Catholics Not Supposed to Read Bible Before 1952?

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I heard somewhere that Catholics were not supposed to read the bible before 1952. Is there any truth to this?
 
Well, being Catholic you should know what the answer would be.

How do you think those 8 editions of the Scriptures in German were printed BEFORE Luther came along?

And the Gospel in Vietnamese (French Jesuits) in the 1700s?

The Romanians? The Russians? Scores of peoples throughout history heard the Scriptures in their own languages.

After the invention of the moveable type for the printing press, Bibles were disseminated throughout dioceses and universities (they WERE Catholic schools after all!).

Sorry, but that so-called ‘what I heard’ thing about 1952 is historically wrong and glaringly idiotic to aver in light of conventionally accepted evidence.

Robert
 
Hardly, when there is an indulgence attached to the reading of Scripture.
 
Eileen_T said:
Hardly, when there is an indulgence attached to the reading of Scripture.
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That’s a good point. This is a question posed from time to time in this website. I’ve heard some good answers but sorry I can’t give you the links.

I have heard this question more and more in the last 20 years, always without any specific references to where this rumor originated, even in Catholic groups. The statement is posed with a tone of voice that suggests that perhaps even now we’re walking a tightrope when we read scripture.

At the same time, I’ve never heard anybody who actually can testify to this rumor, as having heard it anywhere in their lifetime. There was a post, I think, that said that scripture reading was actually prohibited in some diocese in Italy for a short time, hundreds of years ago. That’s the closest that my memory serves to any validity to this from my reading.

My mother claims that a Polish ancestry priest used to say that in a nearby parish, which would have been some 80 years ago. But, I don’t trust her on this.

Anybody who pops up with this question again, should be forced to provide the evidence or source of their misconception about the Catholic Church.

And, obviously, the question makes a lot of non-Catholics feel good about their rejection of Catholic teaching.

And, that’s really the basis for a deeper answer here, that Catholic teaching and faith is SO based on scripture, and the Mass is so based on Scripture that the fallacious nature of the question is self-revealing.

The Church’s teachings and encyclicals are so open and available, back to apostolic times, that it is simply a moot point.

“No” given in previous posts is simply the best charitable answer. And, of course, there’s nothing that happened in 1952 that bears on the question in any way.
 
Better tell my BIL this, as he (MIL and FIL) had his bible blessed before then.

Oh well. 🤷
 
My grandmother showed me the Bible she had from HER grandmother. It was a Catholic Family Bible - the kind where you write in the marriages, births, Baptisms etc. My grandmother was born in 1901 so the bible would have been from the 1800s. Sounds like reading the Bible at home was a pretty natural event if there were Bibles published especially for the home, right?
 
I think people misunderstood, hearing that

Catholics should not read a Protestant translation,

which was very commonly taught, espcially about the KJV, and immediately jumping to the conclusion that

*Catholics should not read **any *Bible.
 
:confused:

Where in the OP is the word Protestant (bolded or otherwise) ???
First_of_9 said:
I think people misunderstood, hearing that

Catholics should not read a Protestant translation,

which was very commonly taught, espcially about the KJV, and immediately jumping to the conclusion that

*Catholics should not read **any ***Bible.
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To repeat, Catholics were taught that they should not read protestant translations, i. e. the KJV.

This was misunderstood to mean that Catholics should not read ANY Bible.

In fact, one of the causes of the establishment of Catholic schools in the U. S. was that children attending PUBLIC schools in the 1800s were required to read the KJV Bible in school. Catholics objected to the fact that only the KJV was required to be read, and and the D-R was not allowed.
 
First_of_9 said:
To repeat, Catholics were taught that they should not read protestant translations, i. e. the KJV.

This was misunderstood to mean that Catholics should not read ANY Bible.

In fact, one of the causes of the establishment of Catholic schools in the U. S. was that children attending PUBLIC schools in the 1800s were required to read the KJV Bible in school. Catholics objected to the fact that only the KJV was required to be read, and and the D-R was not allowed.
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The OP did not, to repeat make this clear by not stating the word Protestant or non catholic bible to begin with.

Dont you think, proper replies can only come with a proper question?

And stop bolding so much, its like you are yelling at people.
 
stove said:
I heard somewhere that Catholics were not supposed to read the bible before 1952. Is there any truth to this?
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This is not true, as previous posters said. I merely attempted to provide a reason for this erroneous belief.
 
I think that what was really the problem re translations were the anti Catholic footnotes which often accompanied the translations.

I read somewhere that a bishop in Spain forbade the reading of the bible for a time but, as many have pointed out, it was because heretics were giving out bad translations of the bible and the Church wished the Faithful to read only translations which were consistent with Catholic doctrine.

A good book to read is *Where We Got the Bible *by Henry Graham which is available online. The only caveat I have is that one of the online sources have inadvertently typed a couple of incorrect dates.
 
stove said:
I heard somewhere that Catholics were not supposed to read the bible before 1952. Is there any truth to this?
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I have been looking through some of my old books in my library and I have one New American Bible St. Joseph medium size edition dated 1968

It was encouraged after the second VII and in fact the bible talks about getting partial and plenary indulgence for reading for one half hour.

We were all taught in school everyday, not sunday school, the bible stories, I was told to memorize the 23 psalm at age 10 that would have been about ’ 57. So no, we had to learn the ten commandments etc. we just did it everyday. We had our children missals that we got at 6 yrs. old for first communion and that was in ’ 54.

We were not told to not read the bible.
Dessert
 
I have an old Bible and the front it says Pope Leo XIII gave an indulgence to encourage the faithful to read it–and that was in the 1800s 🙂
 
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