I went to a catholic grade school and catholic high school. No priest or nun ever told us not to read the Bible either. They simply said we needed a priest to interpret it for us. I was so rebellious, I read for myself anyway. Some may have had a problem with that, but there wasn’t much they could do about it. I still read it for myself. 😁🤣
I have a Catholic Teen Bible sitting right here by my desk.
Therefore....
As a caveat; there is a whole LOT of words in the front before one ever gets to Genesis chapter one;
Lots of people’s name with a LOT of letters after them...