Why are there not Bibles in the pews of Catholic churches?

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ComplineSanFran said:
Of course. How many Catholics these days actually have a Bible in their home? And use it?
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Every serious Catholic I know owns and uses a Bible, though they may not read it every day or be able to quote from it like a Protestant. Bible study is all over the place and has been especially promoted to young people for decades now. You would have a hard time getting away from the Bible as a Catholic today.

The Catholics who do not have and use a Bible tend to be the ones who also do not attend Mass or Confession regularly or take their faith seriously in general. In other words, Catholic in name only.
 
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In the early church the Liturgy was the proper home for the Scripture (and for the very earliest Christians, that meant the Old Testament.) Scripture was intended to be interpreted by the Church and so the Church is the custodian of the texts. It’s also interesting to note that, among the earliest Christian writings, you will find liturgies and lectionaries. To loosely quote Scott Hahn the Mass is the original home of Scripture- they were never meant to be at odds, and it’s clear that was the case for the ante-Nicene fathers of the Church. They initially appeal to the authority of the Apostles, and the to their writings and those they passed the faith on to. A few centuries later we begin to see appeals to the Liturgy, suggesting it began to take on it’s own authority when settling certain disputes.

Reason shows us the results of privately or arbitrarily interpreting Scripture, a practice often justified on the grounds that the Holy Spirit allows the believer to do so. In some cases there are entirely new denominations or doctrines built on the dubious interpretation of one or a handful of verses. The Fathers knew Scripture was a cohesive whole.

Of course we are encouraged to study and read Scripture on our own, but it’s important to do so with the proper tools.
 
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Oh right. So Joe Protestant goes into HIS church and there’s a Bible lying in the pew. The preacher gives a couple of Scriptural passages and Joe follows along. And then Joe leaves the Bible in the pew and goes home.

You’re assuming JOE goes back to his home and reads his ‘home Bible" too, don’t you? I don’t see you saying, “How many PROTESTANTS have a bible and read it”< you simply assume they do because "it’s their heritage’. And you’re assuming Catholics DON’T.

I think that says a lot. You’ve already decided that the ‘average Catholic’ doesn’t own or care about a Bible, but the average Protestant does.
 
Zaccheus said:
Please clarify for me. How is Catholics reading the Bible at home instead of in the pews at Mass, a problem?
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ComplineSanFran
Of course. How many Catholics these days actually have a Bible in their home? And use it?
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I have four, and keep two Bible sites bookmarked on my desktop. At my weekly prayer meeting people bring their Bibles and read from them as the Holy Spirit gives them guidance.
The primary problem that the OP’s parents have is that Scripture is ‘suffocated’ during liturgical worship, which is basically true for a non-liturgical Christian.
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Suffocated? At every Mass I hear multiple Scripture readings, and each day the readings change according to a prescribed schedule designed to expose us to the Scripture as a whole.
Someone from a denomination that doesn’t do that may see it as ‘suffocation’: I see it as the Church being methodical and purposeful about teaching us. I could as easily claim that “non-liturgical denominations leave Scriptural teachings to the random impulses of the local preacher”. But you know, that would be unfair of me. It would be casting how you do things in the worst light. So I don’t make that claim.
Please don’t dismiss the world -wide, purposeful teaching practices of my Church as ‘suffocating Scripture’ just because we don’t do things your way.
Your comment implies that it doesn’t matter, because Roman Catholics just read the Bible at home. And that places the importance pretty low on the spectrum - no formal teaching, no commentaries, no guidance on what exactly you ARE reading and certainly no oversight from the Church.
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Multiple readings at every Mass. The priest gives sermons even if we do call them ‘homilies’ these days.
As for formal teachings, commentaries, etc–we go to Mass to worship God.

We can and do have Bible study sessions at other times. At Mass we are there to praise God, to witness again as it is presented to us again the sacrifice Christ made for us on Calvary, and to receive the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our God.
And you must admit that Catholics have a reputation for not allowing the people in the pew, as it were, to read the Bible on their own.
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That reputation is an outright lie.
To clarify, I do not accuse you personally of lying.
But the claim that we’re not allowed to read Scripture on our own is one of the common libels against the Church.
It may be old school rules, but it certainly was taught. And that reputation has followed you over the years.
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Along with many other slanders.
My neighbor - in her 70s - says that ‘only the priests are allowed to have a Bible.’ It doesn’t bode well for the concern of the OP’s parents.
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As I pointed out I own four copies of the Bible. (Two are small-print ‘travel’ copies for when I go places.) As I pointed out, at my prayer meeting people bring out their bibles to read passages. Your neighbor doubtless believes what she says. That doesn’t mean it’s true, just that she believes it.
 
