Francis Sales Betten (1863–1942)

It's a book that argues the Catholic church has the right, nay, the duty to prohibit it's members from reading books that might undermine the church. Crazy right?

It compares the books in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum to diseases and likens the ban against them to a quarantine for the good of everyone. It isn't enough for only those at risk of losing faith to observe the ban, every Catholic must, unless they have received dispensation from the clergy. Violating the ban is likened to King David murdering a man and taking his wife. That's right, reading [3745066::The Three Musketeers] was like committing murder according to the church. Those that have received dispensation are cautioned to protect their souls from the dangers of reading using both "natural and supernatural means".

It is in short an eye-rollingly hilarious and intellectually infuriating bit of claptrap. It paints a very clear (albeit unintentional) picture of the church's attempt retain it's power and influence by obliterating the voices of anyone that might challenge them. The most basic idea here is that ignorance is a small price to pay for faith.

Selected authors with works prohibited by the Index:

Galileo
Rene Descartes
Diderot
Alexander Dumas
Immanuel Kant
David Hume
Victor Hugo
Francis Bacon
Thomas Hobbes
John Locke
John Stuart Mill
John Milton
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Voltaire
Émile Zola

This book was published in 1909. The Index was last updated in 1948 and it's use was formally abolished in 1966 by Pope Paul VI.… (más)

As was recommended by Makifat, I went to
http://www.archive.org/details/romanindexforbi00goog
and I read the whole book today.

I am sure that most people have been aware of this mysterious Index of Prohitibted Books for years, but this is the first time I have availed myself of an opportunity to hear exactly what some Catholic representatives say about it. The book speaks about exactly what the reasons are for the rules, and then what the rules themselves are (summarized from popes Paul, Pius and Leol--I am sorry, I did not take down the numbers of those three popes). As well, the reader gets to see a list of prohibited books. Very fascinating. I was shocked--I guess I should not say shocked, but rather that it just confirmed my earlier expectation of likeliness to be disappointed--to see the following authors on the list:

Hugo
Dumas, father and son (All novels forbidden except for the Count of Monte Christo)
George Sand
Maeterlinck
Emile Zola (all novels forbidden except for The Dream)
Voltaire
Rousseau

It was funny to read how complicated the rules get for defining what is a book versus what it is called when a number of leaflets get combined together and bound as a book.
If I am paraphrasing it correctly, the book is telling Catholics to still obey their heart and their faith if they encounter a book that is not on the Index, and, once they have started reading it, if they discover that it is bad, just to put it down and find something better to read. It seems strange that pamphlets and leaflets would be dealt with any differently than books.
I think this just highlights something that everybody knows, especially those who live in a society where there is censorship: it is impossible for any censor, even if the government authorities hire a couple thousand people, to adequately be able to police all of the material that is printed.
Yes, it is like a flood, or like standing in a boat at the bottom of a waterfall, trying to catch all of the water in a pail. Sorry, too late, most of the water went past you and is already flowing downriver from where you are sitting in your boat.
You have to trust people at some point. Maybe you should not be in the government if your paranoia stops you from having enough trust in the people. It is not the text that determines if you will or will not do an evil act. It is what you do with a text that is important.… (más)