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

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ComplineSanFran said:
I am not going to correct a very devout woman. And I am not perpetuating a wrong stereotype. It was obviously taught that laity shouldn’t be reading the Bible. And now that has changed.
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Have you ever done a Google search for “flat earth”? You can find people right now, today, who insist it’s true.
I’d bet if I searched for “Protestants who believe in a flat earth” I could find a few. But it would be most unfair and wrong of me to pretend that I had proved that Protestants as a whole believe in such a thing.

The Church does not, and never has taught that only priests should read the Bible. At most you can point to individual Catholics who held that view, some large number of years ago.
 
ComplineSanFran said:
But if that is what she was taught as a child in the 40’s and 50’s, then of course she is going to believe it. (And just to put at rest a previous poster’s comments, her mind is quite sharp. But thank you for assuming otherwise.)
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it could be that is what she thought was being taught. At that young of an age it could easily be misunderstood. However, if she was a continuing practicing Catholic she would have learned about the error. Is she still a practicing Catholic and if not when did she stop attending the Catholic Church?
 
ComplineSanFran said:
I am not going to correct a very devout woman. And I am not perpetuating a wrong stereotype. It was obviously taught that laity shouldn’t be reading the Bible. And now that has changed.
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My mother is 85. She was taught the Bible from 1st Grade through 12 as she attended a Catholic High School. She had her own Bible and it was well used so did her 9 brothers and sisters. A woman can be very devout and still be wrong in her understanding. The prohibition was against PERSONAL interpretation, only. Because obviously personal interpretation leads you away from the Truth. But reading the Bible for personal inspiration is highly encouraged.
 
ComplineSanFran said:
I am not going to correct a very devout woman. And I am not perpetuating a wrong stereotype. It was obviously taught that laity shouldn’t be reading the Bible. And now that has changed.
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Well, I was in Catholic grade school in the 1950s and remember things a little differently.

My family had a leather-bound, illustrated copy of the Douay-Rheims Bible which I liked to look through because of the pictures. The translation was “difficult” for me as a child and I didn’t read it because of that. However, no one told me I couldn’t if I had wanted to. Sometime in the early 60s, the Catholic school one of my brothers attended gave him a copy of the Confraternity Bible revision of the NT at his Confirmation.

In school, the sisters would read us stories from both the OT and NT and then explain them to us. On Sundays, the Gospel was read in Latin but if my memory hasn’t totally gone, the priest did read it again in English before giving his sermon. I had my St. Joseph’s missal and had access to the Bible readings in both Latin and English.

What I do remember was being told that the Bible can be difficult to understand and is often misinterpreted and should be read only under the guidance of the Church and in conformity with the Church’s teachings. But no one told us it was forbidden to own a bible or read it!

God Bless!
 
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I have “Blessed be God” which is the very best I have found in a Catholic prayer book. It is 748 pages long. In it, there is a section for Adoration. There are three pages or so of different prayers and then there is a section called "An hour before the Blessed Sacrament, which is probably in your adoration book. I have been trying to decide if I should by the adoration prayer book in addition to this. I would appreciate any thoughts you might have time to share with me on that. It is almost Thanksgiving so if you are busy I understand.

Thanks!
 
You SAY it was a ‘common teaching’. Balderdash. Show some proof other than the assertion of ONE Catholic friend.
 
Right. It kind of has the ‘appearance’ of “I’m not going to correct a woman I perceive as devout, especially when I can then use her testimony as a corroboration to an opinion I want to present as true based on that kind of testimony!”
 
Who says Catholic Churches do not have Bibles in the pews? Some of them do. Our parish has Ignatius RSV-CE Bibles in the pews along with the hymnals and missalettes with the readings for Mass.
 
