Question on the Laity and the Reading of God's Word

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To get a complete answer on whether Catholics are allowed to read the Bible, read “Where We Got The Bible” by Henry G. Graham. He wrote this book in 1911 and the copy I have is the 31st printing. This book shows Catholics have always been encouraged to read the Bible, that the Bible was in Spanish, Italian, Danish, French, Norwegian, Polish, Bohemian, Hungarian, and English long before the invention of the printing press. In fact, the first English Bible was prepared in the 7th century. Also, know, the Douay-Rheims was published two years before the 1611 King James. Also, know that Latin was the spoken language of most people until just recently. In fact, Sir Isaac Newton published his mathematical works in Latin not English. If you had any education at all, you could read Latin and you definitely understood Latin whether you could read or not.
 
One of my best friends is a former seminarian who holds the Ecclesial Office of Acolyte and IIRC he has told me that one has to be someone of a “certified lector” (my term, by no means official) to be able to legitimately serve as a lector and read Scripture during Mass. I also recall him stating something to the affect that he can petition whoever the primarly celebrant is for any Mass to have him be the lector, wholly to the exclusion of all others who do not hold the same or a greater Ecclesial Office.

Do not take what I’ve just stated as being 100% accurate, I’ll ask my friend for more info and get back with you. He’s the kind of guy who wouldn’t say something like this unless he was absolutely for certain.
 
Your friend is mistaken. I am a lector and do not have any certification to be one. Neither are my friends who are also lectors at our Catholic Church. You simply have to be willing to read and you will be asked. I have even been a visitor at other parishes and been a lector. I don’t know where your friend got his information. But he is wrong. God Bless You.
 
I forgot that part of the question has to do with what the Catechism has. Here is what the Catechism says about Lectors. 903 Lay people who possess the required qualities can be admitted permanently to the ministries of lector and acolyte. “When the necessity of the Church warrants it and when ministers are lacking, lay persons, even if they are not lectors or acolytes, can also supply for certain of their offices, namely, to exercise the ministry of the word, to preside over liturgical prayers, to confer Baptism, and to distribute Holy Communion in accord with the prescriptions of law.”

I think you can clearly see that the Catechism says a person who does not hold a certificate of lector or acolyte can read. That is the situation at our parish. I don’t know of any of our lectors holding a certificate of lector. Does this answer your question?
 
mlpalice said:
I forgot that part of the question has to do with what the Catechism has. Here is what the Catechism says about Lectors. 903 Lay people who possess the required qualities can be admitted permanently to the ministries of lector and acolyte. “When the necessity of the Church warrants it and when ministers are lacking, lay persons, even if they are not lectors or acolytes, can also supply for certain of their offices, namely, to exercise the ministry of the word, to preside over liturgical prayers, to confer Baptism, and to distribute Holy Communion in accord with the prescriptions of law.”

I think you can clearly see that the Catechism says a person who does not hold a certificate of lector or acolyte can read. That is the situation at our parish. I don’t know of any of our lectors holding a certificate of lector. Does this answer your question?
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Your response helps. It doesn’t answer my question in its entirety since he’s essentially talking about a time span of centuries. But others have covered the history part of it as well. Speaking of which, thanks everybody.

The only thing that bothers me is that he says it still happens in third world countries. He hadn’t named which ones they were. I’m still unsure what to say about that considering that it is 2012 and I see no reason why that would be the case unless the Church hasn’t finished translating in that language, of course.

Not sure if he would take that as a sufficient response, of course.
 
mlpalice said:
Your friend is mistaken. I am a lector and do not have any certification to be one. Neither are my friends who are also lectors at our Catholic Church. You simply have to be willing to read and you will be asked. I have even been a visitor at other parishes and been a lector. I don’t know where your friend got his information. But he is wrong. God Bless You.
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Forgive me for I mis-spoke and nothing needs to be levied against my friend. I was confusing what he had previously told me, to further clarify he stated that his office compels him to read when present at Mass.

His response was,
Technically, yes. Practically, no. By the book, I have the duty to read at mass whenever I’m present. However, nobody enforces that directive, and I would anger people if I pressed the issue. I’ve gotten shot on this hill before, so to speak.
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Regarding the OP, it is my understanding that it was commonplace for someone with such an office to always read in years past and I had this conversation with my friend recently.
 
Kenny_Kamel said:
One of my best friends holds the Ecclesial Office of Acolyte and IIRC he has told me that one has to be someone of a “certified lector” (my term, by no means official) to be able to legitimately serve as a lector and read Scripture during Mass. I also recall him stating something to the affect that he can petition whoever the primarly celebrant is for any Mass to have him be the lector, wholly to the exclusion of all others who do not hold the same or a greater Ecclesial Office.
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mlpalice said:
Your friend is mistaken. I am a lector and do not have any certification to be one. Neither are my friends who are also lectors at our Catholic Church. You simply have to be willing to read and you will be asked. I have even been a visitor at other parishes and been a lector. I don’t know where your friend got his information. But he is wrong. God Bless You.
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Kenny_Kamel said:
to further clarify he stated that his office compels him to read when present at Mass.

