Talk:Imprimatur

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The explanations of Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat presented here are confused. The following Web page apparently gets it right: http://www.kensmen.com/catholic/imprimatur.html

More specifically, the current article seems to reverse the roles of imprimatur and nihil obstat. It would probably be more accurate to write, "While the nihil obstat certifies there is no moral or doctrinal error, the imprimatur is an express permission from the bishop for the text to be printed." (That is, the censor does the legwork, then the bishop confers his authority on the censor's decision.)

In addition, nihil obstat is better translated "nothing hinders" [publishing the reviewed work].

I would edit the actual Imprimatur article directly, if I trusted my ability to do so successfully. There are MANY rules and conventions I have not learned!

• • I do not believe this to be correct. An individual bishop has no power outside his diocese to forbid anything to be printed, thus he cannot offer a nihil obstat, only an imprimatur, which certifies that the text is free from moral error....Unless of course he is the Bishop of Rome. However, the censor, who is an agent of the Roman Curia/Holy See may certainly place a text on the "blacklist" of heretical publications. I believe the entry to be correct as it reads, and I offer as my reference the text "Catholicism for Dummies" by Trigilio (Ph.D./Th.D.) and Brighenti (Ph.D.). The text offers a Nihil Obstat from the Rev. Daniel J. Mahan, STB, STL, Censor Librorum, and an Imprimatur from the Rev. Msgr. Joseph F. Schaedel, Vicar General. This is a text I often require for my students, and I would hang my own Ph.D. on it's credibility.

Imprimatur translates as "let it be printed". I think this text is the wrong way round, too.

• The text is totally the wrong way round. I'm changing it. Phlogistomania 21:39, Apr 23, 2005 (UTC)

After consulting with the Curia, I amend my above-comments. Imprimatur is a permission to print, about this I was incorrect. However, it can only be issued by a bishop. Nihil obstat is a certification that no error exists, and is issued by the censor. --Essjay 15:02, Apr 25, 2005 (UTC)

• I've updated this document significantly; I work for a Catholic book publisher as well as for the bishop of the local diocese, and have worked to get the imprimatur on several books -- no offense to "Catholicism for Dummies," but it was definitely unclear (a Ph.D. doesn't necessarily mean someone understands Catholic practices very well...)  ;)

I was taught in theology class the imprimatur stamp means the Bible was translated correctly. This is a huge difference from it meaning the Bible agrees with catholic theology. The latter implies the Bible is translated in order to agree with catholic theology when it is the opposite. I found the mistaken definition of imprimatur quite offensive due to its implications.