Article — Vermeersch, On Forbidden Books
Article 35
The approval of books whose censure, by force of the present Decrees, is not reserved to the Apostolic See or to Roman Congregations, belongs to the Ordinary of the place in which they are made public.
What things belong or do not belong to the Ordinary of the place
110. 1. Therefore, except for works whose recognition is reserved through these Decrees to the Apostolic See or to Roman Congregations, the censure, from article 35, belongs to the Ordinary of the place in which the work is made public (not therefore, as formerly, of the place in which it is printed1).
Moreover, through these Decrees there are reserved: versions of the Sacred Scriptures in the vernacular language without notes, concerning which article 7; certain publications of Indulgences, as was said in n. 87; and finally those things which are referred to here in articles 32-34.
A book approved by one can be read everywhere
2. But the approval of that Ordinary causes the book to be able to be read everywhere and by all. Thus from custom. But if another Ordinary shall have prohibited the same book, his non-exempt subjects, living in the territory of the one prohibiting, will have to observe this particular statute.
What if there were several editors?
3. What if there have been several editors, and these in different Dioceses? It will be enough if you report the approval of one Bishop: namely, of him whom you prefer, provided he truly was an editor. Thus it seems to us. For why the distinguished Pennacchi2 should look to the domicile of the author, we do not see. But the reason why the book should not be approved by several Bishops is both because article 35 speaks in the singular, "to the Ordinary," and because usage favors, and satisfaction is thus made to the mind of the law; and because it would be against the benignity of present law to impose too great a burden on writers.
1 Rule X of the Tridentine Index required that.
2 A. S. S., cited place, n. 72, p. 491.
What in places where very many books are published?
111. 4. What if in some city so many books are published that the forces of the censors seem unequal to recognizing them? Besides other provisions, this also can be taken: that the Ordinary of the place of publication defer to the sentence of the censor of the place where either the writer lives or the book is printed, so that, with the consent of this Ordinary, he makes that external censor as it were his own censor. And the Sacred Congregation itself positively confers a faculty of this kind. (Cf. the formulas below in Part Four.)
What concerning books of Bishops?
112. 5. What if a Bishop publishes a work outside his own diocese? Outside, I say, his own diocese. For it is too evident that a work of which he himself is author is approved by him, for any mention of this matter to be necessary.
But although article 41 directly imposes the obligation of censure only on the faithful (by which word Bishops are not designated in themselves), since those faithful are not only the writers of a book but also the editors, the law of previous censure must also be observed concerning these books. We are confirmed by the usage of the City, where even the works of Cardinals come forth recognized by the Master of the Sacred Palace and by the Vicegerent of the City. But if a Bishop publishes a book at the same time in his own diocese and outside it, he himself will have to require no censure.