[22]
]There was another priest, who has meanwhile died the death of the just, a celebrated author and art critic. In writing a work on Voltaire he had to study the books of that arch-agnostic. He obtained the requisite permission, but, while perusing Voltaire’s writings, he was on his knees, to implore, as it were, by this humble posture the protection of God against the wicked influence to which he was exposed.
St. Francis of Sales, the great and learned Bishop of Geneva, had obtained permission to read the books of heretics in order to refute them, and he is careful to let his readers know the fact, at the same time thanking God in pathetic words that his soul had suffered no harm in so great a danger.
This grave natural duty in the choice of our reading matter extends much farther than the legislation of the Church. Parents and priests do not comply with their obligation of controlling the reading of their charges if they merely look up the Index to see whether a certain book is mentioned there. If an otherwise unobjectionable [23] ]book contains an obscene passage of a page or so, no one will claim that it falls under the general law prohibiting obscene books. Nor is it likely to be put on the Index. Yet such a book is apt to work havoc in the innocent soul of your daughter or son, perhaps in your own. As long as that passage is in it, the book—even though it is not on the Index—cannot and must not, under pain of sin, be allowed in the hands of children.
Would that this twofold duty were always faithfully complied with, especially in our large cities, where books of every sort are within easy reach. Do not many, perhaps all, public libraries offer among other books such as are “derogatory to the Church, the hierarchy, the religious state,” and especially novels which “defend as lawful or tolerable, freemasonry, suicide, divorce”? How can we expect our young people to have Catholic views on courtship and marriage, on the priesthood, on the veneration of the saints, if we allow them to imbibe the ideas of such writers as Balzac or Dumas? It is deplorable enough [24] ]that the modern novel is the catechism of millions outside of the Church. We must not allow it to displace the Catholic catechism or to unteach, totally or in part, the truths taught by it.
7. Who Puts Books On The Index?
The popes have at all times exercised the prerogative of their supreme office as guardians of the faith by condemning books opposed to the faith. The latest of such condemnations is that, in 1862, of the works of the Munich professor, Frohschammer, who answered this condemnation by falling away from the Church. There are in all 144 books that were individually proscribed by a papal document. In Pope Leo’s edition they are marked with a dagger. Yet only in cases of the utmost importance did the popes act themselves. To facilitate the government of the world-wide Church, in the course of centuries special committees of cardinals were appointed, to whom part of the pontiff’s various duties were entrusted. These committees are styled Congregations. A larger or smaller [25] ]number of learned priests and bishops, generally called Consultors, assist the cardinals and practically do the greater part of the work, though the final decision in all cases is reserved to the cardinals.
The highest of these Roman Congregations
is the Sacrum Officium or “General Inquisition,” called also the “Congregation of the Holy Office,” of which the Pope himself is Prefect. Its purpose is especially to watch over the purity of faith. It is this august body that, after the Pope himself, is in the first place called to judge the doctrines propounded in any book. It was this Congregation that performed the preparatory work for the first Index of Paul IV, and, although another congregation for the examining of books was soon after established, the Sacrum Officium continued to exercise the same power. As may be expected, especially such works as seemed to affect the integrity of the faith, were submitted to this supreme court. In our days the works of the French priest Loisy were proscribed by the Sacrum Officium.
[26]
]But the bulk of this work is at present performed by the Congregatio Indicis librorum prohibitorum, or “Congregation of the Index of Forbidden Books.” It was founded by Saint Pius V in 1571, seven years after the publication of the Tridentine Index. Since then about eighty per cent. of all individual prohibitions of books have emanated from it. Its Prefect is a cardinal. The present one is Cardinal Segna. The perpetual assistant and secretary are always members of the Dominican order. Besides the seven or ten cardinals there are about thirty consultors, many of whom are bishops.
Though three or four prohibitions of books have emanated from other Roman authorities, the practice has been to let either the Sacrum Officium or the Congregation of the Index decide in all cases. The latter Congregation, moreover, had to register all condemnations pronounced by any of the legitimate authorities and to see that they were entered in the new editions of the Index.