Skip to content

Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC

Priest, Religious, Moral Theologian, Autistic, Writer, Social Media Guru, etc.

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Home
  • About me
  • Contact Me
  • Sensory-Friendly Mass Directory
  • Order My Book
Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC

You are here:

  • Home
  • 2022
  • January
  • Licensing the Catechism

Licensing the Catechism

January 13, 2022 Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC

Eight Years ago, Brandon Vogt had a long piece on how much trouble it is that the Catechism and NAB (Bible translation used at Mass) are so expensive, and how hard they are to distribute. I think he is mainly right but I suggest maybe one slight variation. This came up as an issue as people were talking about Fr. Mike Schmitz’s Catechism in a year. Someone noted how initiatives to read the catechism had been stifled in the past by rules around publishing it.

Vogt Showing the Issue with the Catechism

The Catechism in Front of our Christmas Tree (CC BY-NC 3.0)
The copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church that my Community owns. I found no images of the Catechism searching for creative commons images (kind of meta given the post topic). So, I took this photo myself in front of our tree. I release this photo under CC BY-NC 3.0. Maybe, it will be listed as one if someone else searches for a creative commons image of the Catechism. ?‍♂️

Brandon Vogt begins:

The problem: Right now, many of the faithful are being restricted from fully sharing Scripture and other teachings of the Church in the most effective ways. We need to be flooding the world with the lumen fidei—the light of faith—yet there are current Church policies preventing this from happening.

The current licensing policies for the most essential texts and teachings of the Church (e.g. the Bible, the Catechism, encyclicals, etc.) are making it difficult, expensive, or impossible for Catholics to fairly reproduce and share them. This well-meaning but imprudent policy is directly hampering the Church’s evangelistic mission (as is clearly shown below).

Vogt’s Personal Experience Leading to This

He tells a story of what happened to him.

A couple weeks ago, Pope Francis announced that on Friday, July 5 he would release his first encyclical, Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith). The “work of four hands” would explore the theological virtue of Faith and I was thrilled. I had already gobbled up Pope Benedict’s encyclicals on Hope and Charity, and could not wait for this one.

I was particularly excited to share the document with others. I wanted to discuss it with friends and invite unbelievers to read it, too. To that end, I had an idea: when the encyclical was released, I’d convert it, free of charge, to other popular formats like Kindle, Nook, iPad, and more. That would help thousands of people immediately engage the text, many of whom would otherwise never check it out (like people who exclusively use e-readers). […]

I was so happy to help, but there was one big problem: I was wrong. I quickly received a litany of emails from the USCCB and Holy See, explaining that they had a clear and legitimate copyright on the text. And since I had no permission to share it, I was engaging in illegal activity. The folks could have, perhaps, used softer language—I was accused of “[violating] both civil and moral law” and “stealing from the pope”—but they were unquestionably within their rights to ask me to remove the eBooks.

In good faith, I complied. I took the documents down, admitted I was wrong, and publicly and privately apologized (especially for accusing them of valuing profit over catechesis, which was a regretful knee-jerk reaction.) Just to be clear, I’ll apologize again here: to the USCCB, the Holy See, the Libreria Editrice Vaticana (LEV), and our Holy Father, I’m deeply sorry for overstepping my bounds and disseminating the encyclical without permission. I was wrong and should not have done that. My intention was simply to spread the Pope’s teaching but good intentions do not justify violating the Vatican’s copyright.

Vogt’s Solution

In the end, here is Vogt’s solution:

Release all magisterial teaching under a Creative Commons-Attribution-NoDerivs license.

Here’s what each of the elements in that fancy, technical name means:

–Creative Commons – A type of license that lets you share your work generously without losing your control over it

–Attribution – Requires that proper credit be noted on any reproduction

–NoDerivs – Prohibits changing or altering the work, or producing derivative versions

Under this license, people may copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of the work. It’s an extremely popular way of safely distributing texts, especially digital content. In fact, over 400 million Creative Commons licenses have been deployed by individuals and large organizations, including Wikipedia.

Slight Variation

I think Vogt is generally right, but I would change two things that work together.

First, I would add a fourth thing often included in Creative Commons: Non-commercial in that you can’t use that content under creative commons to make money. This would mean you can’t sell the work without permission. (Jonathan Sullivan suggests similarly.)

Second, make an easy way for anyone who wants to print magisterial teachings and sell them to register with something like 5-10% of sales going to the USCCB or Vatican.

10% is what authors generally get for printed or ebook materials, which are the formats likely to be printed to attempt to make a profit. Vogt had mentioned, “Some publishing friends shared that the licensing fees they’re forced to pay in order to print the Bible, Catechism, or papal documents make it nearly impossible to break even. They’re forced to either mark up their books or just not publish them at all. Neither is a good option if the goal is to spread the teachings far and wide.” This seems to be much more than the standard 10%. I doubt paying the author of the translation 5-10% would make it commercially unviable as that percent is covering a lot that is also done by editors in a standard book publishing system.

