Thus it is evident that this Holy See has always striven, throughout the ages, to condemn and to remove suspect and harmful books. The teaching of those who reject the censure of books as too heavy and onerous a burden causes immense harm to the Catholic people and to this See.
--Gregory XVI
Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas?
--Josef Stalin
Thank you for posting. I was disappointed that this important and pertinent to our times encyclical received so little reaction, despite being deeply countercultural today.
I think everyone can agree that ideas are more powerful than guns. No one could say that with greater authority than Stalin, who once dismissed one pope with “how many divisions does he have?”, and whose oppression of Poland was stopped by a pope a few decades later.
I think, the almost uninterrupted leftward march of any democracy in history, including the US, as well as the desacralization and now collapse of decency standards in the public square all point to a need to rethink the knee-jerk reaction against censorship that most Americans have.
Error has no rights.