“The thing that baffled me the first time I attended a Catholic church as a youth, was, I couldn’t figure out how they conducted services without bibles”
As you sit down in the pew, look directly ahead of yourself at the back of the pew in front of you. The book you see there, behind every seat in the pew, is the Bible. Have a great day.
Was that always true even in the 1950s and 1960s, in all Catholic churches?
“... I couldn’t figure out how they conducted services without bibles”
The Apostles managed to worship and teach without New Testaments. I guess you would have been baffled for much of the first century too.
Catholicbridge.com seems to support what I saw about the absence of bibles, I know that I didn’t see people carrying their own into church, and I don’t recall seeing them in back of the pew as you mentioned.
(2) Bible reading earlier this Century
question- I did not grow up Catholic but I’ve interviewed dozens of older Catholics, and ex Catholics, including those who now go to Evangelical Churches, to try to gain an understanding of the charge that Catholics weren’t allowed to read their Bibles in the 1930’s - 1970’s.
answer- It is true that earlier in this century, in some Catholic circles, people were not encouraged to read their Bibles.