What's up with the joke " how can you tell that it's a catholic bible ? It's always dusty .( never opened)?

Question

I am christian, not catholic, and I do not understand the joke. Are catholics not encouraged to read their bibles ?

Answer 1

Catholics generally do not stress Bible reading and study as much as protestants.  This is a very general statement and there are obviously some very Bible literate Catholics just as there are many protestants that are Bible clueless.  

Answer 2

My family is STRONGLY Catholic- old-world European, pre vatican II Catholic.  They never owned a Bible. I gave them one once. It  disappeared.  

My Dad said he asked his priest about reading the Bible and the Priest said Oh I wouldn't recommend it.  Said to stick with the "devotionals"

Answer 3

In sections 131-133 of the Catechism we find this:

Hence "access to Sacred Scripture ought to be open wide to the Christian faithful."...Therefore, the study of the sacred page should be the very soul of sacred theology...The Church "forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful...to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.

I do not think it could be any clearer than this. The Church is telling Catholics "Read your Bibles." You may have heard that Catholics were not allowed read the Bible in earlier centuries. That is a very complicated subject that many Evangelical pastors have turned into a simplistic slogan against Catholics. In the days when peasants were illiterate, peasant Catholics depended on clergy who could read, on the Scripture stories as depicted visually on stain glass windows and statues. I explore the history of Catholic Bible reading here.

The message to Catholics of this generation, who are literate and able to read, unlike Christians in earlier centuries is "Read your Bibles." We thank our Evangelical friends for so enthusiastically getting into Scripture and helping turn the last century into an age of Bible literacy.

Answer 4

The joke has been explained, but here is the rest of the story about this Q, or the answer to the Q you ought to have asked.

When the Catholic Church was the only Christian denomination around, most people couldn't read, and printed books were very expensive & scarce. Besides, the average person was too busy working to feed themselves & their families to spend any time reading a book. In a certain valid sense to do so would be a sin, since someone might starve the next winter as a result. As well as being illiterate, most people could only understand their local dialect. Even had they been literate & even if book printing had been cheap, it would have been a monumental job to make the Bible available in every dialect in use.

When we look back on the past we must bring more than our modern perceptions with us.

Catholic services, for as long as I can remember, have always featured readings from the Bible; both the Old & the New Testaments. Typically at Sunday worship there is 1 reading from the OT & 2 from the NT (1 from the Gospels & 1 from the letters or the Acts). In addition portions of the Psalms are read.

Presently the readings follow a cycle that takes three years to begin a repetition.

At daily Mass there are two readings, 1 from the OT & 1 from the NT & portions of the Pslams are read.

Besides being read, the ideal calls for the Bible passages to be explained in relation to one another. Last week we had the OT reading about the individual serving the King being displaced & his replacement being given the key to the household. The NT reading was the one where Jesus gave Peter the keys to His Church.  Here the OT reading gives deeper meaning to the NT use of the image of conferring the keys.

Further, the significance of the passage to the teaching of Jesus as it has been understood from the earliest times is to be explained to the congregation.

(I think most in the pews appreciate someone else doing the work for them so they can concentrate on trying to put the teaching into practice.)

My guess is that a Catholic who attends Mass daily probably hears more of the Bible in their lifetime than a scholar specializing in Bible studies.

The value of "hearing" the Word, as opposed to only "reading" it, cannot be discounted.

Answer 5

It's like the joke about the Lutheran minister and Catholic priest talking about the mice problem in the Church.  The Minister says, "No matter what I do, I just can't seem to get rid of the mice."  The Priest says, "Oh it's no problem, just perform a confirmation on them, and you'll never see them again."

Answer 6

I am sure that joke applies only to Catholics who go to church for appearances only.

My Mom read it to us every day while I was growing up.

However, I do not read it to my kids.  I'm not as devoted.

Answer 7

It's just a joke now, although long ago it is true that Catholic laymen were not allowed to read the Bible.

The person above is incorrect, Catholics ARE encouraged to read their Bibles. I teach in a Catholic school and we *require* the children to do so.

Here's one for the other side of Christianity: "The only trouble with Baptists is that they don't hold them under long enough." LOL

Answer 8

Yes Catholics are encouraged to read our Bibles there was a time in the distant past when Scripture was not a common thing in the seculars hands. There were not many who could read, the Bible was precious and copied by hand and the Church wanted to protect us from false interpretations. If you will note it was when Scripture became widely available that so many denominations branched off. Christ never meant for so much division to occur.

Answer 9

Many denominations tell this same joke on themselves, by the way.  

The Catholics get a bad rap oftentimes because there are many in the church who participate out of tradition and never let the message touch their hearts.  There are also many who are committed Christians who are still Catholics.  

There are "traditionals" in any denomination who are there because of tradition and not much else.  It's just that the traditional Catholics are better known than the Catholic Christians, so Catholicism often gets nailed.  

Yes, Catholic Christians are encouraged to read and study their Bibles.  There are even courses available through many parishes which teach interested people how to do this.  In ages past, this was not true.  it is today, however.  The "traditionals" do not go to these classes, as a general rule and may not even know they exist because they aren't interested in going.

Answer 10

This is true.  Catholics are not encouraged to read the bible.  Professionals interpret it for them.

Answer 11

Catholics are encouraged to read the Bible. It's just that we are not allowed to interpret it for ourselves, as only the Church has the Authority to interpret the Bible.

Non-Catholic Christians, specifically anti-Catholic ones, equate the term 'interpret' with 'read' and actually believe Catholics are not supposed to read the Bible!

Answer 12

Its not just Catholics.  I've heard preachers say, "Turn to such and such book.....that's right, blow the dust off the pages".  Or, "You know its somewhere in your closet".

Answer 13

Alot of Catholic do not read the Bible.  I went to catholic school and we never had a Bible in the house.  I guess I did not even know there was a Bible until I got saved.

Answer 14

None of mine are dusty...try me...the only real way to tell a Catholic Bible is you find more books in it - we didn't throw some out to fit with what we wanted to believe...

..and only thing dusty in my house is the television...