His response was, “Technically, yes. Practically, no. By the book, I have the duty to read at mass whenever I’m present. However, nobody enforces that directive, and I would anger people if I pressed the issue. I’ve gotten shot on this hill before, so to speak.”

Regarding the OP, it is my understanding that it was commonplace for someone with such an office to always read in years past and I had this conversation with my friend recently.
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mlpalice, you are not a lector, you are a reader. What is the difference? Being instituted.

Kenny, what your friend has said is correct, including his assessment of the practicalities of it. I do hope that he has volunteered to be put into the regular rotation of readers at his parish.
 
onjac said:
The only thing that bothers me is that he says it still happens in third world countries. He hadn’t named which ones they were. I’m still unsure what to say about that considering that it is 2012 and I see no reason why that would be the case unless the Church hasn’t finished translating in that language, of course.

.
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Catechism of the Catholic Church:

133 The Church "forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful. . . to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.112
 
Pope St. Gregory I (died 604 AD)
“The Emperor of heaven, the Lord of men and of angels, has sent you His epistles for
your life’s advantage—and yet you neglect to read them eagerly. Study them, I beg you, and meditate daily on the words of your Creator. Learn the heart of God in the words of God, that you may sigh more eagerly for things eternal, that your soul may be kindled with greater longings for heavenly joys.”
[Letters, 5, 46. (EnchBibl 31)]
 
Pope Benedict XVI Audience Oct 28 2009

…is also important to set aside a certain period each day for meditation on the Bible, so that the word of God may be a light that illumines our daily pilgrimage on earth.

Pope Benedict XVI Address to Synod of Bishops Oct 6 2008

Furthermore, the Word of God is the foundation of everything, it is the true reality. And to be realistic, we must rely upon this reality. We must change our idea that matter, solid things, things we can touch, are the more solid, the more certain reality. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount the Lord speaks to us about the two possible foundations for building the house of one’s life: sand and rock. The one who builds on sand builds only on visible and tangible things, on success, on career, on money. Apparently these are the true realities. But all this one day will pass away. We can see this now with the fall of large banks: this money disappears, it is nothing. And thus all things, which seem to be the true realities we can count on, are only realities of a secondary order. The one who builds his life on these realities, on matter, on success, on appearances, builds upon sand. Only the Word of God is the foundation of all reality, it is as stable as the heavens and more than the heavens, it is reality. Therefore, we must change our concept of realism. The realist is the one who recognizes the Word of God, in this apparently weak reality, as the foundation of all things. Realist is the one who builds his life on this foundation, which is permanent….

……exegesis, the true reading of Holy Scripture, is not only a literary phenomenon, not only reading a text. It is the movement of my existence. It is moving towards the Word of God in the human words. Only by conforming ourselves to the Mystery of God, to the Lord who is the Word, can we enter within the Word, can we truly find the Word of God in human words. Let us pray to the Lord that he may help us search the word, not only with our intellect but also with our entire existence.
 
One has to look at all things within their historical context. First of so many people simply could not read --so things where taught orally or in art or memorizing things from the Bible etc. (Indeed I just read that still about 1/2 of people today cannot read.)

But did those who could read – read the Bible? Sure when they had one. Bibles where hand copied up until the printing press and so one had to go to the Church often to find the Bible there to read or a Library. But some had parts of the Bible and indeed other had even whole Bibles. Especially after the invention of the Printing press more could afford the to have one–the very first book printed was a Catholic Bible as I recall.

We loved and love Sacred Scripture…

Where there times or places when say a particular Bible that had been translated incorrectly or with notes that where contrary to truth – were forbidden to be read. Sure.

Would a Protestant hand a Jehovah Witness “New World” translation to his son to read or use it for evangelizing? or give it to a friend for his Bible study --no of course not. It is an erroneous translation …translated even in certain ways to seek to say Jesus is not God…

In that sort of case – it was a similar matter in different historical circumstances…

As to various claims or historical happening in various times and places over the last 2000 years --one would have to look at each claim… (and much that may be produced can be rather in the area of old polemics and myth…so keep that too in mind).
 
JackVk said:
The way I see it, we Catholics DO know the Scriptures. We just don’t know the citations. It’s like one person knowing the exact street address and the other say, “uh, they live that-a-way.”
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No, it’s like one knowing the street address and the other knowing ‘they live in the big blue house right across the street from the hospital’.
 
As evidenced by the thousands of Protestant communities today, reading the Bible does not prevent spiritual ignorance.
 
Bookcat said:
One has to look at all things within their historical context. First of so many people simply could not read --so things where taught orally or in art or memorizing things from the Bible etc. (Indeed I just read that still about 1/2 of people today cannot read.)
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They couldn’t read but they could understand the bible stories presented in Church windows. They may not have had the Bible in printed form but they had it in picture form. I was amazed at one Church how much of the Bible was presented in that form in just one Church.
 
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