I think there is a matter of justice in that if you are making money from something made by some living person you should attempt to give just remuneration. I bought an e-book collecting all the original Theology of the Body talks in Italian and I paid something like $1.99 for it. I think in such a case, out of justice, the person should be giving at least a portion to the Vatican which can then be used for operations or given to charity. Sure, the editor did something by structuring them all in an easy-to-read ebook format with proper inking between a table of contents and putting in on Amazon and I have no issue with paying him a bit for that, but a portion should also go to the author.

I realize that the biggest obstacle in favor of Vogt’s approach may be bureaucratic issues at the USCCB or Vatican making the second half here unworkable. If that can’t be overcome, go with Vogt’s plan, and tell publishers they should give 5-10% of the sales price to Vatican / USCCB translators. I think printed versions are helpful in many circumstances and although we can do ebook conversions for little to no cost, printing physical books always costs money.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Liked it? Take a second to support Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC on Patreon!
Share:
Tagged with Brandon Vogt, Catechism, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Copyright, Creative Commons, Lumen Fidei, Pope Francis, USCCB, Vatican
  • Catholic Social Doctrine
  • Evangelization
  • Practical Tips
  • Vatican

Post navigation

Previous Post

A Catholic Religious Exemption for Being Muslim?

Next Post

Identifying and Arguing Against Reductio ad Absurdum (1/2)

Related Posts

  • Issues with (Br) Alexis Bugnolo, Ordo Militaris & FromRome

    March 26, 2021
  • McCarrick in 2008 (World Economic Forum CC BY-SA 2.0 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Theodore_Cardinal_McCarrick.jpg)

    McCarrick Laicized: The End of the Beginning

    February 16, 2019
  • Pope Francis in Prato, Italy in 2015 (CC BY-SA 4.0 Zebra48bo)

    Pope Francis’s Words on Civil Unions Distorted by Editing

    October 22, 2020
  • STM Kargu drone - same drone family as used

    Autonomous Warfare is Here

    December 28, 2021

Subscribe to the weekly newsletter!

Patreon

Support Fr. Matthew on Patreon!

Tweets by FrMatthewLC

Tag Cloud

@22Catholic Abortion Amoris Laetitia Autism Autistic Autistic Prayer book review CDF Chastity COVID-19 disabilities Eucharist evangelization Facebook Fetal Cell Lines Gender Differences God Loves the Autistic Mind HEK-293 Homosexuality Jesus March for Life Marriage Morality National Catholic Bioethics Center National Catholic Register Parenting Participation in evil Pope Pope Francis Prayer Priesthood pro-life remote cooperation Science Sensory-Friendly Mass Social Media Teen Psychology Theology Twitter USCCB US politics Vaccines Vatican virtues Vocations

Latest Posts

  • Extraordinary & Ordinary forms of the Mass Sensory-friendly Masses Can Be Ordinary or Extraordinary Form
  • Three of the March for Life Signs in the post Great Post-Dobbs Signs at the March for Life
  • Plough's cover image with God Loves the Autistic Mind Editors’ Pick in Plough: God Loves the Autistic Mind
  • Catholic News Service logo God Loves the Autistic Mind reviewed on Catholic News Service
  • Priests for Life image of Frank Pavone Frank Pavone Timeline

Categories

Connect with Me

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • RSS

Recent Comments

  • Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC on COVID Vaccines Are Ordinary Means & Thus Morally Obligatory (National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly)
    I've have looked at several of these claims of evidence that the COVID vaccines were more harmful
  • Marie on COVID Vaccines Are Ordinary Means & Thus Morally Obligatory (National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly)
    I'm sorry, Father. I do not intend to do that legwork for you today. Forgive me for this stance, but
  • Waldemar de Swarożyński h. Kot Morski on Sensory-friendly Masses Can Be Ordinary or Extraordinary Form
    Hand holding is also very regional. I never saw that in Polish churches, for example. It always made
  • Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC on COVID Vaccines Are Ordinary Means & Thus Morally Obligatory (National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly)
    If you could provide a peer-reviewed (or at least reasonably solid) source showing that risk of
  • Marie on COVID Vaccines Are Ordinary Means & Thus Morally Obligatory (National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly)
    Father Matthew, I am an occasional reader of your blog (mostly when linked from NewAdvent), and have

Top Posts

  • Frank Pavone Timeline
    Frank Pavone Timeline
  • Sensory-friendly Masses Can Be Ordinary or Extraordinary Form
    Sensory-friendly Masses Can Be Ordinary or Extraordinary Form
  • Great Post-Dobbs Signs at the March for Life
    Great Post-Dobbs Signs at the March for Life
  • Avoid the "Priests for the Restoration of Catholic Life"
    Avoid the "Priests for the Restoration of Catholic Life"
  • Why Such a Focus on Extraordinary Form in Catholic Media and Online Discussion?
    Why Such a Focus on Extraordinary Form in Catholic Media and Online Discussion?
  • Issues with (Br) Alexis Bugnolo, Ordo Militaris & FromRome
    Issues with (Br) Alexis Bugnolo, Ordo Militaris & FromRome

Patreon

Support Fr. Matthew on Patreon!
Log in
  • Home
  • About me
  • Contact Me
  • Sensory-Friendly Mass Directory
  • Order My Book
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • RSS
Content copyright Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC. Theme by ThemeZee