You wrote:
“I have a friend who was raised Catholic and he said he never saw a Bible until he was an adult and I think a quite mature one, at that.”
I know dozens of Protestants who say they never saw a complete Bible until they read a Catholic one. That I can understand since Protestants cut books out of their Bibles.
I do not understand how it is possible for a Catholic - a practicing, “churched”, Catholic - to not see a Bible in his home, or a store, or a Church, or a rectory, or in a Catholic school, or even a public school back in the day, or in a friend’s home, etc. How is that possible? That would mean this guy (living in America?) never went ONCE to a library, or a book store, or to a Christian friend’s house (whether Catholic or Protestant), etc. Did he live in a cave? Was he kept in a basement? Seriously, I have at least half a dozen Catholic Bibles and New Testaments that are more than 50 years old. How can I have these now, when your friend never saw them then?
He may be your friend, but this point is inescapable, if he is telling the truth, he was an INCREDIBLY ignorant, intellectually lazy man. Or he is simply a liar.
Trust me, he is no liar and I’m only reporting what he said.
I know several very active Catholics who, although they owned Bibles, never read or referenced them. They said they relied on their priest to know all they needed to know.
I am not trying to get you mad. I found it surprising as well.
I also was raised Catholic, and in 8 years of Catholic school, we were never once encouraged to read a Bible, and you never ever heard the word Bible and study in the same sentence. Not once. Sure, we were read some of the stories in the Bible, but that all we ever got, just a few verses here and there.
I know of only just a few Bibles on the church property, one at the altar, and maybe a few of the nuns had them. There were never ANY Bibles in the pews, just that missal thing. We had one at home, but since we were never encouraged to read it, we never did or were even curious about it. In short it was big ripoff.
I am so blessed that the Lord opened my eyes in recent years.