Bible Selector Bible Selector

There are sev­eral pos­si­ble stages involved in the Roman Cath­o­lic bible approval proc­ess.  Please note that most of these stages are paro­chial.  Gen­er­ally, each suc­ces­sive stage requires a higher level of author­ity and the meet­ing of a stricter stand­ard.

• nihil obstat — This is the ini­tial eval­u­a­tion that assures the reader that a doc­u­ment does not teach any­thing con­trary to Cath­o­lic doc­trine.
• imprimatur — A more author­i­ta­tive stamp of approval that can only be granted by a bishop or high­er-rank­ing offi­cial.  This assures the reader that the doc­u­ment has been offi­cially approved for print­ing and for use by Cath­o­lics.  Gen­er­ally speak­ing, all Cath­o­lic bibles will have been accred­ited with an impri­ma­tur.
• Litur­gi­cal Approval — This approval is granted by a regional coun­cil of bish­ops (e.g. the U.S. Con­fer­ence of Cath­o­lic Bish­ops).  Prior to 1983, indi­vid­ual bish­ops were per­mit­ted to approve bibles for litur­gi­cal use.

• Vatican Approval — Since 1983, the Vati­can has required all pro­posed lec­tion­ar­ies to undergo Vati­can approval.  Under­stand­ing this stage is impor­tant!

  First, please real­ize that what is pre­sented to the Vati­can for eval­u­a­tion is not the entire bible ver­sion, but rather just the text of the pro­posed lec­tion­ary.  Sec­ond, you should know that only those bible ver­sions pro­posed for lec­tion­ary use are pre­sented to the Vati­can for approval (and sum­mar­ily eval­u­a­ted).  There­fore, Vati­can approval does not indi­cate that the entire text of the bible ver­sion has been approved by the Vati­can!  Also, most Cath­o­lic bibles have not been sub­mit­ted for approval — includ­ing one of the best Cath­o­lic bible ver­sions avail­a­ble (in my opin­ion, the best bible ver­sion bar none). 

  So, Vati­can approval of a bible for lec­tion­ary use is a great indi­ca­tor of that par­tic­u­lar bible’s ortho­doxy.  How­ever, the lack of Vati­can approval only tells us that the bible ver­sion in ques­tion has not been pro­posed for use in a lec­tion­ary since 1983!  On the other hand, a rejec­tion by the Vati­can is a great indi­ca­tor that the par­tic­u­lar bible ver­sion is less than fully ortho­dox by Vati­can stand­ards.

References

• fish eat­ers.  “ ‘Imprimi Potest,’ ‘Nihil Obstat,’ and ‘Impri­ma­tur’ ”.  Retrieved June 8, 2009.
• Cath­o­lic Doors Min­is­try.  (2007).  “Frequently Asked Ques­tions about an IMPRI­MA­TUR AND/OR NIHIL OBSTAT”.  Retrieved June 8, 2009.
• clerus.org.  Code of Canon Law 792.  “Canon 838.” Retrieved June 8, 2009.