I think that is an incorrect view. The Church has always taught the Second Coming (in fact we say a prayer at Mass each Sunday attesting that we believe it will happen). But Catholics have long been warned off of reading the Book of Revelation by the Jesuits and other elements of the clergy who felt that “we” need “them” to interpret it for us.
I am Catholic and have NEVER been warned about reading ANY part of the Sacred Scriptures. In fact, I have been taught that it is extremely important that I should do so....daily.
PS. Some of those who encouraged me to read the Scriptures were good Jesuits.
Huh? The book was accepted later than the others, but actually, it was the Protestants who had problems with it and regarded it as inauthentic (because it discussed things they’d rather have avoided, such as Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell).
In the late middle ages, there was a huge amount of literature based on the Apocalypsis or Book of Revelations, and it set off a storm of millenarial speculation among Christians as the year 1000 approached. The reason people were discouraged from reading it on their own later was that they, in a pre-literate culture with not many other sources to counteract crazy ideas, tended to focus on certain dramatic concepts and give them a place they did not deserve.
These same people - or at least their 19th century American Protestant heirs - were busy dabbling in numerology and giving away their property and sitting on their rooftops waiting for the rapture every time a “significant” date came around.
So once upon a time, maybe people did need somebody a little more knowledgeable to intepret it for them. But this would have been a great disspointment to the many lawyers who profited off the attempts of these hapless millenialist Protestants to get their property back.
LOL.
That's absolutely hilarious, particularly since it's Protestant folks who first threw out portions of the Old Testament, then dreamed up dispensationalism and several other ways of interpreting the New Testament that claim that portions of the New Testament don't apply to Christians. Non-Catholic folks don't rely on Scripture, they go to great lengths to abandon or ignore Scripture. At best, they rely on a subset of Scriptue and even then there are tens of thousands of interpretations they can choose from to match their personal degree of accomodation to the pagan society.
I understand what a strong delusion the Great Escape is, but those anyone who is trapped in that heresy should at least try to get a fact about Catholic teaching right now and then. I have Catholic books from the early eighteen hundreds, mid eighteen hundreds, late eighteen hundreds, early 20th century, and copies of texts much, much, older than any of those. Every one of them tells Catholics that they should read and study Scripture and not a one mentions any portion that should not be read. If I had ever run across anything like that I'd still be Lutheran, and I was anxious to find that very sort of thing to avoid having to admit I had been wrong for so long.
Catholics believe the entire Bible without reservation. The fact that they do not believe any of the interpretations heretics base their bestselling books on is proof The One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is His Church, not proof that whichever doctrine sells the most books is correct. The One True Church, like Scripture, teaches that there are difficult portions of Scripture which are often misinterpreted, not that there is any portion that should be avoided. His Church, like Scripture, is well aware of how many enemies of Christ twist and torture Scripture to suit themselves. Those who claim to be Christian and live like they're following Jiminy Cricket rather than Christ may have convinced themselves that Jesus Christ is a loser who will have to evacuate His people from His planet, but it's just not true. Anyone who thinks it is should do a lot of very earnest praying to have their eyes opened and their mind freed from the strong delusion they're under.
Given that the Scriptures teach us to rely on our prelates for the correct interpretation of the difficult parts, seeing people mock the command to "obey your prelates" is seeing someone who mocks Scripture whether the person doing the mocking knows it or not. Most of the mockers in this country are actually acting out of ignorance rather than malice, but it's a willful ignorance since the Truth is readily available to anyone who looks past the bestselling doctrine of the year and sincerely prays to be guided to Christ.