You mean they didn't pass out paperback Bibles and let everyone figure out for themselves what it meant, so they could argue about it on Internet message boards?
Well, we know the RCC wasn't real big on getting the Word into the hands of the people.
Once the printing press was invented, the most commonly printed book was the Bible, but this still did not make Bible-reading a Catholic’s common practice. Up until the mid-twentieth Century, the custom of reading the Bible and interpreting it for oneself was a hallmark of the Protestant churches springing up in Europe after the Reformation. Protestants rejected the authority of the Pope and of the Church and showed it by saying people could read and interpret the Bible for themselves. Catholics meanwhile were discouraged from reading Scripture.
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.
Scripture awareness grew after the Second Vatican Council. Mass was celebrated in the vernacular and so the Scripture readings at Mass were read entirely in English. Adult faith formation programs began to develop, and the most common program run at a parish focused on Scripture study. The Charismatic movement and the rise of prayer groups exposed Catholics to Scripture even more. All of this contributed to Catholics becoming more familiar with the Bible and more interested in reading the Scriptures and praying with them.
http://www.usccb.org/bible/understanding-the-bible/study-materials/articles/changes-in-catholic-attitudes-toward-bible-readings.cfm
And even then we don't know how many Catholics actually study the Bible...or even read it. But we do know Evangelicals read the Bible more than Roman Catholics and believe the Bible as literal v Roman Catholics.
If a Catholic attends Mass on Sunday and Major Feast days they will hear only 40.8% of the NT in a three year cycle.
Pre-Vatican II the Catholic would hear only 16.5% of the NT.
http://catholic-resources.org/Lectionary/Statistics.htm
This hardly would be considered serious Bible study.