THe Librorum Prohibitorm is a good example of how the onion must be peeled back. One must place prohibitions in the time and context of the censorships over the centuries in which it was used. There were certainly times in which books other than satanic texts were banned for more political, as well as the falsely interpreted conflict between faith and science, than religious reasons (a vestige and lesson learned from when the Church was too intertwined with political/royal institutions). Many of the more recent books were prohibited as not being definitions of Catholic Doctrine and opposed for use in the defining the Faith as handed down through the Church which Jesus entrusted to Peter. It did not necessarily mean that Catholics were absolutely banned from simply reading them — although it has been interpreted as such by many over the years. Today, approved books get endorsements or “non-objections” as opposed to filters and bans of books with ref to the Faith.
There is a decent and quick discussion posted below from this link. In the later part of the discussion, the author seems to blur the lines between the Librorum Prohibitorum and other instances of censorship.
http://catholicgene.wordpress.com/2011/09/24/index-librorum-prohibitorum/#comments
“The Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Index of Prohibited Books) was a list of those books that the Catholic Church considered immoral or theologically erroneous. Over the centuries, from 1559 to 1948, twenty editions of the Index were prepared until, on 14 June 1966, Pope Paul VI officially abolished the Index.
Still, today, any works that address the teachings of the Catholic Church are submitted to a local Ordinary, an officer of the Church who has ordinary power to execute Church laws. The Ordinary submits the work to an expert who evaluates the work and, finding nothing objectionable, the expert provides a nihil obstat, meaning “nothing forbids”. The local Ordinary then grants an imprimatur, meaning “let it be printed”.
Books have been subject to censorship for almost as long as books have existed. If an authority discovered something in a book to which he objected, he might have the book destroyed and the author punished.
The Index Librorum Prohibitorum included a large number of works that expressed views that those charged with its compilation thought were in conflict with the teachings and beliefs of the Catholic Church. From 1571-1917, the duty of compiling the Index was assigned to the Sacred Congregation of the Index. From 1917-1966, the duty fell to The Holy Office. In 1966, with the abolishment of the Index itself, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith announced that, while the Index provided moral guidance for Catholics, it no longer had the force of ecclesiastical positive law and its penalties.”
Can’t we just put that, ahem, embarrassing fact behind us now?