Reading the Bible...

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POPE LEO XII in his UBI PRIMUM
  1. You have noticed a society, commonly called the Bible society, boldly spreading throughout the whole world. Rejecting the traditions of the holy Fathers and infringing the well-known decree of the Council of Trent, it works by every means to have the holy Bible translated, or rather mistranslated, into the ordinary languages of every nation. There are good reasons for fear that (as has already happened in some of their commentaries and in other respects by a distorted interpretation of Christ’s gospel) they will produce a gospel of men, or what is worse, a gospel of the devil!
RCs don’t have the right to buy a Bible from the Bible Society. :rolleyes: Although I know many RCs who do… I guess they are people who don’t want to obey their Popes… :o
 
Witness was suspended for activities under one of his other forum identities.
 
As a protestant, Brethren precisely, the word on the street was that Catholics were not allowed to read the Bible. Which I thankfully knew was not true, and was able to dispel as my **own first Bible **was given to me at my Catholic school in 1972. I still have it today.

Blessings
 
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I met with the Vocation Director of my hometown diocese to discuss a possible vocation.

One of the things he suggested is to keep a journal that included thoughts on readings from the Bible, even if it is just on the daily Mass readings.

Due to other things going on in my life, I have just started to do this a few weeks ago. Not only to I do the Readings, but the optional readings (I have a daily missal that contains a listing of the optional readings).

I have found it is helping me in my knowledge and understanding of the Bible.

PF
 
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JimG:
I grew up in the pre-Vatican II church, and we were never discouraged from reading the Bible.

JimG
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Same here, never heard of it.
 
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joegrabowski:
I’ve heard from many pre-Gen X. Catholics that they were told growing up (either by parents, teachers in Catholic school, or by priests and nuns) that Catholics were not allowed to read the Bible.

I’m just curious about how common this trend was, and also in what age-groups and demographics it was most prevalent. I’m a 21 year-old Catholic male, and while my Catholic school studies were never very Bible-intensive, I was never actively discouraged from reading God’s Word. Scott Hahn’s advice for being “Bible-Christians” as Catholics is, I think, an important part of being a good apologist, so this is kind of a disturbing concept for me.
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I am definitely post gen-X when it comes to being a Catholic since I joined the Catholic church in the early 90’s via RCIA (though born into GenX myself, thus part of my screen name of “ThornGenX”). In my RCIA classes, we were given bibles during the first few classes and encouraged to read it often. Also, every mass contains bible readings.
 
I went to a catholic school in the late 80’s and early 90’s and we were encouraged to read the bible.
 
Although a cradle Catholic, I was born in 1979 so my Catechism is still fairly recent! In Catholic circles I have always been discouraged (but never told NO outright) to study the Bible except by my mother who was a Catechist (now sadly deceased). She was the only Catholic I knew who supported regular Bible study. In my 25 years of receiving religious gifts from my Catholic family not one has ever bought me a Bible. My sister is 14 and she only owns a Bible because I bought it for her (amid some controversy) - shes too young and the like!

So IMHO I would say that Catholics are discouraged from reading the Bible - the idea is they get enough exposure at Mass (no way!)
 
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Timidity:
About 3 or 4 weeks ago, our priest gave a homily on this very thing. He said it was disappointing that it seemed that Protestants were better at reciting scripture than Catholics. He told us we should all be studying the Bible.

Unfortunately, it was a weekday mass, so he was probably “preaching to the choir” as the cliche goes.
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I was born in '52 and had 12 years of Catholic school. The Bible has always been part of what I was taught. Whether I listened and cared at the time is another matter alltogether.
We got a similar message at Mass a couple of weeks ago. The Bible has always been a part of our lives and I can remember that my Grandparents who were both very devout Catholics had Bibles and stuff all over the place and they were all heavily worn from use. My sainted Grandmother knew the Bible better than anyone I’ve ever met and I hope to make her proud of her grandson now that he’s home in the faith. I inherited a lot of that stuff and they are treasures of my soul.
Pax vobiscum,
 
Although a cradle Catholic, I was born in 1979 so my Catechism is still fairly recent! In Catholic circles I have always been discouraged (but never told NO outright) to study the Bible except by my mother who was a Catechist (now sadly deceased).
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Whew.

Would you mind letting us know your diocese? I think your bishop should be aware that apparently diocesean catechesis is severely lacking according to your testimony. This should be corrected to the NORM as quickly as possible. (The norm, of course, is, as it has always been for Catholics, study of the scriptures on a regular basis).
 
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teresas1979:
. . . IMHO I would say that Catholics are discouraged from reading the Bible - the idea is they get enough exposure at Mass (no way!)
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Teresa,

I think some of the folks at your parish or group may be misinformed. The Church has always propagated the Scriptures. In fact, if I am not mistaken, the Church stipulates for Catholics to read the Bible for half an hour to receive a plenary indulgence.
 
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Ignatius:
Teresa,

I think some of the folks at your parish or group may be misinformed. The Church has always propagated the Scriptures. In fact, if I am not mistaken, the Church stipulates for Catholics to read the Bible for half an hour to receive a plenary indulgence.
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YEP! That’s a fact! Been there and done that many times. Though I don’t need that motivation…
 
Church Militant:
YEP! That’s a fact! Been there and done that many times. Though I don’t need that motivation…
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Agreed, I read it for the joy I get in receiving Gods Word. I’m curious if teresas1979 was aware of it. Teresa?
 
***I’ve heard from many pre-Gen X. Catholics that they were told growing up (either by parents, teachers in Catholic school, or by priests and nuns) that Catholics were not allowed to read the Bible.
***–joegrabowski

No matter how energetically devout Catholics and deacons and priests deny this, I have to say that, over the years, as I participated in one Catholic Bible study group after another, there was clerical resistance to Bible study.
 
I chose the third choice because, growing up, I never read the Bible. Nobody told me no, but nobody told me I should either. In my scripture classes in high school, we pretty much were handed relevant Bible passages on a platter. I personally think it is a fine idea to read the Bible (I wish I could spend more time with it).

Eamon
 
BibleReader said:
I’ve heard from many pre-Gen X. Catholics that they were told growing up (either by parents, teachers in Catholic school, or by priests and nuns) that Catholics were not allowed to read the Bible.
–joegrabowski

No matter how energetically devout Catholics and deacons and priests deny this, I have to say that, over the years, as I participated in one Catholic Bible study group after another, there was clerical resistance to Bible study.
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That’s official Church teaching!
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I was born in 1954 and raised Catholic. Although we were never encouraged to read the Bible we were never discouraged. I have heard from different sources that at this time or that time in history the church forbade the private reading of scripture. But as has already been pointed out, a study of the fathers and later Catholic writings just don’t bear this out. Personally, I think it is an urban myth started by Catholic hating protestants.
 
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pippin:
I was born in 1954 and raised Catholic. Although we were never encouraged to read the Bible we were never discouraged. I have heard from different sources that at this time or that time in history the church forbade the private reading of scripture. But as has already been pointed out, a study of the fathers and later Catholic writings just don’t bear this out. Personally, I think it is an urban myth started by Catholic hating protestants.
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If you can’t find documentation of it before the 1530’s, then it is definitely started as you have said.
 
Two weeks ago at Mass, our Priest made mention that a big critizism of Catholics is that many don’t know the Bible. He basically challenged us to read it. He urged us to at least read & KNOW the Gospels if we hadn’t already.
 
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