Does this claim sound accurate?

[Gamera]

“Before Vatican II, Catholics were not allowed to participate in Bible studies with non-Catholics nor to read Bible guides published by non-Catholics.”

I never heard this claim before yesterday. I was browsing in a bookstore and found a massive tome called “The Catholic Encyclopedia” or something like that, edited by Richard McBrien, and it contained this claim. It sounded so spurious that I held off buying the book.

Any basis for this claim? Also, is this book any good, or no?

 

[rtconstant]

I’m not sure if it was out and out prohibited. I do know that even today it is advised against. The reasons though are more practical than punitive. It’s just that when it comes Bible studies a Catholic will often find him/herself on a completely different page than protestants may be.

Also, some Bible studies are set up for the purpose of “sheep stealing” as such it’s often felt it’s best to just not be there. Or at least this is what I’ve heard from priests. As a former evangelical I basically agree.

 

[BrianH]

“Before Vatican II, Catholics were not allowed to participate in Bible studies with non-Catholics nor to read Bible guides published by non-Catholics.”

I never heard this claim before yesterday. I was browsing in a bookstore and found a massive tome called “The Catholic Encyclopedia” or something like that, edited by Richard McBrien, and it contained this claim. It sounded so spurious that I held off buying the book.

Any basis for this claim? Also, is this book any good, or no?

I do not…really have a problem with Catholic having done this. Just the other day, a dear dear friend went to confession for the first time in 4 or 5 years to get right with God. Afterwards she was asking me about some authors, Joyce Meyer and such, I surprised her by telling her to run from the junk and go straight to a Catholic bookstore. She DOES NOT need mixed messages. IF you are going to be Catholic , BE CATHOLIC I told her. I am suspicious of Protestants who put themselves out there instead of lifting up Christ in their messages and books. IF it feels too good and does not require sacrifice, it is not biblical.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

Gamera;1939038 . . .I never heard this claim before yesterday. I was browsing in a bookstore and found a massive tome called "The Catholic Encyclopedia" or something like that:

I would be highly dubious of anything published by Father McBrien. See Review of Fr. McBrien’s “Catholicism” by the National Council of Catholic Bishops’s Committee on Doctrine
As far as I know he has never received an Imprimature for that book. He simply ignores the corrections and proceeds to issue a new edition.

 

[vern_humphrey]

When I was in Catholic Schools in the '40s and '50s., we read and studied the Bible. My grandparents, born in the 1880s, read and studied it – and had done so since childhood.

 

[Gamera]

When I was in Catholic Schools in the '40s and '50s., we read and studied the Bible. My grandparents, born in the 1880s, read and studied it – and had done so since childhood.

The book doesn’t claim that we Catholics didn’t study the Bible. What the book claims is that we weren’t allowed to study the Bible with Protestants.

 

[vern_humphrey]

The book doesn’t claim that we Catholics didn’t study the Bible. What the book claims is that we weren’t allowed to study the Bible with Protestants.

There were Protestant kids attending Catholic schools even in those days, and we all studied the Bible together. There were Protestants who converted to Catholicism, or who merely wanted to learn more about Catholicism, and we did not reject them. Protestants have always been welcome to attend Catholic religious instruction and Bible study.

Now, if you’re talking about Catholics attending some Protestant hellfire-and-damantion-the Pope-is-going-to-hell Bible school, I’ll agree that was not proper.