“The Catholic Church says that undersanding the Bible is the duty of priests.”
This is absolutely incorrect. The Catholic Church encourages bible study. If you never cracked a Bible until you were 25 years old as a Catholic you must have never been to mass because the entire mass is composed of the bible - especially the 1st and 2nd readings and the Gospel.
The canard that the Catholic Church discourages bible reading and bible study is simply not true.
Friend, I don’t mean to start a Catholic versus Protestants battle here. And I hardly know what Vatican policy has been since I was born.
But I did attend 8 years of Catholic school, and bring home catechisms to study over those formative years. And I am quite certain that the priests and nuns told us that it was their job to interpret Scripture, not ours. That’s why there was a catechism.
I also remember, as a lad, being surprised when I entered the home of a friend’s family who was Protestant. They usually had the family bible front and center in the living room. I asked my parents once, why didn’t we have a family bible, and their answer was from the priests in our parish — you don’t need one.
My father, now in his 80s, taught me the same as well — That the Bible is too complicated to understand and it is the job of priests to do that for us. I usually hear that from him now when I talk about my Bible study groups.
That doesn’t mean that the Catholic Church’s position hasn’t shifted over time. It also doesn’t mean that the priests in our parish weren’t taking some liberties with Catholic policy. I don’t know and it really doesn’t matter to me.
It is curious, however, that the Vatican was furious that the Bible was being translated into other languages during the Middle Ages. I think Catholic history also includes periods where Popes were opposed to citizens reading the Bible directly. Pope Innocent III was on record saying that the Bible can only be understood by those who are qualified to understand them.
But it also amplifies my initial point that there was a time when Bible reading was discouraged, and possibly prohibited, by the Catholic Church.
And I will say that even in my evangelical church there is no Bible study done from the pulpit. The mere recitation of mostly familiar verses is hardly "bible study." To me, it's the verse-by-verse study of an entire book. And it's within these studies that the richness of our faith truly comes alive. As I said earlier, I'm studying the Gospel of John now with about 15 other Christians and I get goosebumps each Sunday.