V. SACRED SCRIPTURE IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH
131 “And such is the force and power of the Word of God that it can serve the Church as her support and vigor, and the children of the Church as strength for their faith, food for the soul, and a pure and lasting fount of spiritual life.”109 Hence “access to Sacred Scripture ought to be open wide to the Christian faithful.”110
132 “Therefore, the study of the sacred page should be the very soul of sacred theology. The ministry of the Word, too - pastoral preaching, catechetics and all forms of Christian instruction, among which the liturgical homily should hold pride of place - is healthily nourished and thrives in holiness through the Word of Scripture.”111
133 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.112
But only with permission of the hierarchy. Producing a Bible and reading WITH permission was never forbidden.
“According to c. 825, #1 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, translations of the Bible into English or any other modern language cannot be published without the approval of the conference of bishops or the Apostolic See and must be “annotated with necessary and sufficient explanations.”
(www.ewtn.com/library/CANONLAW/VIORIGHT.HTM)
So the “access to Sacred Scripture” is through the narrow gap of the approval of the hierarchy, not so “wide open” at all! And hasn’t been for the last thousand years.
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