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Zaccheus said:
I have four, and keep two Bible sites bookmarked on my desktop
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About the same here. I grew up with a Bible I’m the house, though in the 60s and early 70s it was not read much. Got my own Bible at age 13 as a textbook for my Bible class at school, read it cover to cover on my own that year, have had it ever since. Picked up a couple more editions in the last year or two but mostly use the free Douay and free NAB on the Web so I don’t have to tote a heavy book around, just my phone.
 
ComplineSanFran said:
And you must admit that Catholics have a reputation for not allowing the people in the pew, as it were, to read the Bible on their own. It may be old school rules, but it certainly was taught. And that reputation has followed you over the years. My neighbor - in her 70s - says that ‘only the priests are allowed to have a Bible.’ It doesn’t bode well for the concern of the OP’s parents.
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This has not been the case since at least the early 60s. Our family Bible was given to my parents as a wedding gift by the priest. Apparently they were given out to each married couple and my folks did read it together for a while when newly married, before I came along and they got busier. They got this Bible in 1961. In the 70s they bought another Bible because the church was selling them. I got a third Bible as an assigned text in high school. Our parish at home is hardly a progressive place (very blue collar) and yet there has been Bible study there off and on since the 70s. There’s also been Bible study at every Catholic church I’ve regularly attended since the 80s. (About 10 churches in about 4 states )

Your 70 year old friend sounds like she either doesn’t spend much time at church or was poorly catechized. My mom died a couple years ago, she was 89, and was well aware there was no prohibition or even discouragement of Bible reading by Catholics since at least the 60s. I see many 65 and 70 year olds reading scripture at Adoration, prayer services, Bible studies etc.
 
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I know, I’ve heard that old saw for decades. My grandparents had a family bible from 1890 (with papal indulgence frontispiece for reading the Bible 30 minutes daily). I mean, 1890! My mother, going to Catholic school in the 1930s, not only had her own missal (which was not prohibitively expensive) but received a Bible for 8th grade graduation. She attended schools in the Northeast and as far south as Virginia (the family moved a lot) so at least in that area of the country it seems as if Bible reading in Catholic families was encouraged and practiced.
 
My experience with religious education more or less mirrors what everyone else here has written.

My parents sent me to Catholic schools which were taught by nuns up until 7th grade and from that point on, brothers took over teaching the boys.

We used the Baltimore Catechism and in senior year of high school, we also were given our own bibles which we studied and in some cases memorized.

There were also various supplemental books that included some bible history and church history.

As a student, I requested and my parents gave me my own daily missal for Mass. [I was a snob, so I requested a Latin-ONLY volume.]

As an adult, I gained a tremendous appreciation for the material presented by Catholic Answers and by some of the Catholic Answers staff who started up their own educational groups.

I also tremendously have enjoyed Biblical Archeological Review and related resources … archeology is a really big deal, if someone is going to study what went on during “biblical times”.

In some cases, I was able to visit some of the biblical and other historical sites personally.

More recently, I began subscribing to “Magnificat” which combines Bible resources as well as writings from the various saints into a manageable daily reading resource.

Our church goes back THOUSANDS of years and has produced huge volumes of literature and writing of all sorts … it is interesting to dip into various aspects of the Church’s historical gifts and resources without being overwhelmed.
 
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Unlike protestant worship services where preaching from the bible, almost a bible study (with the preacher frequently directing “worshippers” to references in the bible), the summit of the Mass, and the summit of Catholic faith is the Eucharist.

The Mass is scriptural in essence, and the word is proclaimed in the Liturgy of the Word, leading up to climax of our worship, the Eucharistic celebration.
 
By my own questioning of fellow Catholics many of whom were well educated, they are not aware that the vast majority of the Mass … 80%? … is biblical in origin.

They actually think the priest makes it all up.
 
