The Bible is one of many sources for Catholic teachings, and the early Church fathers were the ones who were inspired to put quill to scroll, to put those letters down.
Then they were painstakingly copied by the scribes in a ridiculously laborious process of verifying each character as it is copied, and blah blah it’s complicated. Catholics fought and died to protect the Bible parts in existence, and even died for refusing to disavow their belief in them.
In the first centuries, the Romans didn’t take Catholics too seriously, so they really didn’t try to wipe them out. They just used a few here and there for entertainment for the emporer, and otherwise kept a good supply. Problem is, every time they killed a Christian, they created a martyr which inspired Christians to greater faith and they got stronger until 313 and …
My suggestion is get close with document that really take you to places you can only go now because of technology.
Read the Bible, or let the computer auto-read it to you. There is an audio version of NIV (not Catholic but arguably close enough for just getting the gist) on
biblegateway.org, but they also have some Catholic versions including NABRE and a DR. Never mind that just get into the scripture. I say start by reading the “red letter words,” as a high priority, which are mostly in the four gospels (Matt, Mark, Luke and John) because these are words Jesus Actually Said. To me that’s important because God spoke from the cloud and said, “this is my Son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him”
So Christ is the Living Word, and the BIble is the written record of the Living Word Jesus of Nazareth, and assorted other content the Church has assembled from various places over history.
OK so read/listen to the gospels. Anything, but I like to spend almost all my time in the “New Testament” which are everything starting at the gospel books above (BIbles online and paper both are arranged in the same order – except sometimes they also give an alphabetical index) and after it, through Revelation. The last book, Revelation is weird, so don’t take is seriously but it’s cool imagery. Genesis, the first book, is often taken to be literal by hard core “literalists” but the Church teaches that Genesis is written in figurative language, and doesn’t require us to accept it as true or not. I choose that for my purposes, it’s more useful not to try to believe it actually happened that way. I don’t want to go into it, but just remember if someone (including a Catholic) tells you that Genesis is “literally true” then that is their opinion, which the Church neither confirms nor negates.
Then check out the headquarters. Go to Vatican web site and look at all the cool stuff. The paintings, the architecture. Sure it’s opulent, but it’s so beautiful and it was all done to carry the Word of God to future generations, which we do in history, mystery, and He will come in glory.
When and if you ever are baptized or accepted into the Catholic Church, you will receive the Eucharist, which mystically becomes the body and blood of Christ, and you receive His actual presence when you eat the host.
And please consider some serious eye candy. Michelangelo himself painted the famous ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and you can take a virtual tour of the chapel here:
Sistine Chapel Virtual Tour, on the Vatican web site.
