In my home town, my Lutheran parish was known for turning out kids who would know the catechism backwards and forwards (literally, before confirmation we had to stand before the congregation and answer each of Luther's small catechism questions). My current church is similar.
But that isn't the norm anymore. Most parents don't want to drill their kids on mountains of memory work. I hated it, but when my father in law died I was able to give the priest verses to look up off the top of my head. My wife loves to joke that I am the product of MoLu Bible education at its finest!
Which brings me to another point. Most Catholics, including priests and bishops, don't know the Bible that well. It was rather shocking to me that my inlaws priest didn't know some of the old stand bys for Psalms in the time of death. Not to mention what verses to read for the death of a farmer. My old Lutheran pastor could do that in his sleep, and so could most of my classmates.
Now I hear that is changing, but it is still shocking to me.
Can you say the Baltimore Catechism?
They really need to go back to that format...although the Didache series of Catholic religion textbooks (aimed to high schoolers) is pretty good as well. But the pablum that they gave my daughter in Elementary/Middle School...yuch. (Therefore, she got her real catechesis from Daddy...still isn't all that good, but head-and-shoulders above her peers)
Most Catholics, including priests and bishops, don't know the Bible that well. It was rather shocking to me that my inlaws priest didn't know some of the old stand bys for Psalms in the time of death.
Doesn't surprise me. I actually wonder how many priests ordained between 1970 and 1985 actually even pray the Office every day? (If they did, they'd read all 150 psalms every six weeks or so)
That generation of priests is more likely to be really scary to me. But the ones that I've seen cranked out since the early 90s are a whole lot better. And the ones I've gotten to know who were ordained in the past 5 years are, for the most part, truly holy men (YMMV). [Caveat: I'm looking at Mt St Mary's seminary in Emmitsburg MD and St Joseph's seminary in Yonkers NY for most of my first-hand experience...other seminaries may produce wildly different results]. And the ones I've met that are coming from Africa and India are just GREAT!!
Now if we could just get some more sisters like the Nashville Dominicans...