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How old are they? Catechesis has been dismal for decades. And do me a favor, ask your well educated friends some historical questions as well. Most Americans do not know the decade or even century that we achieved independence in the U.S., or from whom, when the Civil War took place, that Italy was originally part of the Axis, what the Bill of Rights is, the three branches of government. . .or much of ANYTHING about any other country. Heck, there are people living in New York City who think Vermont is part of Canada!

The point I’m making is that when it comes to any kind of history, religious, church, state, local, national, world, ancient or modern, the ‘average person’ knows next to nothing and cares less. The fact that some Catholics anecdotally queried know little to nothing about the history of liturgy should be put in its proper place --that they, and any other U.S. citizens, religious or not–know little to nothing about any history at all.
 
One might well ask Why are there not Bibles in the beds of Catholics or Protestants on their honeymoon? After all, they are supposed to be ratifying a biblical covenant!

The answer is that yes, the couple should have bibles somewhere else, and they do read them, and this aids their formation as married couples…but not necessarily in their honeymoon beds. This activity has meaning in itself (consistent with the bible).

The Mass is the Mass! It is biblical, true, but it is something crucial in itself!
 
Nothing much to add except some observations…
  1. I suspect there are a lot of people misinformed about the Church, either innocently or intentionally.
  2. I own at least 10 Bibles. Many are “protestant” versions. Often you get a much richer perspective on a topic that way. Quite often I will sit 3 side by side… amplified version, nrsvce, and a “parallel” bible containing KJV, NAS, NLT, NRV. very rich. Often I have to refer to the first two to get the context from the books missing in the parallel bible. For instance, Ephesians 6 spiritual warfare section nicely completes Wisdom 5, which otherwise gets lost.
  3. Catholics can’t own bibles is silly. I had to do a book report on one book of the bible in Grade School. 50s. (I picked Job. Many picked Genesis, many picked the shortest one they quickly found.)
  4. Short form answer for “no bibles in the pews” is to pick up a Missalette and open it to the Bible verses filling it’s pages.
  5. Bibles make great Christmas presents for protestants. Be sure to give a Catholic version. I prefer parallel Bibles with at least one Catholic version in it.
Blessings,
Stephie
 
I am a lector at weekday Masses. It is the responsibility of the lector to have an understanding of the Bible passages he/she is reading, in order to give the proper inflections on the passages. I was given the lector’s workbook for Sunday Masses, so that I can be drafted when need arises*. In this book, there is an explanation of the text, and this is critical. If you have any concern about a lack of the Biblical in the Catholic Mass, then perhaps this is your calling. When my reading drops in quality, my priest-mentors suggest that I do an examination of conscience, so this is a good feedback loop.
  • I have anxiety issues, and need to get used to this.
 
My initial thought was: why would there be bibles in the pews? The Mass is a worship service, not a bible study. (In my parish there are at least three bible study groups which meet a various times during the week. Sunday is for worship.)

My second thought was: that’s not entiely true. The Mass is composed of the Liturgy of the Word, followed by the Liturgy of the Eucharist. In the first part, there is reading and reflection on selections from the bible, from the Old Testament, from the Psalms, from the New Testament. In the second part, the sacrifice of Christ is re-presented as the one perfect sacrifice to the Father to which we unite ourselves, and then receive Christ in the Eucharist.

When Christ said “Do this in remembrance of me,” he was not referring to bible study.
 
Zaccheus said:
Please clarify for me. How is Catholics reading the Bible at home instead of in the pews at Mass, a problem
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It’s not that it’s a problem; it’s more that it isn’t necessary and also doesn’t really work well, given the structure of the Mass. You would have to know in advance the references for the readings of the day and have them tabbed in your Bible if you wanted to be able to turn to them in time during the Liturgy of the Word. Catholic liturgies are designed more for hearing and listening than for reading along (although of course most parishes have missals available with the designated readings for those who like to read along).
 
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Usually they are.
Well, the Bible passages being used at least, are in the missals usually.
I imagine at protestant services they don’t read the entire Bible each time, bud certain passages.
We do a similar thing, but instead of making you search in the Bible, the passages are all right there.

The liturgy is literally made from passages in the Bible essentially.

If there are not missals, then you simply listen to the reader reading the Bible.
Most people couldn’t read until hundreds of years ago, so hearing the Bible is how they learned from it.
 
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