Papal Enc. on reading the bible

[Montie_Claunch]

My aunt this morning told me that when she was a kid (in the '50s and '60s) that she saw that the Catholic Church forbade people to study the bible by themselves and that they were to go to a Priest instead. I told her that there were Papal Ency. that were written to encourage the laity to study the bible. She told me to prove saying that it was proboly just Catholic Lawyering. Does anyone know the name of the encylicals and some good passages from them to show my aunt to show her that the Church encourages bible reading and that what she saw was not in accord to what the church teaches? Thanks and God bless.

 

[VociMike]

Sounds like your aunt is not open to the facts. Anyway, here’s the encyclical:

papalencyclicals.net/Ben15/b15spiri.htm

You might want to skip down to section 40 and start there.

 

[Fidelis]

Everything you need to know.:tiphat:

members.cox.net/fidelis927/cc_on_reading_bible.htm

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

My aunt this morning told me that when she was a kid (in the '50s and '60s) that she saw that the Catholic Church forbade people to study the bible by themselves and that they were to go to a Priest instead. I told her that there were Papal Ency. that were written to encourage the laity to study the bible. She told me to prove saying that it was proboly just Catholic Lawyering. Does anyone know the name of the encylicals and some good passages from them to show my aunt to show her that the Church encourages bible reading and that what she saw was not in accord to what the church teaches? Thanks and God bless.

Providentissimus Deus - Leo XIII 1893

Spiritus Paraclitus - Benedict XV 1920

Divino Afflante Spiritu - Pius XII 1943

Additional helpful documents:

Dei Verbum - Vatican II Council 1964

The Interpretation of the Bible in The Church - Pontifical Biblical Commission 1993

 

[Joe_Kelley]

My great-grandfather’s bible has a translation of a letter from Pope Pius VI to the Most Rev Anthony Martini, Archbishop of Florence, commending him for his translation of the bible and urging every effort to encourage the laity to read it - dated the calends of April 1778.

. . .the faithful should be excited to the reading of the Holy Scriptures: for these are the most abundant sources, which ought to be left open to everyone, to draw from them purity of morals and of doctrine, to eradicate the errors which are so widely disseminated in those corrupt times . . .

Bishop Cornelius Denvir of Down and Connor reiterates the desire that the laity read the Bible in his approval of the publication, dated 7 July 1853.