Chapter — Vermeersch, Theologia Moralis
Title III: On the Censorship and Prohibition of Books
Usefulness. - The rules concerning the censorship of books are chiefly useful for clerics themselves; the rules concerning the prohibition of books affect all. In this matter one cannot first neglect what natural prudence already prescribes; then the faithful are to be warned that it is not enough that they attend to the Index of prohibited books, but that they must also look more to the general rules by which very many works are prohibited. Since writings come forth in such number, it will also help the priest to have at hand a book or periodical booklets which prudently instruct readers concerning the merit and dangers of works which are published in print.
— Appendix XIX belongs to this section. Historical. Cf. Appendix XIX.
— Introduction. In the fourth part of Book III, which is inscribed On the Ecclesiastical Magisterium, the Code assigns Title XXIII, consisting of cc. 1384-1405, to treating again the matter of the censorship and prohibition of books, which Leo XIII had entirely arranged anew by the celebrated Const. Officiorum ac Munerum, 25 Jan. 1897. And because it treats that matter anew, at the same time, from c. 22, it abrogates every earlier law, although in reality it differs little from the previous Constitution.
But while the latter had treated first of the prohibition and then of the censorship of books, now, with the order inverted, the chapter on censorship is placed before the chapter on prohibition.
By canon 1384, more general and introductory, the Church vindicates for itself the right of censorship and prohibition over the books of the faithful. At the same time it thus defines the extensive force of the canons, more clearly but more severely than before the Code, so that "what is prescribed under this title concerning books is applied to daily publications, periodicals, and any other published writings whatsoever, unless something else is clear."
Therefore, of themselves, leaving these distinctions aside, the rules fall on sheets and booklets just as on books; on periodicals just as on separate works; on lithographed writings just as on printed ones, provided, however, they are published, i.e., become public property, or are spread among the people, or stand open promiscuously to all, and are not merely destined for selected persons, for example hearers (to whom others may perhaps be joined per accidens), so that they can be considered as a manuscript.
But to the general extension, which is presumed, there are exceptions, which, however, must be proved so that the presumption may be overthrown. But an exception can be clear either from the nature of the thing or from the context of the speech, as is said in c. 188, 7°. From the nature of the thing: thus prior censorship of a daily paper or of an image will have to be made otherwise than of a book; from the context of the speech: thus c. 1386 itself distinguishes books from daily papers and periodical booklets.