Catholic Church: "Don't read the Bible!"

[Michie]

We often hear that the Catholic Church has forbidden the reading of the Bible! Have you heard this? Yeah, me too! But this is another one of those big myths that has worked its way into the popular dialog but one that has not been proved from Church teaching and documents.

There are two good lists of quotes from Church documents and leaders of the Church from the earlier centuries until today.
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: ON READING THE BIBLE

The second is a list of Catholic Bibles from ancient times Myth:  Catholics Prohbited Bible Reading Before Vatican II that prove the charge against the Catholic Church is false, since the Forewords and Prefaces prove that the Catholic Church PROMOTED the reading if Scripture.

Here is the beginning of a long article which gives a TON of information on this topic and proves the Catholic Church has not forbidden the reading of Scripture- but quite the contrary, it has always promoted the reading and study of Scripture by the faithful.

Continued below.
Catholic Church: “Don’t Read the Bible!” | Defenders of the Catholic Faith | Hosted by Stephen K. Ray

 

[AvilaSurfer]

I never heard that. I didn’t read the article, and I won’t.

 

[mark kennedy]

I'm sure many of them do read their Bibles regularly, some maybe not so much. Bible illiteracy is a big problem for Protestants even with a vast array of study Bibles and study tools. You know what they say, you can lead a horse to water....

 

[Michie]

Boiled down- the Church never forbade the laity from reading the Bible and encouraged learning the Scriptures. Many say the Church did discourage Scripture reading. The Church did not.