Popes and other Catholic authorities have been urging Catholics to read the Bible for centuries. The Catholic Douay-Rheims translation of the New Testament was published 75 years before the King James version. I have led or facilitated several Bible studies in my church. Yep, we’re reading and studying the Bible.
I'm glad to hear you're leading bible studies. However, your statement that popes and other catholic authorities have been encouraging catholics to read the Word for centuries is challenged by this statement from the USCCB.
Identifying the reading and interpreting of the Bible as “Protestant” even affected the study of Scripture. Until the twentieth Century, it was only Protestants who actively embraced Scripture study. That changed after 1943 when Pope Pius XII issued the encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu. This not only allowed Catholics to study Scripture, it encouraged them to do so. And with Catholics studying Scripture and teaching other Catholics about what they were studying, familiarity with Scripture grew. http://www.usccb.org/bible/understanding-the-bible/study-materials/articles/changes-in-catholic-attitudes-toward-bible-readings.cfm