for a Catholic [52] ]publisher or printer to issue, or print, or reprint forbidden books. Nor may a bookseller keep such books in stock, unless he has obtained formal leave to do so.
Note 1. Although all the members of a Catholic family should endeavor to keep forbidden books out of the home, the head of the household is chiefly responsible before God. It is to be remarked, however, that Catholic librarians or servants do not violate this law by keeping, handling, or cataloguing forbidden books for their employers, e. g. in the latter’s house, or in a public library.
Note 2. If a book or any particular issue of a forbidden periodical calls for a speedy public refutation, and if permission to peruse it cannot be waited for, any educated Catholic, who may be reasonably presumed to be competent to refute it by sermon, lecture or newspaper article, may read such book or periodical without awaiting special permission.
Note 3. In all other cases, each and every Catholic, be he priest or layman, professor or student, must first obtain permission. [53] ]Neither piety, nor learning, nor position exempts one from this law. The permission is granted by bishops and their vicars general, who can also delegate this power to others. When asking for this permission the applicant should mention the book which he thinks he has good reasons to read.
The juridical question, whether the bishop’s faculty is ordinaria, or quasi-ordinaria, or extra-ordinaria, and how far it extends, is not within the scope of this Summary.
Note 4. All who are dispensed from the Church law regarding forbidden books, must apply every possible precaution, in order that they may not suffer injury to their faith or purity of heart. Such precautions are: the hearing of sermons, the reading of Catholic books, the frequenting of Catholic society, regular prayers, and the frequent and humble reception of the sacraments.