Officiorum ac Munerum was an Apostolic Constitution issued by Pope

Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII ( it, Leone XIII; born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was the head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the second-ol ...

on 25 January 1897. It was a major revision of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, a list of books prohibited by the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. Along with the 18th century ''Sollicita ac Provida'', it forms the ''Leonine code''.

History

In 1753

Pope Benedict XIV Pope Benedict XIV ( la, Benedictus XIV; it, Benedetto XIV; 31 March 1675 – 3 May 1758), born Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 17 August 1740 to his death in May 1758. Pope Be ...

issued the bull "Sollicita ac Provida" which uniformly regulated the process for conducting cases concerning literary productions. Benedict stated that his reason for publishing this constitution was the many unjust complaints against the prohibition of books as well as against the Index. During the Vatican Council, great efforts were made, especially on the part of the French and Germany bishops, to induce the assembled Fathers to mitigate the ecclesiastical laws relating to censorship, but before this question could be discussed, the council was dissolved. Leo XIII took it upon himself to reorganize the ecclesiastical legislation in this respect, which he accomplished by the Constitution, "Officiorem ac Munerum". Since that time, for all literary matters, for censorship and prohibition of books, Of former enactments, the Bull "Sollicita ac Provida" alone has been retained; together with the new Bull, "Officiorem ac Munerum" it forms the first and general part of the Leonine Code, whereas the second and larger, but not therefore more important, part comprises the special, alphabetically arranged catalog of books forbidden by particular decrees since 1600.Hilgers, Joseph. "Censorship of Books." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 20 Jul. 2022

References

{{RC-document-stub 19th-century Catholicism Censorship in Christianity Documents of Pope Leo XIII

History

See also

References