Purifying Heat from Rome

Two books lose the church's seal of approval

Book burning by censors of the Roman Catholic Church sputtered out long ago. The Index of Prohibited Books, and other means of limiting what the faithful were permitted to read, faded away during and after the Second Vatican Council. Now, however, there are small signs that the pendulum is swinging back slightly. No flames of outright censorship are visible, but a purifying heat seems to be coming out of Rome. For the first time in 17 years, two books, one of them the bestselling adult catechism in English and the other a lesser-known theological work used mainly in seminaries, have had their ecclesiastical stamp of approval revoked.

Sexual Morality, by the Rev. Philip S. Keane of Baltimore, is a rather colloquial theological inquiry that has sold some 30,000 copies. In the book, Keane records his occasional differences with church teaching on matters like homosexuality, but is always careful in describing official doctrine. In 1977 Archbishop Richard Hunthausen of Seattle granted the book his imprimatur (Latin for "let it be printed"), which signified his judgment that the book was theologically sound. But as a spokesman for Hunthausen put it last week, "the archbishop had one notion of what imprimatur meant and the Holy See understood something else." At the order of Rome's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the imprimatur has been lifted. The move had symbolic import, but no actual censorship effect since church officials did not impose a ban on the work's distribution by the Paulist Press, its Catholic publisher.

The Paulist Press is also responsible for issuing Christ Among Us, a catechism by Anthony Wilhelm, a former priest. Since it was first printed in 1967, more than 1.6 million copies have been sold--166,000 of them last year--and for many of the nation's 52 million Catholics, the catechism had become an indispensable guide to applying church teachings to contemporary problems. Two months ago, however, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith concluded that Christ Among Us "was unsuitable as a catechetical text" and could not be made otherwise even with "substantial revisions." The Congregation's head, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, formally requested Archbishop Peter Gerety of Newark to remove his imprimatur. Without it, the book cannot be used in Catholic catechism classes; two weeks ago the Paulist Press bowed to the inevitable and stopped distributing it.

For several years, conservative church groups, led by Catholics United for the Faith, have been campaigning against Christ Among Us and other texts that they consider dangerously liberal. C.U.F., which counts 15,000 members in the U.S. and abroad, is trying to help "the confused get out of their confusion," says its executive director, E. William Sockey III. The popular catechism, he argues, is doctrinally fuzzy on a variety of issues: it suggests that Mary's virginity was more than mere "physical inviolability," but could still be meaningful even if purely symbolic; and it waffles on the question of how soon in his life Jesus knew that he was God. Sockey also assails the catechism's discussion of birth control. The book, says Sockey, "stands by the fact that many Catholics disagree in practice from the church without saying clearly that contraception is not a valid option."

It is not clear whether C.U.F.'s campaign had any direct impact on the Vatican's decision. Rome insists not. "The notion that we are subject to lobbying smacks of a U.S. political mentality, which does not apply here," sniffed one Curia official. What does apply, of course, is the wishes of Pope John Paul II, who wants the teachings of the post-Vatican II church expressed clearly and uniformly. A new code of canon law, enacted last November, limits the requirement for an imprimatur to texts used in teaching. Catholic theologians, including those in the clergy, are thus freer to explore differing opinions. But when it comes to books intended to elucidate official Catholic dogma, the Vatican has now sent an unmistakable signal. Such texts must be unequivocally faithful to church doctrine if they are to have the church's formal blessing.