NewJourney said:
Thank you for your response! My parents actually left the Lutheran church recently because they felt that the liturgy “suffocated Scripture” and that they were not being spiritually fed at our liturgical Lutheran church.
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I have an Evangelical Free friend who has similar feelings about liturgical services. 😉
 
I’m curious, why would Bibles need to be in the pew even in a Protestant service? I’ve never been to or heard of any service where all the people pull out their pew-Bibles and silently read them (I’ve been to some services where I have seen them in the pew, but I have never seen them used). In my experience, either there is a liturgy where, during it, some portion is read out loud for all to hear (and these places usually either have Missals, Misalettes or programs if you want to read along), or there is a preacher who reads a few verses out loud and then talks for like an hour. I’ve never seen a service where everyone just reads their own pew-Bible and goes home…
 
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I think that we need to back up and recognize that there is a difference between “the Catholic Church taught that the laity should not read the Bible”, which never happened, and “some local Catholic authority figures taught that the laity should not read the Bible”, which did happen.
 
cmjmevans1d
Because the Word Himself is present
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Exactly right! Protestants have “worship services” but I cannot find that concept in any bible. They are pastor/bible centered while Catholic/Orthodox are Christ-centered. As to bibles, we are exhorted to read and pray over those readings. Remember those terrible, horrible “indulgences”? We receive an indulgence, under the normal circumstances, for scripture reading.

As to the lack of bibles, we are free to carry our own, and I take one from my “accumulation” of bibles. But, we hear the bible (Luke 10:16) “He who hears you hears Me” in the Old Testament reading, the Psalm, the New Testament reading as well as the Gospel reading. And, if the bible is not enough, we have Jesus Christ, present in His:

Body

Blood

Soul

Divinity.

As Saint Paul wrote: “When the Perfect comes, the imperfect passes away.” I grant that this does not apply precisely, but is a book - any book - better than Jesus Christ? If anyone believes so, that would risk idolatry.

p.s. Ask your parents why the New Testament is called the New Testament. Although everyone recognizes what the New Testament means as far as books are concerned, what is its origin? That name/phrase is not anywhere in modern bibles. Oh, but it certainly is present in older English language bibles. If they have a King James Version (as it is with the Douay-Rheims), have them check:

Mathew 26:28 “…for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”

Mark 14:24 And he said unto them, “This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.”

Luke 22:20 Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.”

The “New Testament” is the Holy Eucharist! OP: with respect, ask your parents if they have either the Holy Eucharist or even the words “New Testament” in their bibles or servies.

No?

Isn’t this the actual “red flag”?
 
DaveBj said:
I think that we need to back up and recognize that there is a difference between “the Catholic Church taught that the laity should not read the Bible”, which never happened, and “some local Catholic authority figures taught that the laity should not read the Bible”, which did happen.
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Correct. The Church never taught that Catholics could not read the Bible nor have one at home.

But some priests and lay Catholics incorrectly taught that Catholics should not read the Bible at home.

Throughout history, there have always been priests who have taught error - some of the most famous heretics (like Martin Luther) were Catholic Priests.

NOTE - I’m not bashing priests here, I’m simply saying that priests are not infallible, and can be wrong from time to time.
 
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This is just my guess...

The church maintains that private devotions should not be used during the mass.
For example, saying the rosary. Nor should someone be reading during the mass, even the Bible, or devotional

books.
 
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I have a feeling that very few who advocate reading the Bible actually read it. Even fewer that read it cover to cover.
 
My mother went to Catholic school all twelve years. Taught by nuns. And this was back in the teens/twenties/early thirties. And she was NEVER taught that Catholics weren’t to read the Bible. So please don’t try to blame this particular falsehood on the teaching nuns.
 
This is contrived challenge. The Catholic Church encourages reading of scripture, but Mass homilies are not equivalent to Protestant sermons.

The Catholic faith is based on scripture, sacred tradition, and ongoing teaching (magisterium of the Church, Latin “magister” = teacher). The comparison with protestantism is a rigged question. It is “sola scriptura” in disguise. Look up the discussions of that.
 
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